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FRIDAY MARCH 27, ͺͺ ˾ T H I S D AY
FRIDAYSPORTS
Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com 0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY
Shanghai Tempt Ighalo with £400,000-a-week Deal to Return to China Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report These are indeed rosy time for former Super Eagles forward, Odion Ighalo, whose football career was presumed to have hit a dead end with his drift to the Far East. Following the resurgence of his career at Manchester United he joined on loan on January transfer deadline day, his parent club Shanghai Shenhua yesterday offered Ighalo a new £400,000 (about N190million)a-week deal to extend his stay in the Chinese Super League. According to UK’s SportsMail, Ighalo’s performances have been enough to impress the Red Devils hierarchy to want to sign him on a permanent basis for £15million this summer when his loan deal expires on May 31. But Shanghai Shenhua are hopeful of swaying the 30-year-old with an eye watering package to keep him in the Chinese Super League for another two years, according to Sky Sports. United’s deal with the Chinese side ends a month earlier than most loan deals, and the club may have to agree an extension if they want to keep him for the remainder of the Premier League season should it continue on through the summer due to the coronavirus. This could see him stay with United until June 30,
with players’ union FIFPro working on a solution to contract uncertainty amid the present football shutdown. Shanghai were recently prepared to cash in on Ighalo if United could match their valuation of £15m, and a permanent switch to Old Trafford looked on the cards with United happy to pay it. But now the Chinese outfit are ready to increase his wages from £300,000 per week to £400,000 per week, with a two-year extension that would see him remain with the club until 2024. Ighalo is said to be flattered by the staggering new contract offer, but he is putting all of his focus on playing for the club he supported as a boy until his loan deal expires. United started the campaign with just one senior striker as Marcus Rashford was given the task of carrying the club’s attacking threat after Romelu Lukaku was sold to Inter Milan - with no replacement brought in. Mason Greenwood has helped the cause, scoring an impressive 12 goals in just his second season in professional football, but with the 18-year-old lacking in experience, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer brought in Ighalo in a temporary switch in January. Ighalo had Premier League experience from his time at Watford and has a decent track record across his career, but many felt he wasn’t the calibre of player the club were hoping to attract, with the Nigerian entering his
CAF, Inter Milan Celebrate Taribo West at 46 The Confederation of African Football (CAF) sent best wishes to former Super Eagles defender,Taribo West, who turned 46 years old yesterday. Taribo who last played for the Nigerian senior team in a 1-0 friendly victory against Libya in Tripoli in 2005, was celebrated by CAF alongside Indomitable Lions of Cameroon’s Pierre Womé, Justice Majabvi of Zimbabwe and Michael Olunga of Kenya. CAF wrote on its Twitter handle yesterday: “Happy Birthday to Pierre Womé, Taribo West, Justice Majabvi, Michael Olunga. Hope you have a terrific day!” The Rivers State born Taribo made his Super Eagles debut in a 3-1 defeat to Sweden in 1994. During his time with the Eagles, Taribo represented Nigeria at the Ghana/Nigeria 2000 and Mali 2002 Africa Cup of Nations. He was also a member of the Eagles squad to the France ‘98 and Korea/Japan 2002 World Cups. At junior level he was part of the James Peters-led Flying Eagles squad that crashed out in the group stage, at the 1993 African Youth
Championship in Mauritius. Taribo was part of Nigeria’s U-23 Dream Team that won gold in the men’s football event of Atlanta ‘96 Olympic Games. At club level, Taribo played for Obanta United, Sharks, Enugu Rangers, Julius Berger, Auxerre, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Derby County, Kaiserslautern and Partizan Belgrade. He won the FrenchLigue 1 with Auxerre and the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) with Inter Milan.
Taribo West
thirties and playing in the Chinese Super League. But he made a fast impact
to life at Old Trafford, scoring four in just three starts - including two in the
Europa League and two in the FA Cup. His presence in the team has been
applauded by Solskjaer, who called him ‘a breath of fresh air ’.
Odion Ighalo...now the toast of Shanghai Shenhua
Africa Senior Athletics Championships Postponed The 22nd edition of the Africa Senior Athletics championships has been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of Africa’s best track and field athletes were scheduled to converge in Algiers, Algeria, between 24 and 28 June this year for the championships. The last edition of the championships held at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba, Delta State in 2018. But a statement shared by the host Algeria Athletics Federation
(FAA) on their website stated, “Following the magnitude of the pandemic and the containment and awareness measures decided by the public authorities, the two sports authorities decided to postpone these championships to the summer of 2021.” The new dates of the African biannual championships will be decided later, although organisers are looking at the 2021 summer period, which is likely to fall around the same time as a rescheduled Tokyo
Olympic Games. This decision to postpone was arrived at after consultation and agreement between the FAA and the African Athletics Confederation. The announcement came after the International Olympics Committee officially announced the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics Games to 2021. The last championships took place in Asaba, Nigeria in 2018 with world stars Caster Semenya, Conseslus Kipruto,
Marie-Josée Ta Lou, Akani Simbine, Amos Nijel, Hugues Fabrice Zango amongst those who walked away with gold medals. The cancellation of the Athletics championships follows the cancellation of the African Cross Country championships which was to be held in Lome, Togo on 8 of April. CAA moved the event to March 2021, the same month as the World Cross Country championships.
Six Boxers, Officials Test Positive at Olympic Qualifier in London Six members of boxing teams who attended an Olympic qualifying event in London in March are said to have contracted Covid-19. The Turkish Boxing Federation said two fighters and a coach tested positive since returning from the event. Marko Marovic of the Croatian Boxing Federation also claims a fighter and two of its coaches have the disease. He told BBC Sport: “Our epidemiologist says they were most probably infected during (the) Tokyo 2020 qualifier.” Marovic, secretary general of the Croatian Boxing Federation, added: “Our first concern is the health of our boxing family. We are still praying that everything ends well and there will be no other positive tests.” He said both Croatian coaches and the fighter were “stable” and in quarantine. Earlier, organisers of the Road to Tokyo competition at the Copper Box - including an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Boxing
Task Force - were branded “irresponsible” by the Turkish Boxing Federation after three of its team tested positive. The event was called off after three days because of the pandemic. Turkish Boxing Federation president Eyup Gozgec told BBC Sport that organisers failed to take the outbreak seriously enough and “didn’t care”. He added: “I just want to know, when the whole world was on high alert, why they hosted this event? “We didn’t see any hygienic standards there. There were no preventative measures.” The IOC said its Task Force was “not aware of any link between the competition and the infection”. It added that at the time of the competition there were no governmental restrictions in place, but expressed its sympathy for the affected athletes. The local organising committee also said they had applied extra precautions and
that no teams had reported symptoms at the event. In a scathing letter sent to the board members of the European Boxing Confederation (EUBC), and seen by the BBC, Gozgec wrote: “Two of our athletes (and a coach) have tested positive for (Covid-19) after returning to Turkey from London. All of them are in treatment now and thankfully are in good condition. “This is the disastrous result of the irresponsibility of the IOC Boxing Task Force.” Gozgec says he now intends to write to all European boxing associations asking if any of their teams at the event have since tested positive. “The organisers were irresponsible, and I think they didn’t realise the severity of the issue so they just didn’t care,” he said. “They just didn’t take this outbreak seriously and they didn’t care about it. They did no tests for us. They just told us to go. They dropped us at the airport and that was it.” He added: “They knew
they were going to have to cancel - why go with it? The health of our athletes and staff is our priority.” It is not clear whether the fighters and coach contracted the virus in London or once they returned to Turkey. Organised by the IOC’s Boxing Task Force (BTF) following the suspension of international federation the AIBA last year, the European qualifying event started on 14 March with full crowds at the Copper Box, the day after major sporting events including all professional football in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had been suspended. After the first two days of the event, the BTF decided that “due to the changing situation with coronavirus and concerns for public, athlete and volunteer welfare”, the event would take place “behind closed doors”. However, following the third day of competition, the event was suspended.