Sports

32 Cameroon’s U-17 players fail age testing enforced by FA Chair, Eto’o

Published

4 weeks ago

January 6, 2023

Cameroonian football is currently reeling in an embarrassing age cheating scandal after 32 Under-17 players failed a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) age test enforced by the President of the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot), Samuel Eto’o.

Ahead of the Africa Under-17 Cup of Nations qualifiers later this month, the former Indomitable Lion’s striker had made sure all the players invited for the tournament are made to undergo age tests to weed out age cheats in the cadet tournament following a promise he made adter his election in December 2021.

The former Barcelona and Chelsea striker had promised to combat the issue of age-cheating in Cameroon through the use of the MRI screening, a scan on the wrist to study the bone structure and indicate if a player is older than 17.

A report in the Central African country said of the initial 30-member squad that was submitted for tests, 21 failed, necessitating a second round of testing on Thursday where 11 were found to have falsified their age, leaving coach Jean Pierre Fiala with limited time to find replacements for the qualifiers that will take place between January 12 and 24.

“Fecafoot President Eto’o gave strict instructions for the actions to be taken in order to put an end to the tampering with civil status records which have, in the past, tarnished the image of Cameroon football,” the report said.

This is the second time in the last five years that Cameroon has been rocked by age cheating after Fecafoot blocked 14 players from taking part in the 2017 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon after they failed the tests.

Cameroon is now facing a race against time to assemble a team for the qualifiers which are just seven days away.

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Sports

Jose Mourinho extols Nigerian forward, Victor Osimhen, after wonder goal

Published

1 day ago

January 30, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

Roma manager, Jose Mourinho, has heaped praises on Nigerian forward, Victor Osimhen, after the striker scored a wonder goal which can potentially compete for the goal of the season in the Italian Serie A.

The former Chelsea boss said Osimhen, who is a target of one of his former clubs, Manchester United, can compare favourably with former Ivorian striker, Didier Drogba who terrorised defences in the English Premier League.

However, Mourinho said the only hindrance to the Napoli striker reaching legendary status is if he desists from “diving” to gain favours from referees.

“He is of the same level as Drogba, but Didier didn’t dive,” Mourinho told reporters after the game when asked to access the Super Eagles forward’s performance.

“If Victor changes, then OK. I’d buy him if I was at a club with a lot of money.”

“However, if he does go to England one day, he needs to change, because in Italy they put up with this sort of behaviour, whereas in the Premier League, they’d come down hard on him.”

“I told him that he scored a wonderful goal and needs to stop diving so much. His goal was fantastic, he did the same thing when we met earlier this season, so he’s a fantastic player. But he mustn’t dive,” the Portuguese coach said.

The red hot Osimhen, has scored 14 goals in 16 league matches, propelling Napoli to a healthy 13 point lead at the top of thr Serie A.

Watch Osimhen’s wonder goal against Roma here:

Sports

CHAN 2023: Niger, Madagascar make history, beat Ghana, Mozambique, to reach semi-finals

Published

2 days ago

January 29, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

It was a night of shocks and history on Saturday at the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Algeria when one of the tournament’s favourites, Ghana, was knocked out by outsiders, Niger Republic in a 2-0 defeat which saw the Nigeriens qualify for the semi-finals.

As if the shock was not enough, first-time qualifiers, Madagascar, thumped Mozambique 3-1 to also qualify for the semi-final in some style.

While Madagascar was dealing with Mozambique in Constantine, Niger shocked two-time runners-up, Ghana, in Oran to complete the last-four line-up alongside host, Algeria and Senegal.

Niger’s reward is a date with Algeria while Madagascar will square up against Senegal, both on Tuesday.

Though Algeria and Senegal are outright favourites to win the tournament meant for African footballers playing in their country of birth, pundits believe underating the so called minnows could spell doom as Ghana, Cameroon, DR Congo and other top playing nations found out the hard way.

Madagascar had earlier shocked Ghana and hammered Sudan to win Group C, while Niger had pulled up the shock of the group stages by sending Cameroon packing with a 1-0 victory in their last group D match.