HE’S yet to kick a ball in anger for United – but all the signs suggest Sir Alex Ferguson has unearthed another gem in new signing Manucho.

The Angolan striker is fast becoming the story of the African Cup of Nations – setting alight a tournament that features global stars such as Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o and Michael Essien.

Manucho is likely to be Ferguson’s only recruit during the January transfer window, when the United manager was widely tipped to splash out on a new striker.

But if his performances for Angola are anything to go by Manucho might save his manager as much as £30m come the summer.

Success

That’s the price United would have to pay for the likes of Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov – but Ferguson may just decide to keep his chequebook in his pocket.

It is too soon to know if Manucho can become a success at Old Trafford – but he has thrust himself into the limelight in Ghana.

His three goals already – including two against Senegal on Sunday – have put Angola on course for qualification from the group stages.

It has also seen the little-known 24-year-old overshadow the competition’s star attractions as arguably the player of the tournament so far.

And despite having to challenge Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Louis Saha for a regular starting role for United, Manucho is determined to make an equally as stunning impact on the Premier League.

“I have been a fan of Manchester United from when I was very young, so now I will work very hard to get into the first team,” he said.

“I am very happy to be here and I have worked very hard to make my dream a reality.

“I have found the adaptation easy because all the players have given me their support… and players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson all speak my language.”

Potential

Ferguson clearly believes Manucho has the potential to follow in Drogba’s footsteps and become a success in England.

Like the Chelsea striker, he has the physical presence to handle himself in the Premier League.

Just as with the signings of Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson, the capture of Manucho owes much to Ferguson’s assistant Carlos Queiroz.

United were initially alerted to the quick, tall and agile Manucho by Angola coach Luis Oliveira Goncalves – a contact of Queiroz.

The Petro Atletico player was invited to Carrington for a three-week trial and United were so impressed they offered him a contract.

The deal still hinges on a work permit but Ferguson has already suggested it might be too late for Manucho to come to Old Trafford this term.

That could see him loaned out for the remainder of the campaign once the African Cup of Nations is over.

Going into the competition Manucho was not an automatic first choice for Angola and was only given his chance when injury sidelined the more experienced Mantorras.

But he has seized his chance in Ghana and is now joint leading scorer in the tournament along with Egypt’s Hosni Abd Rabou and Morocco’s Soufiane Alloudi.

The 24-year-old immediately caught the eye when earning a point for Angola in their opening Group D draw with South Africa with a diving header.

Then on Sunday he headed another powerful effort and scrambled in a second in the 3-1 win against Senegal.

Manucho’s impressive double overturned a 1-0 deficit and now puts them in the driving seat with Tunisia to qualify for the quarter-finals. A draw will be good enough for both countries to reach the last eight.

Priority

“We made some mistakes in the first half but we were the better team,” he said.

“My first priority is to help the team qualify for the quarter-finals but I would also like to be considered as one of the best players of the tournament.”

Manucho’s menacing presence in the air has given added bite to an Angola team who have emerged from the shadows of African football in the last few years, notably reaching the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

The striker was virtually unknown outside Angola, where he originally started out life as a winger.

But after being converted to an orthodox striker was the league’s top scorer for two seasons running, until he caught the eye of United.
Sinkala Ruled out

Zambia national team midfielder,Andrew Sinkala has been ruled out of the season after been diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) last week.The Germany based midfielder maestro was excluded from the Chipolopolo boys AFCON after it was discovered that he had pneumonia.
The former under-20 captain was instrumental in securing Zambia’s ticket to the ongoing AFCON.

Sinkala was signed by Germany giants Bayern Munich after impressing at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Cup in 1999. The former Nchanga Rangers player only played one game in his first season. In the Bayern reserves he marshaled the midfield alongside Manchester United Owen Hargreaves.

While Hargreaves progressed into Bayern Munich first team,Sinkala was shipped to a less fancied Cologne in the 200/2001 season. In the 2006/07 Sinkala joined Germany Bundesliga 2 side SC Paderborn 07 where he made 23 appearances.

In the current season, Sinkala has just featured 10 times.

While his countryman Moses Sichone also based in Germany has recovered from the injury that ruled him out of th AFCON. Sichone plays for Kickers Offenbench.The former Nchanga Rangers defender has just featured 5 times this season.

Bafana need McCarthy – Gohary

Former Egyptian national soccer team coach Mahmoud El Gohary says the current Bafana Bafana squad is missing the services of striker Benni McCarthy.

In his post match analysis after South Africa was beaten 3-1 by Tunisia in a Group D match in Ghana last night, Gohary said the fact that McCarthy’s absence was being felt at the tournament was evidenced by the over dependency on Sibusiso Zuma upfront.

“South Africa did not attack the Tunisian goal for most part of the game because they don’t have complete and seasoned strikers like McCarthy. The team played well but the problem is the finishing.

“Bafana Bafana are depending too much on Zuma to get the goals,” he said.

Gohary, who was coach for Egypt from 1988 to 2002 and was the man who guided Egypt to the 1990 World Cup finals, however, said he was impressed with the performance of youthful players like Teko Modise and Steven Pienaar.

The former Pharaohs’ captain and Egypt’s most capped player Hossam Hassan, with more than 100 caps, has said Bafana Bafana’s defence lacks experience.

Hassan also said the squad lacked a team leader who could lift the team when down.

“South Africa needs to get experienced defenders and also needs someone with good leadership skills on the pitch,” Hassan said.

He added that the Bafana Bafana technical bench has a lot of work to do with the squad if they are to perform better at the 2010 World Cup finals that is being hosted by South Africa.

Eight Super Eagles fans hospitalized
The poor results garnered by Nigeria at the 26th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana has had a telling effect on their supporters.

At least eight members of the Nigerian national soccer t eam, the Super Eagles, have been hospitalised for shock-related illnesses after their darling team failed to score a single goal in 180 minutes of play at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana, according to the head of the country’s football supporters club, Rafiu Ladipo.

Ladipo told reporters here Monday that the supporters were ferried to the Cape Coast Hospital for treatment, and asked all Nigerians to pray for their quick rec o very.

”This is our worst appearance at any major international tournament because other countries always use Nigerian supporters as a parameter to judge their own, but now we are at sympathy of others who are wishing us to do well at the tourn ament by miracle, not by what we deserved,” he lamented.

The Nigerian football supporters club is perhaps the most vibrant in Africa, with members always visible in their green-white-green attire and distinguishable by their non-stop drumming and dancing during matches involving the national teams.

The Super Eagles will be eliminated from the tournament unless they beat Benin i n their last group match and Cote d’Ivoire beats Mali.

Levy disappointed with the National Team

Zambia’s senior nation soccer team’s 5-1 bashing at the hands of Cameroon on Saturday evening has disappointment President Levy Mwanawasa.

Speaking to journalists at the Lusaka international Airport before leaving for Ethiopia this morning, President Mwanawasa said the result was rather disappointing.

“The second game was rather disappointing, but I am looking forward to victory tomorrow. If we lose, it will be extremely bad,” he said.

Zambia lost 5-1 to Cameroon in the second match at the ongoing MTN Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament in Ghana’s Kumasi city on Saturday.

Several soccer funs blamed the embarrassing loss on the defence which caused many blunders, thereby giving Cameroon strikers easy goals.

Tomorrow, the Chipolopolo boys, who have slim chances of qualifying to the second round, are facing defending champions, Egypt in their last game in group D.

During their first match at the tournament, the Chipolopolo boys hammered Sudan with three unanswered goals, at the time pushing them to the top of the group, followed by Egypt, who beat Cameroon 4-2.

The 5-1 loss to Cameroon has relegatated Zambia to third in its group and the Chipolopolo boys only have a mathamatical chance of qualifying to the next stage.

The result of the first match had raised fans’ hopes that the team was, after all, not as bad as they thought after defence pillar, Elijah Tana was excluded from the final list of players.

Sissoko completes Juve switch

Juventus have completed the signing of Liverpool midfielder Mohamed Sissoko for £8.2million.

Claudio Ranieri has been chasing the Mali international for the majority of the January transfer window after it became clear Reds boss Rafa Benitez was open to offers.

Sissoko, who is currently on Africa Cup of Nations duty, joined Liverpool in 2005 in a £5.6m move from Valencia.

However, the 23-year-old has struggled for first-team football at Anfield following the loan arrival of Javier Mascherano.

And Juve boss Ranieri has now swooped to reinforce his central midfield by offering Sissoko a five-year contract as he bids to keep pace with Roma and Internazionale at the top of Seire A.

The sale of Sissoko is expected to provide Benitez with additional funds to finance a permanent transfer for Mascherano.

Omotoyossi wants Nigeria revenge

It’s not a personal war but rather an opportunity to show Nigeria what they are missing

Benin striker Razak Omotoyossi says he has a point to prove on Tuesday against Nigeria, his country of birth.

Omotoyossi, joint top-scorer in the Uefa Cup with Swedish club Helsingborgs, left Nigeria in acrimonious circumstances in 2003.

He is one of five Nigerians who have been forced to seek international football with the Squirrels.

And with the Super Eagles needing victory against Benin to make it through to the quarter-finals, Omotoyossi says it is now payback time.

“It’s not a personal war but rather an opportunity to show Nigeria what they are missing,” Omotoyossi told BBC Sport.

“There are other Nigerian-born players here in the Benin squad who switched allegiance due to one reason or the other.

“But we now have a perfect platform to show to these heartless officials they cannot keep treating people badly and then get away with it.”

Omotoyossi’s dream of becoming a star nearly faded when the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) hit him with a five-year ban in 2003 for allegedly attacking a referee during a match between his club, Sunshine Stars, and Enyimba.

“Another player attacked the referee and even though there was video evidence to prove that, the NFA said I had to serve the ban,” Omotoyossi recalled.

“My life stood still, I was a dead man walking but I prayed to God for another way and he listened to my prayers.”

Several trips to the NFA yielded no results, so Omotoyossi quickly shifted base to Benin to get his career back on track.

With his adopted country hosting the African Youth Championship in 2005, he helped the team reach the semi-finals and played a part in them making the World Youth Championship the same year.

Blessed with pace, great technique and an intelligent scoring brain, it wasn’t long before he was snapped up by Moldovan side Sherrif Tiraspol.

And after weighing in with his share of goals, Swedish club Helsingborgs signed him at the start of last season and, playing alongside Swedish legend Henrik Larsson, the 22-year-old found the net 14 times.

Omotoyossi is not the only high profile player to have opted for international football outside of Nigeria.

Mouri Ogounbiyi, Jonas Oketola and Wassiou Oladipikpo are also in the Benin squad at the Nations Cup.

Ogounbiyi, who won the 2007 African Champions League with Etoile du Sahel, is the first player to have won the tournament three times.

But the midfielder said he would never have got a chance to play for the Super Eagles.

The biggest loss of all for Nigeria is Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who has Nigerian parents.

He was dropped from the country’s under-17 side, and he chose to seek his footballing fortunes with Togo instead.