The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Iheanacho

  • Iheanacho out of starting XI for Tanzania tie

    Iheanacho out of starting XI for Tanzania tie

    The best player at the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup, Kelechi Iheanacho, will start from the bench in Nigeria’s Africa Youth Championship tie against Tanzania on Sunday.

    Flying Eagles coach, Manu Garba, picked the same side that lost 0-1 to Benin Republic in the team’s last warm up game in Cotonou on May 7, supersport.com reports.

    This means there is no place in the starting lineup for the Manchester City duo of Iheanacho and Chidiebere Nwakali who will start from the bench just as they did in Cotonou.

    Manu had toyed with the idea of starting both players, but opted for a more cautious approach as his team is playing away from home.

    His 4-4-2 formation will see Wilfred Ndidi partner Izu Omego in the heart of the back four, while Akinjide Idowu will be the ball winner for a talented midfield that boasts of  Musa Yahaya and playmaker Ifeanyi Matthew.

    Alhassan Ibrahim “Mu-azam” and Taiwo Awoniyi will lead the Flying Eagles charge for goals.

    Meanwhile, the coach of the Tanzania’s U-20 team, John Simkoko, said his team hopes to defeat Nigeria on Sunday.

  • Iheanacho, Nwakali pained at City’s blip

    Iheanacho, Nwakali pained at City’s blip

    Two members of the Manchester City youth team, Kelechi Iheanacho and Chidiebere Nwakali, have expressed sadness at the recent slump of the Citizens in the Barclays English Premier League.

    Iheanacho and Nwakali both impressed with Nigeria’s under-17s at the 2013 FIFA World Cup in the United Arab Emirates and were duly snapped up by City.

    A 2-3 defeat at Liverpool was followed by a 2-2 draw at home to Sunderland to all but sound the death knell on City’s title charge this season and the two Nigerian youngsters have expressed sadness at the situation.

    “I have to feel bad (at the recent bad results) because it’s my team. I however know that if the league title is destined to be won by Man City, we will certainly win it,” Iheanacho said.

    Nwakali also spoke about City’s recent poor run of results, noting that he had been confident all along that the title was headed to the Etihad Stadium.

    “I felt very bad because we were hoping to lift the (Premier League) trophy. We were disappointed that the games we had in hand did not go as planned.”

    City are currently in third place in the Premier League standings with 71 points from 33 matches.

  • CHAN:Keshi regrets Iheanacho’s exclusion

    CHAN:Keshi regrets Iheanacho’s exclusion

    Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, has said he would have picked U-17 star Kelechi Iheanacho for CHAN, but for the youngster’s “premature” move to Manchester City.

    “I would have loved to take him to CHAN, where he could get more exposure and experience, where he would grow more in confidence and take his game to next level, but he and his dad opted for something else,” MTNFootball.com quoted Keshi as saying on a Radio Nigeria interview.

    The Eagles coach has picked U-17 goalkeeper Dele Alampasu for the continental tournament, which kicks off in Cape Town on January 11.

    Keshi also faulted Iheanacho’s choice of Manchester City as his first club in Europe, arguing the 2013 U-17 World Cup MVP ought to have started with a much smaller overseas club.

    “We need to be realistic in our dealings, Iheanacho should have been taken to a smaller team, where he can mature quickly by getting play time,” he said.

    “Iheanacho can’t play in Manchester City in the next one year or so, it is not good for him.”

     

  • CHAN 2014: Keshi rules out Iheanacho

    CHAN 2014: Keshi rules out Iheanacho

    Super Eagles head coach Stephen Keshi has ruled out the possibility of Kelechi Iheanacho rejoining the senior national team after his bid to join Manchester City fell through.

    The 2014 U-17 FIFA World Cup MVP was among the 30 players the Big Boss invited to camp in preparation for the CHAN tournament holding in South Africa early next month. The player, however, left for England to begin his professional career with the EPL side. The deal, however, fell through after the monetary terms agreed upon could not accessed, as the club insisted that the money would only be paid when the player is 18-years-old. This, however, infuriated the player, his father and his agent, as they decided to walk out of the contract, and return back to Nigeria.

    Keshi told SportingLife that there is no way the player would be called back to the team ‘as I told you earlier, this player is a very enterprising young man with good prospect. He was getting up very well when he was in camp, but he has been away for over a week now and can no longer cope again. So, he cannot be part of the team again’. He said the player was very much in a hurry to join a big team like Manchester city.

  • Iheanacho transfer saga: Amuneke keeps mum

    Iheanacho transfer saga: Amuneke keeps mum

    GOLDEN Eaglets’ assistant coach, Emmanuel Amuneke has declined to comment on the drama sorrounding Kelechi Iheanacho’s proposed move to Manchester City, as well as his missing out on Nigeria’s Championship of African Nations’ (CHAN) team.

    UAE 2013 Most Valuable Player (MVP) Kelechi, who is said to now be in Nigeria, is allegedly reluctant to join the Etihad outfit as he now favours a move to Portugal with FC Porto his likely destination. When asked about the new development in a chat with brilafm.net, Amuneke refused to comment.

    “I really don’t know, I am not an agent, I am a coach. This kind of questions can only be directed to his agent.”

    Iheanacho, who left the Abuja camp of the Super Eagles camp a week ago with the hopes of sealing a deal with the former champions of the English Premier League, has now been ruled out of the CHAN billed to start on the 11th of January by head coach Stephen Keshi.

  • CHAN: No second chance for Iheanacho – Keshi

    CHAN: No second chance for Iheanacho – Keshi

    There will be no second chance for Nigerian under-17 star, Kelechi Iheanacho in the Super Eagles build-up for the 2014 African Nations Championship (Chan) scheduled for South Africa.

    According to Nigeria head coach, Stephen Keshi, the youngster has missed one week training with the team since he opted to leave camp to sign for English club, Manchester City.

    It is believed that the City deal may have fell through, giving the youngster and his representatives the chance to consider other options.

    But Keshi explained to supersport.com that Iheanacho had a bright chance of making the Super Eagles squad for the CHAN which kicks off on January 11 after impressing while in camp.

    “Kelechi did really impress us and at the time he was in camp with us he had started getting used to our style of play, the players and officials. In fact he had starting bonding well on and off the pitch with other players. Unfortunately when the call came that he was going abroad to sign a deal for Manchester City I couldn’t have stopped him since he had the backing of his family.

    “Right now he’s not part of our plans for the CHAN because we’ve gone ahead with our preparation and team-building without him. And mind you he has lost one week of training and that’s a big gap to catch up with,” said Keshi to supersport.com on Friday.

    Keshi is now ready to move on with the players available in the build-up to the tournament next month.

    “There are other players in camp who are committed and we will have to work with them and get the best out of them for the tournament,” said the Nigerian manager.

     

  • Iheanacho’s Man City deal not dead

    Iheanacho’s Man City deal not dead

    • Player, father still in England
    • Eaglets star will receive pay in October 2014

    A source close to the owner of Taiye Academy, Kennedy Ezenwere has told SportingLife that the proposed movement of Golden Eaglets’ star, Kelechi Iheanacho to Manchester City has not been called off, as has been reported by a sports website.

    The football website had on Wednesday published a report that Kelechi’s move to Manchester City had been put on hold because of the alleged delay in the payment of the cash accruing from the sale of the youngster.

    The report claimed that Manchester City said they would be willing to pay the approved cash to the player, his father, James and his youth club, Taiye Academy in the month of January, 2015. But, in a refutal, the source, who nurtured Kelechi to stardom, stated that the deal was still on, contrary to the report.

    He noted that the interview he granted to a reporter of the website was twisted and coloured and that he never made most of the quotes attributed to him.

    The source said that the website got it wrong on the whereabouts of the youngster because Kelechi and his father, James are still in England putting finishing touches to the deal.

    He also added that the website never got the figures right regarding what his academy would get from the sale of Kelechi and that most of the details on the report displayed on the site were not correct.

    “The deal that will take Kelechi to Manchester City is still very much on and has not been called off by the player or anybody.

    “Kelechi will be 18 on October 3 next year and he will be eligible to sign and get the money too.

    “There is no truth in the report that the funds from Kelechi’s sale would only be released in 2015.

    “He will get the money next year along with all others in the deal.

    Kelechi and his father are in the United Kingdom and not Nigeria as the story was reported,” the source told SportingLife.

  • Keshi: I would have stopped Iheanacho’s Man City move if…

    Keshi: I would have stopped Iheanacho’s Man City move if…

    Coach Stephen Keshi has insisted that he would have resisted the movement of Kelechi Iheanacho to Manchester City, if the player had been in camp earlier.

    According to the Big Boss, there was nothing he could do about it because a process was already on before the 2013 FIFA U-17 Most Valuable player was invited to senior national team “there is no way we could keep Kelechi. It is because there was something in the pipe line before now.

    So we had to allow him go. But if not, I would not have allowed him go at least for now, because, in as much as the club needs him, so do we also. I would not say I would miss him in the team, because, I am just knowing him for only some days. He is good a player, with a lot of potentials. He is an asset to the country, and we pray for him to succeed in his career. As a human being, I will miss him among the family”.

    The former Super Eagles Captain said that he is in constant talks with the players in camp to ensure that many of them stay around till January when the CHAN championship would be played, “ as regards the the older players, we are pleading to them to delay their movements for now, and they have agreed, while the new players we would talk to them to know their mind set. It makes our job more difficult” he bemoaned.

    It would be recalled that Stephen Keshi led the exodus of players out of the local league after he was axed by the football federation in 1985 alongside his team mates in the then New Nigeria Bank of Benin. They failed to report to camp at the stipulated time.

    Keshi left for Cote d’ivoire enroute to Belgium, opening professional windows for other Nigerian players.

  • CHAN PREPARATIONS: Iheanacho ready to fight for shirt

    CHAN PREPARATIONS: Iheanacho ready to fight for shirt

    Golden Eaglets star Kelechi Iheanacho, has expressed his readiness to fight for a starting jersey in the Super Eagles squad.

    The most valuable player of the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup held in the United Arab Emirate said he is not scared of any player in the Super Eagles squad, but would remain appreciative to God for making his call up to the Senior national team come so fast.

    “I want to tell you that I was so surprised when I heard that I had been called to the Senior National team. One thing we should understand is that it is not by my power , it is God who has made it possible. Since it is his Will that I be in the team now, I am optimistic that he would also sustain me in the team. I am not scared at all.

    I am not scared to play against the big boys in the team , but would learn faster from them. But one thing I have at the back of my mind is that football at the Senior level is entirely different from that of U-17” he concluded.

    Kelechi Iheanacho is among the 30 home based players invited by Coach Stephen Keshi in preparation for the African Championship of Nations (CHAN), holding in South Africa in January .

    Their invitation has met with mixed reactions with some applauding the Coach on the decision, while others are saying that it is too hasty.

  • Iheanacho could play in Brazil

    Iheanacho could play in Brazil

    The best player at the 2013 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, Kelechi Iheanacho could be the shock inclusion in Nigeria’s Super Eagles squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil.

    Iheanacho is currently in Abuja training with the Nigeria squad preparing for the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in South Africa.

    Former African Footballer of the Year, Emmanuel Amuneke, a member of the coaching crew of the Golden Eaglets, had exclusively told supersport.com in November that members of the Nigerian squad that won the Under-17 World Cup title in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are not yet mature enough to play for the senior side but Keshi has other ideas.

    The Super Eagles trainer named Iheanacho and two of his teammates from the victorious Nigeria Under-17 squad, Dele Alampasu and Taiwo Awoniyi in his 30-man squad for the Chan and insists they have a chance of making the squad to Brazil.

    “Everything depends on them. If they can prove themselves and show that they can cut it at this level, then we will take it up from there,” Keshi told supersport.com.

    The CHAN is a competition for players who exclusively ply their trade domestically and Keshi says his sights will be on talent who can force their way into the squad that will represent Nigeria in Brazil next year.

    “The CHAN is a good opportunity for the home-based players to exhibit themselves before the World Cup. It will boost their confidence so we will see what happens,” he said.

    Nigeria have been drawn in Group A of the Chan alongside South Africa, Mali and Mozambique. The Super Eagles will open their campaign against Mali on January 11 in Cape Town.