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Drogba: I Want To Leave Chelsea

January 7th, 2008 Comments off


Didier Drogba has spoken publicly about his intentions to leave Chelsea. The Ivorian striker has made it clear that this will be his last season in The Blues jersey and recent reports have suggested he may be wearing a black and red shirt come September.

Drogba has revealed that he has wanted to leave for quite some time and Jose Mourinho’s departure from the West London club was enough to convince him.

“It comes from me, I said what I am thinking, that I want to leave,” Drogba told Eurosport.
“The problem is that I have wanted to leave for two or three years. Mourinho’s departure didn’t help me, in fact it made my desire to leave even bigger.”
Recent speculation has suggested the Ivorian will be playing his football at Milan under Jose Mourinho.
Milan have not had the best of seasons in Serie A and Carlo Ancelotti’s position at the club seems uncertain. If Ancelotti does leave then this would leave the door open to Mourinho.
According to The People, a source believed to be close to Drogba quoted the player as saying: “Drogba told Chelsea he will be leaving in the Summer and that he would join Mourinho at Milan, this is why Avram Grant is looking for a striker.”

According to Italian media reports Milan are willing to spend 54 million euros to lure the Ivorian to San Siro. However Drogba has decided to remain quiet over his future and outlined his objectives for the rest of the season.
“I’m not going to speak about this, however we will soon,” the Ivorian continued.
“My major objective is the African Cup of Nations and to win more things with Chelsea when I return.”
“The most important is the Champions League but when you play for the English title you don’t swipe on it.”

Ancelotti is favourite to take over from Roberto Donadoni should Italy fail to do well at Euro 2008 and, should this happen, Milan would be looking for a top European coach and the man most likely to take a vacant role with the Italian giants is Mourinho.

Meanwhile the Ghanaian Local Organising Committee for the African Cup of Nations has expressed concerns over the security status of the Nigeria versus Ivory Coast group stage match…

The Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the 26th African Nations Cup coming is seriously concerned about security threats during the Group B opener between the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire and the Super Eagles of Nigeria.The match scheduled to take place at the Sekondi Sports Stadium on January 21, with the ground having a capacity of 20,000.

Vice President of the Ghana 2008 LOC, Lepowura Alhaji M. N. D. Jawula, expressed fears that fans and supporters of the two teams could engage in violent clashes prompted by their status as local rivals.However, he added that the LOC has however fashioned out tactics to ensure that this awful situation does not arise during matches involving the four teams in the grou p stages
In an interview with the BBC, Jawula said the LOC will make sure that the tense rivalry between the two sides will only play out on the pitch, and not amongst supporters of the two sides.”We understand the tense rivalry among the teams in Sekondi especially Nigeria and Ivory Coast, because they are crowd favourites and are from the same sub-region,” he began.
“We expect the match between Nigeria and Ivory Coast to be quite explosive, because their supporters would come in their thousands for the encounter.”We understand that it will be difficult to stop fans from supporting their teams.
There will be adequate security and we have mapped out strategies to track the fans even before getting to the stadium that can accommodate only 20,000 spectators.”Even if it can take as much as 80,000, there would still be accommodation problems.”We have equally put up measures to prevent their respective fans from clashing in the stadium, especially when all the teams are playing.”
“The supporters’ stands will be divided into four, with two teams behind each of the goal posts. There would be marks on the tickets indicating the team and the seats to occupy in the stands,” he addedThe African Nations Cup kicks off in about two weeks’ time in Accra, Ghana, with 16 teams participating.
source:Goal

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Ghana 2008 should be the Best

January 7th, 2008 Comments off


The 2008 African Cup of Nations Cup tournament has all the ingredients that could turn the Ghana-hosted tournament into one of the best ever.
The continent has produced fantastic players in the last two years and some of the participating nations have pull out all the stops to succeed. The teams appear to be better prepared and there have been very few public fights about player bonuses, unlike during past tournaments.

Young, new, exciting talents have emerged as the national team coaches seem to be using this tournament to groom their teams for the World Cup qualifiers. However, the event could also be deprived of some of the continent’s top stars like Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast and Ghana’s Stephen Appiah. Drogba, who took the English Premier League by storm with his golden goals for Chelsea in the last season, is currently rated 50/50 for the finals.

A key member of the Ivory Coast team, who are considered as one of the pre-tournament favourites for this year’s Nations Cup, Drogba is still not certain if he will carry his country’s hopes at this year’s tournament. But The Elephants, as the West African powerhouse are also known in continental football, will be richly boosted by the presence of Toure brothers; Kolo and yaya, Aruna Dinadane, Didier Zokora, Aruna Kone and Emmanuel Eboue.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s decision to include the injured Appiah in their squad, despite uncertainty surrounding his availability, is clear proof of his importance to the side. The charismatic captain is more than a player to the team. The Turkey-based superstar is likely to be redeployed in an advisory role. He is highly regarded by coach Claud LeRoy, his teammates and the entire nation and not having him on the field of play will be a tremendous loss. But the host nation is gifted with another charismatic element in their midst in the form of another midfield powerhouse, Michael Essien. The ultra-gifted Essien, who is Drogba’s teammate at Chelsea, possesses the same talismanic prowess as his captain and with Appiah out, he surely has the talent and character to carry his nation’s hopes on his broad shoulders.
Senegal have their own superstar in the form of the highly talented but temperamental El Hadji Diouf, the ball wizard who plays club football for Bolton Wanderers, also in the English Premier League. Diouf shook the continent a few weeks ago when he announced his “retirement” from international football, but just as short as his temper is, the decision was also short-lived and the master goal-poacher is expected to skipper his nation in Ghana.

The dynamism of the Spanish La Liga will also be on display in Ghana when Samuel Eto’o will be spearheading Cameroon’s attack in Ghana. The tournament was almost deprived of one of the continent’s finest stars, when Eto’o, undoubtedly one of the world’s top three clinical finishers, was nursing a nagging injury which kept him out of Barcelona’s campaign for a lengthy period. Mali’s spanish based duo of Fredric Kanoute and Real Madrid’s Mamadou Dirra will add la liga flavour to the tournament.

But the lightning-fast sharp-shooting three-time African Footballer of the Year is guaranteed another opportunity to showcase his talents in Ghana after a fortnight. And as for southern African contigent Angola, South Africa and Zambia, who are probably the strongest representatives of the Cosafa Region, all have strong squads capable to keep the region’s hopes high in Ghana while Namibia will be looking forwad to honour departed coach Zambian born Ben Bamfuchile.
Ghana 2008 certainly has all the ingredients to be Africa’s most successful and spectacular tournament in recent
Categories: Headline

Mbesuma finally Joins Squad

January 7th, 2008 1 comment


Striker Collins Mbesuma has finally joined the Chipolopolo Boys after a week-long delay.And coach Patrick Phiri has said defender Elijah Tana is still in his plans for next week’s African Cup of Nations in Ghana.

Chipolopolo Boys team manager Solly Pandor confirmed Mbesuma’s arrival in a telephone interview from Tunis yesterday.

Pandor said the Turkey-based player was expected to feature in last night’s international friendly against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia. “Mbesuma is here (Tunisia). We finally sorted out this hectic visa process. It is pleasing that we are drawing close to have a full house in camp,” he said. Pandor said Mbesuma was looking forward to joining the rest of the Chipolopolo Boys for last night’s match.

Mbesuma was scheduled to join the team during a 10 day camp in Spain but the process of acquiring a Schengen visa delayed his arrival.

Meanwhile, Phiri said in a telephone interview from Khamsa Hotel in Tunisia that Tana was still part of the Chipolopolo Boys’ plans.Phiri said with three days to go before the January 10 deadline by CAF for submission of the final 23-man list, he still had enough time to make the decision on the inclusion of any player.”I am still waiting to be furnished with the reason why Elijah missed the flight. I will deal with the technical aspect,” he said. “As for Moses (Sichone), we still have time to know if he will be part of the team.”

Phiri said Tana was expected in Tunisia alongside goalkeeper Mike Poto and South Africa-based defender Davis Nkausu.”The final team will give us the picture of who is in the team going to Ghana,” he said.

When contacted, FAZ technical committee chairperson Henschel Chitembeya said the three players – Poto, Tana and Nkausu – are scheduled to leave for Tunisia latest Wednesday.

Source: The Post
Categories: Headline