Football with Sam

Following the recent comebacks to claim a victory and a draw against Newcastle and Chelsea respectively, many fans and football enthusiast were looking forward to the Champions league game against Juventus. The return of Cristiano Ronaldo to his old stomping ground, which he left 9 years ago, added the stardust effect to this blockbuster of an encounter. Manchester United were late into the stadium for the second consecutive champions league home game, with Jose Mourinho having to abandon the team bus in traffic and walk to Old Trafford. United started the match like they were still stuck in traffic. Slow in possession, playing without any urgency at all. Juventus played on the front foot from kickoff and they were dominant in possession form the word go. Their positive mentality bore fruit as they took the lead through Paulo Dybala, after some clever play on the right wing by united old boy Ronaldo.  Juventus had many opportunities to increase the score line and it took the he...

On the 13 th of July 2014, Germany became world champions defeating Argentina 1-0 in extra time to claim their 4 th world cup win. (Their last win coming in 199).Fast-forward to the world cup 2018 hosted in Russia, where the German team despite winning all their qualifying matches and the Confederations Cup the previous year, started their 2018 World Cup campaign with a defeat to Mexico. This was their first loss in an opening match since the 1982 World Cup. Germany defeated Sweden 2–1 in their second game via an injury-time winner from Toni Kroos, but was subsequently eliminated following a 2–0 loss to South Korea, their first exit in the first round since 1938 and first ever in group stage since the format had been introduced. A lot of factors contributed to the failure of the team at the World cup. A lot of football faithful round the world said it was the curse of the defending WC champions; France 2002, Italy 2010, Spain 2014 and now Germany 20...

As Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United Reign enters its 3 rd year, no fewer than 11 players are out of contract at the end of the season. The eleven players are: David de Gea     Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Luke Shaw, Matteo Darmian, Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young and Andreas Pereira. David De Gea , has been at Manchester united since the summer of 2011, and has won the Epl, the FA cup, The League Cup and the Uefa Europa League. On an individual note he has won the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award 4 times. De Gea has a clause for an extra year in his contract. The club have commenced talks with De Gea over a new deal, which will see him emerge as one of the highest paid players at the club. Anthony Martial , like De Gea he has the option of a further year in his contract. Martial appears to have a frosty relationship with Jose Mourinho and has been left out of games at times this season. The club though remain confide...

Aleksandra Mitrovic was b orn on 16 th September 1994 in Smederevo, Serbia. He joined the Partizan youth system in 2005 at the age of ten and spent the next six years polishing and perfecting his skills. He then made his senior debut with affiliated side Teleoptik, where he scored seven times in 25 league outings during the 2011/12 season. In the summer of 2012, Mitrovic secured his first professional contract with Partizan, signing a four-year deal. He made 28 league appearances in the 2012/13 campaign, scoring 13 goals, which convinced Anderlecht to pay a club-record transfer fee of €5 million for his services During his first year in Belgium, Mitrovic scored16 goals in 32 league appearances, and also registered six assists. In the 2014-2015 seasons, he was even more prolific, netting 20 times in 37 league outings making him the competition's top scorer , while the Serbian also provided four assists, and scored two goals in five Champions League appearances, including a lat...

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. It has the third-largest youth population in the world, after India and China, with more than 90 million  of its population under the age of 18. It is a surprise that with the large talent pool, football development in the country is still lagging behind. It is quite unfortunate that the development of football in this beautiful country has been truncated by gross corruption, mismanagement and lack of accountability. These factors have negatively affected the development of football in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The game of football has become a billionaire dollar industry worldwide but Nigeria and Africa remain at the periphery of this lucrative system. It is an open secret that most football coaches and administrators in Nigeria collect a form of bribe or gratification from Parents or wards of Players under them. It is usually given different names; “...

                         FRANCE CAN DOMINATE EUROPE AND THE WORLD FOR YEARS TO COME They were tipped as one of the favourites before the world cup and the French team duly delivered on the world stage. French manager Didier Deschamps became just the third person to win the World Cup as a player and manager with Brazil's Mario Zagallo and German Franz Beckenbauer, after captaining France to the World Cup in 1998. It wasn’t only Deschamps who created history; Kylian Mbappe became the first teenager to score in a World Cup final since Pele in 1958. This was a very young French squad. The average age of the French squad was 26 years, which made it the 2 nd youngest squad at the tournament, behind Nigeria. Out of the 23 man squad there are only 5 players older than 28 years; Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda,   Adil Rami, Steven Nzonzi   and Oliver Giroud. It says ...