Football

Nigeria legend Nwankwo Kanu, Confederation of African Football and Ghana legend Anthony Baffoe have joined the football world in paying tribute to former Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi, who passed away two years ago.

Keshi, who guided Nigeria to win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations title in South Africa, also led the Super Eagles to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He also enjoyed an illustrious playing career, captaining the Super Eagles to the AFCON title in 1994 and to their first ever World Cup appearance the same year.

The Super Eagles of Nigeria dropped one place from 47th position to 48th in the latest FIFA world ranking, CompleteSports reports.

The latest ranking was released on Thursday on FIFA’s official website.

Also in Africa, the World Cup-bound Super Eagles dropped from sixth place to seventh.

Former Super Eagles winger Emmanuel Amuneke has warned that the team risk crashing out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in the group stages if they do not improve on their performances before their opening game against Croatia.

The Super Eagles suffered a 1-0 defeat to Czech Republic on Wednesday in their final pre-World Cup game in Austria.

The Super Eagles lost their second straight game as they went down 1-0 to Czech Republic in their final World Cup warm-up game at the Rudolf Tonn Stadium, Austria on Wednesday.

This is the second time Nigeria will face Czech Republic. Their first meeting was at a four-nation tournament, the King Hassan II International Cup, in 1996 with Czech Republic winning 2-1.

Wednesday’s game saw the return of Wilfred Ndidi who missed the Super Eagles last two friendlies and gave a good account of himself.

Tyronne Ebuehi may have joined Benfica after his contract with ADO Den Haag ended, but the Dutch club are reaping massively from the Nigerian – on two fronts. Firstly, ADO receives a training fee from Benfica, which amounts to almost two and a half tons. They are entitled to money from FIFA, now that the right-back is part of Nigeria’s world cup quest.

Nigeria’s Female national team, Super Falcons will take on their Gambian counterparts in the first leg of the African Women Nations Cup qualifier on Wednesday. Stars including Asisat Oshoala, Desire Oparanozie and Francesca Ordega, are scheduled to flew out on Monday to Banjul, capital of Gambia, for the first leg encounter.