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John Obi Mikel
Mikel John Obi (born John Michael Nchekwube Obinna; 22 April 1987) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Mikel began his career with local club Plateau United, before joining Norwegian club Lyn at the age of 17 in 2004. In 2006, he made a controversial transfer to English club Chelsea after Manchester United claimed they had already signed him. He stayed with Chelsea for 11 years, before moving to China with Tianjin TEDA in 2017. After two years in China, he returned to England on a short-term deal with Middlesbrough, before joining Trabzonspor on a free transfer in July 2019. Mikel moved back to England in August 2020 joining Stoke City. In a 14-year international career between 2005 and 2019, he played 91 times for Nigeria, scoring six goals. Early life Mikel was born in Jos, Plateau State, the son of Michael Obi, who runs an inter-state transport company in Jos.Fifield, DominicFather of Chelsea's Mikel John Obi the victim of k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigeria National Football Team
The Nigeria national football team represents Nigeria in men's international Association football, football. Governed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), they are three-time Africa Cup of Nations winners, with their most recent title in 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, 2013. In April 1994, the Nigerian national football team was ranked 5th in the FIFA World Rankings, FIFA rankings, the highest FIFA ranking position ever achieved by an African football team. Throughout history, the team has qualified for six of the last eight FIFA World Cups, missing only the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2006 and 2022 FIFA World Cup, 2022 editions. They have reached the round of 16 on three occasions. Their first World Cup appearance was the 1994 FIFA World Cup, 1994 edition. The team is a member of FIFA and Confederation of African Football (CAF). History After playing other colonies in unofficial games since the 1930s, Nigeria played its first official game in October 1949, while still a Crown colo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2019 Africa Cup Of Nations
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The tournament was hosted by Egypt. The competition was held from 21 June to 19 July 2019, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017 to move the Africa Cup of Nations from January/February to June/July for the first time. It was also the first Africa Cup of Nations expanded from 16 to 24 teams. The tournament was initially scheduled to be hosted by Cameroon. Cameroon would have hosted the competition for the first time since 1972. They were also the title holders after winning the previous edition. On 30 November 2018, Cameroon was stripped of hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations due to delays in the delivery of infrastructure, the Boko H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Obodo
Christian Obodo (born 11 May 1984 in Warri, Nigeria) is a Nigerian former footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Football career He was plucked from relative obscurity in the Nigerian league, playing for Plateau United before he became one of the hottest properties in the Italian Serie A where he had a brilliant season at Perugia. He scored his first ever Serie A goal in a 2–2 draw against Inter at the end of the season 2003. Fiorentina signed him as a key part of their renovation as the team came back to Serie A in 2004. They only bought half the registration rights and in 2005 ''La Viola'' and Perugia were forced to make a blind auction to decide his future. Perugia won the auction but immediately sold him to Udinese. Obodo played his first UEFA Champions League with ''Le zebrette'' in 2005–06 season, partnered in midfield with Sulley Muntari, up until Muntari's exit for Portsmouth F.C. in 2007. On 28 January 2014, the Portuguese side S.C. Olhanense announce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Obinna
Victor Nsofor Obinna (born 25 March 1987) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Obinna in Igbo, literally means "father's heart". He played for Chievo in Italy's Serie B, having played regularly in Serie A with the club until their relegation in 2007. He made his full international debut for Nigeria at the 2006 African Cup of Nations, scoring once in three appearances as his side were eliminated in the semi-finals. Club career Early career Obinna played for Nigerian clubs Plateau United and Kwara United, he went on trials with Italian clubs Internazionale, Perugia and Juventus before signing with Brazilian club Internacional, but international clearance problems meant that the transfer was never finalised.World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celestine Babayaro
Celestine Boyd Jonto Hycieth Babayaro (born 29 August 1978) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a left-back or a midfielder. Babayaro spent the majority of his career playing in the Premier League, mainly for Chelsea from 1997 to 2005, and then later for Newcastle United, from 2005 to 2008. He had a brief stint at MLS club LA Galaxy, but never officially played for the club. He retired as a free agent in 2010. Babayaro represented the Nigeria national football team from 1995 to 2004 and was part of two Olympic squads, two World Cup squads and three African Cup of Nations squads. Club career Early career Born in Kaduna, Babayaro began his playing career at Nigerian side Plateau United, before moving to Belgian club Anderlecht in 1994, and eventually would make a name for himself, quickly gaining first-choice status although still a teenager. Babayaro set records as the youngest player to make an appearance and to receive a red card in the UEFA Champi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pepsi Football Academy
The Pepsi Football Academy is a Nigerian association football academy. History The Pepsi Football Academy was established in November 1992 by Kashimawo Laloko. Originally based in Lagos, the initiative secured the total backing of Pepsi in 1994 and has been titled the Pepsi Football Academy since then. Over the years, it has developed and grown into one of the most prestigious football academies in Nigeria. Today, the academy comprises over 3,000 registered students aged between 6–18 years and operates throughout the year from 14 separate training centres and 54 coaches across Nigeria. Footballers who started their careers at the academy include Mikel John Obi, Sunday Mba, Dominic Chatto, Echiabhi Okodugha, Joseph Akpala, Elderson Echiéjilé, Soga Sambo and Yinka Adedeji. In 2006, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igbo People
The Igbo people ( , ; also spelled Ibo" and formerly also ''Iboe'', ''Ebo'', ''Eboe'', * * * ''Eboans'', ''Heebo''; natively ) are an ethnic group in Nigeria. They are primarily found in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States. A sizable Igbo population is also found in Delta and Rivers States. Large ethnic Igbo populations are found in Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, as well as outside Africa. There has been much speculation about the origins of the Igbo people, which are largely unknown. Geographically, the Igbo homeland is divided into two unequal sections by the Niger River—an eastern (which is the larger of the two) and a western section. The Igbo people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. The Igbo language is part of the Niger-Congo language family. Its regional dialects are somewhat mutually intelligible amidst the larger "Igboid" cluster. The Igbo homeland straddles the lower Niger River, east and south of the Edoid and Idomoid gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dyna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester United F
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two cities and the surrounding towns form one of the United Kingdom's most populous conurbations, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, which has a population of 2.87 million. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort (''castra'') of ''Mamucium'' or ''Mancunium'', established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unpla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyn Fotball
Lyn 1896 Fotballklubb () is a Norwegian football club and a department of the sports club Ski- og Fotballklubben Lyn based in Oslo, whose members also participate in Nordic skiing and orienteering. Until 2010, SFK Lyn had two football departments, one professional section and one amateur section. After the professional football department, FK Lyn, was bankrupted in 2010, the fans decided to support the amateur department, Lyn Fotball, instead. With the help of some of the old FK Lyn players, Lyn Fotball has won three consecutive promotions, and are playing in the 3. divisjon. The team plays its home matches at Bislett Stadium, and the head coach is currently Jan Halvor Halvorsen. Lyn was founded in 1896 and is one of the oldest football clubs in Norway. They were founding members of the Football Association of Norway in 1902. The club won the top division title in 1964 and 1968 and have won the cup eight times. Lyn was also the initiator of the construction of Ullevaal Stadio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defensive Midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundaries, with mobility and passing ability, they are often referred to as deep-lying midfielders, play-makers, box-to-box midfielders, or holding midfielders. There are also attacking midfielders with limited defensive assignments. The size of midfield units on a team and their assigned roles depend on what formation is used; the unit of these players on the pitch is commonly referred to as the midfield. Its name derives from the fact that midfield units typically make up the in-between units to the defensive units and forward units of a formation. Managers frequently assign one or more midfielders to disrupt the opposing team's attacks, while others may be tasked with creating goals, or have equal responsibilities between attack and defence. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Association Football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposition by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45 minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries, it is considered the world's most popular sport. The game of association football is played in accordance with the Laws of the Game, a set of rules that has been in effect since 1863 with the International Football Association Board (IFAB) maintaining them since 1886. The game is played with a football that is in circumference. The two teams compete to get the ball into the other team's goal (between the posts and under t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
