Daniel Levy met Bayern Munich chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen on Thursday to discuss the possible transfer of Harry Kane.

Sky Sports News has been told no meaningful progress was made but dialogue remains open. This is not the first time Levy and Bayern have met or spoken.

Tottenham will continue to try and persuade Kane to sign a lucrative contract extension but fear he will leave for a Premier League rival should he run down his current deal.

Kane has not ruled out any option at this stage and will be part of the Tottenham squad that departs for their pre-season tour to Australia on Friday.

On Wednesday Sky Sports' Paul Gilmour gave an update on Kane's future possibilities with communication with Bayern Munich ongoing

Postecoglou has made it clear that he plans to shape a side that produces exciting, attacking football and would like Kane to be part of it.

Should he start the season in England it will give the club a chance to show him and other senior players that there can be a more positive outlook than recent years.

Bayern believe Kane wants to join them and that appears to be his most likely destination if he departs in the coming weeks. Tottenham have made it clear they do not want to sell their record scorer and certainly won't entertain the £70m figure Bayern are willing to pay.

The England captain has scored 213 goals for Spurs and is the second-highest scorer in Premier League history behind Alan Shearer. He needs 48 more goals to break the record.

Kane scored an impressive 30 league goals last season as Spurs could only finish eighth.

One thing that is clear is Tottenham will not sell to an English club in this transfer window, ruling out a move to Manchester United, with Erik ten Hag shifting his focus to Denmark striker Rasmus Hojlund.

Postecoglou: No guarantees over Kane future

Postecoglou said at his first Tottenham news conference on Monday that he had received no guarantees over the future of his star player. "No, I haven't had any assurances [over Kane's future] and I wouldn't expect any assurances because with these kind of things you're never dealing in definites or certainties.

"I'm trying to concentrate on the things that I know right now, and what I know right now is that Harry's part of this squad. He's looking forward to coming back to training, getting among the players back in here and we start working together.

"If I spend too much time worrying about the impact that it may have either way, I'm going to miss trying to build a team because ultimately that's what's going to make us successful.

"If we build a team that plays football a certain way. I'm not going to miss this initial opportunity to lay down what I know is going to be important in the long term.

"What's important in the long term goes beyond individuals. It's more about overriding philosophy on who we want to be as a team and the key people within that."

Speaking ahead of Wednesday's meeting with Kane, Postecoglou said: "I don't think it is my role to sit there and sort of treat people in a manner because of their circumstances. I am big on treating everyone the same.

"Harry is already part of the history of this club and I want him involved here. My conversation with him will be about how we can make this club successful and that is what he wants as well.

"I doubt it will be defining in the manner people think. I want to introduce myself to Harry, give him my vision, get an understanding from him over what his vision is and try be successful."

Postecoglou officially started his new role as Tottenham head coach on July 1, but he's been working hard behind the scenes for nearly a month already.

Since the announcement of his appointment was made on June 6, the Australian has been planning thoroughly for what appears to be a huge job at Spurs, who face the reality of no European football for the first time since 2010.

[SkySports]

Nigerians are a rare breed — at once contemptuous of their country and fiercely defensive of it. When arguing among themselves, Nigerians criticise their country viciously as if the country means nothing to them. Well, it doesn’t— because it hasn’t bothered to achieve an emotional bonding with the younger generation who account for three-quarters of the population. And, conversely, the country does mean a lot to its citizens because, although they are fiercely critical of it, they are proud enough of its past and its potentials to defend it against ‘foreign attacks’.

Don’t take my word for it. Check out Naija netizens. Nigerians in cyberspace are the ones taking their country to the cleaners by themselves. A foreign commentator is not permitted the same privilege. Any foreign criticism, even when true and verifiable, is, by some strange logic to which many Nigerians subscribe, the ranting of either an interloper, a racist or a paid agent provocateur.

Whereas the older generation of Nigerians have many reasons to be loyal to their country, young Nigerians have not been that lucky. Since the rude intervention of the military in governance, ethical standards have nose-dived. Young people hear stories of the many benefits their parents enjoyed as students in the 50s, 60s and 70s. When they compare those stories with their squalid surroundings and woe-be-gone experiences while growing up, they see no reason why they should love a country that treats them with so much disdain.

Our values as a people have broken down. Standards have fallen. The children we have raised in these tremulous times have become adults and the serial idiocies we fed them with have graduated to become peculiar insanities of which we are ashamed, but whose source we are shy to acknowledge as the man in the mirror.

When a typical ‘Japa’ returnee lands at the Nigerian airport in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, or Port-Harcourt, he encounters immigration and customs officials begging for alms. How is that supposed to make him feel? He looks into the eyes of foreigners on the other queue and he sees bewilderment. What beggars’ colony is this, for crying out loud? He cannot even use the restroom in peace. There are beggars everywhere all over the pee-point offering either a kettle to rinse your unmentionables or tissue paper to wipe your hands.

Those who are returning after decades to spend their retirement in the land of the forebears are waylaid at the seaports where they are forced to pay a litany of bribes in order to clear their personal effects. The situation is akin to paying a penalty for ever thinking of returning home!

Young Nigerians abroad can’t comprehend a situation where an accountant general would dribble hundreds of billions into his personal account or where serving military officers become billionaires in plain sight on account of serving as commanders in the oil-rich Niger Delta. When the supposed catcher of thieves is himself a thief, now who is going to catch the catcher?

Last year, Lawyer Femi Falana SAN, screamed against the burning of a vessel interdicted by the Nigerian Navy for stealing crude oil, describing the development as an attempt to cover up criminality.

Falana said: “There is no provision in the rules of engagement that authorises military personnel or security operatives to set fire to or destroy vessels loaded with stolen crude. Apart from the sabotage of the national economy, the crime of oil theft has portrayed Nigeria as a nation where official impunity has been institutionalised by the government. Apparently embarrassed by the involvement of highly placed military officers and their civilian collaborators in the scandalous offence of oil theft, the Federal Government has adopted measures to end it.”

The lawyer noted that the vessel was set ablaze off the Niger Delta creeks by a group of military personnel and described the endorsement of the operation by the then Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, as “an embarrassing justification of criminal conduct…”

Every Nigerian wonders why for a long time the country was unable to meet its OPEC quota due to the incidence of oil thieves. Massive oil tankers with a capacity for millions of barrels of crude routinely sail in and out of Nigeria while the navy and other security agencies snooze. Each loading trip takes many days, yet nobody sees them. Apparently there is an omertà code in operation: “See no evil….”

What did we think we were doing when an incumbent governor of the central bank declared, through proxies, his intention to run for president — and scores of branded campaign vehicles were unveiled to convince doubters that we all were inhabitants of a land where anything was possible?

We have scandalised the young and the old. We have abandoned the ways of the founding fathers of this nation. We have thrown whatever remains of morality to the dogs — and yet we wonder why we are stranded on a parched island where we cannot as much as slake our thirst. “In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty”, says the rastaman.

Since the days of military rule, Nigerians got used to the jackboot logic of the end justifying the means and might being right. Forget what you learnt in geometry — a straight line is not necessarily the shortest distance between two points. A Nigerian youth knows that for spherical surfaces, like the Earth, great-circle distances actually represent the true shortest distance. But why bother with all that when you can simply shift the two points in contention to suit your whim?

Wherever you turn, the goalposts keep shifting everyday. Just the other day, the media went haywire with the news that a new kind of tax— Proof of Ownership tax— had been introduced by the Joint Tax Board. Every motorist was required, said the announcement, to pay one thousand Naira annually as proof that the payee was the owner of the vehicle in question.

An activist lawyer, Muiz Banire SAN, recently authored an insightful piece ( https://sunnewsonline.com/mr-president-let-the-vehicle-ownership-renewal-policy-be-rescinded/) in which he counselled President Tinubu not to allow the apparent fraud to sail.

Banire was miffed that any government parastatal could add to the tax burden of citizens without the constitutional power to do so. Nigeria is perhaps the only country on the planet where there is no comprehensive list of approved taxes. Sundry government organisations simply impose their own taxes and share the loot with co-conspirators.

That much is borne out of Banire’s disclosure: “I also learnt from the grapevine that the states are already promised and apportioned 50% of the accruable revenue from the illegal enterprise, while the Commission gets 25% and the consultant and other undefined stakeholders get 25%.”

Nigerians are waiting for a presidential declaration stopping the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and its co-conspirators from further picking our pockets. The primary goal for the setting up of the FRSC is NOT to generate revenue. If they concentrate on their primary duty, perhaps our dream of having safer highways may yet be realised.

As with the FRSC, so it is with the Nigerian Immigration Service. In 2019, the nation was apprised of the scandalous frittering away of revenue accruable to the national coffers. A federal high court sitting in Lagos in a landmark judgement delivered by Justice Rilwan Aikawa, declared as illegal the engagement of a private company, Continental Transfer Technique Limited, by the Minister of Interior to fix and collect the Combined Expatriates Residence permit and alien card Fees paid by all expatriates in Nigeria.

The court ordered the Minister of Interior, the comptroller-General of Immigration and Continental Transfer Technique Ltd  to account for, refund and remit into the federation account all combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien card (CERPAC) Fees collected from all expatriates in Nigeria since 2014.

Before the bubble burst, the revenue collected from the CERPAC was shared and distributed as follows:

1. 5% to the Minister of Interior
2. 7% to the Comptroller General of Immigration
3. 33% to the Federal Government
4. 55% to Continental Transfer Technique

Nigeria is a sprawling crime scene! A national re-orientation campaign is the way to start by co-opting the youth in what promises to be a war against impunity. A war in favour of propriety— at the vanguard of which is a National Orientation Agency led by a committed patriot with a proven track record of activism. This is not another job for the boys. Nigeria and its citizens ought to be better served.

Patriotism can’t be legislated. Get rid of these entrenched smuts! Return Nigeria to the era of law and order where bad behaviour is called out and punished — and watch patriotism flow like the river.

The decision by the Federal Government to pay N8,000 to about 12 million households in a bid to mitigate the effect of the fuel subsidy removal is generating mixed reactions.

DAILY POST recalls that the president, on Thursday, while seeking the approval of the National Assembly to borrow $800million from the World Bank, revealed the plan of his administration to transfer N8,000 monthly to 12 million low-income households for six months.

In a letter read at the upper chamber by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on Thursday, Tinubu noted that the money would be transferred directly to the beneficiaries’ accounts.

According to the president, the monies are expected to “stimulate economic activities in the informal sector” and improve the living in the beneficiaries’ households.

“In order to guarantee the credibility of the process, digital transfers will be made directly to beneficiaries’ accounts and mobile wallets.

“It is expected that the programme will stimulate economic activities in the informal sector and improve nutrition, health, education, and human capital development of beneficiaries’ households,” the letter read in part.

The move was sequel to the astronomical rise in prices of essential goods and services, including food items, transportation fare, and others, occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy.

Recall that the president had during his inaugural speech on May 29, declared that the government can no longer sustain the payment of subsidy.

Following the announcement, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, approved an upward review in the pump price of the petroleum product nationwide.

The adjustment, which moved the pump price from N194 to as high as N557 in the states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, led to the increase in the price of other products in the market, particularly food items.

A market survey conducted by DAILY POST on Saturday in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, revealed that Nigerians are presently frustrated due to the increase in prices of staple food items.

It was observed that a bag of Garri which was hitherto sold for N8,000, is now selling for N22,000. Some of the sellers attributed the increase in food prices to the cost of transportation, which according to them, affected their purchasing power.

Similarly, a bag of Nigerian rice previously sold for between N15,000 and N20,000 is presently sold for N35,000, while a bag of foreign rice that was sold for N30,000 now goes for N44,000 and above.

In a move to lessen the frustration, President Tinubu on Thursday, got the approval of the National Assembly to borrow $800 million from the World Bank

From the $800 million, 12 million vulnerable Nigerians, according to the president, would be placed on a monthly stipend of N8,000 per month for six consecutive months as a way of cushioning the effects of subsidy removal on them.

The development has continued to generate controversies as stakeholders expressed pessimism that the proposed N8,000 to 12 million households would only amount to efforts in futility, citing the general economic crisis bedevilling Nigerians.

While some are sceptical on the effectiveness of the program, others are concerned about the value of the N8,000, citing the inflation rocking the country’s economy.

The Head, Media and Communications of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Diran Onifade, while reacting to Tinubu’s move, told DAILY POST on Saturday that the decision was a “quick means of settling their election expenses at public expense”.

Onifade also condemned the approval given to President Tinubu by the National Assembly to borrow $800 million, describing the palliative as a ‘scam’ which Nigerians may not benefit from.

According to him, the plan is “coming from the same party that ‘spent’ billions of Naira on school feeding while children were home during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“It is just a quick means of settling their election expenses. Given that poor Nigerians may end up not benefitting from the scam, we need not incur further debt for that sinister purpose”.

Similarly, the President General of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, Goodluck Ibem said it is impossible for N8,000 to mitigate the hardship imposed on Nigerians by the subsidy removal.

According to Ibem, N8,000 is not enough to make a pot of soup for a family of three, citing the sudden rise in the price of food items since the subsidy was removed.

In a chat with DAILY POST on Saturday, Ibem said the proposed palliative is not different from what the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management did when Sadiya Umar Farouq was the Minister under President Muhammadu Buhari.

He alleged that the “Minister was collecting N500 billion every month from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for the same purpose but no household was seen benefiting from the said programme”.

Ibem added that “Nigerians are tired of hearing such programmes. It is a programme that brings hardship and suffering to Nigerians instead of the better life we are being told it is meant for.

“We want programmes that will have direct bearing on the people and not what will lead Nigerians into more suffering and abject poverty as being experienced today.

“Nigerians are not finding it easy to feed, pay transport fares and take care of other necessities as the prices of goods and services have skyrocketed because of the increased cost of fuel, diesel and other petroleum products. Nigerians are sick and tired of being deceived by those in power”.

The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, also kicked against the plan, describing the proposed N8,000 as a “drop of water in an ocean.”

The spokesperson of the union, Benson Upah told DAILY POST on Saturday that the N8,000 is not enough, citing the level of inflation that has relatively crippled the country’s economy.

He said, “The hardship being experienced in the country right now is so much that when you single out just 12 million people, it will be like a drop of water in the ocean. It is obviously not enough.

“Looking at the inflation that has jumped from 16.9 to 22 per cent all within the period of one month, what will N8,000 do for the people?

“Even before the fuel subsidy was removed, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics had said that one hundred and thirty-six million Nigerians were dimensionally poor.

“After the removal of the subsidy, the World Bank said an additional one hundred million Nigerians are going to be brought into poverty. The only people that are going to be comfortable, you can count them on your finger tips.”

Asked to give an update on the negotiation between the Federal Government and the union over the fuel subsidy removal, the NLC spokesperson said, “Some meetings have been held and the process is on.

“You are aware that we have been fighting for Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, which may crash down the cost of transportation.

“We have also proposed a number of interventions, we have said they should allow the Nigerian refineries to work. The government should fix them and allow it to function.

“We have also talked about several needs the government should meet to cushion the effect of this subsidy removal. To us, what the government is doing or planning to do are parts of what we have demanded”.

However, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Benue State, Mr Thomas Terlumun appealed to Nigerians to remain calm, stressing that the president will roll out other palliatives that would cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.

He said, “Nigerians are just too quick to react to issues. All these controversies are coming from the opposition. The president didn’t say the palliative would stop at that N8,000; obviously, there are others coming.

“I learnt that the Innoson vehicle has been contracted to produce buses that may reduce the cost of transportation for civil servants. Is that not palliative?

“All I know is that President Tinubu means well for Nigerians and we need to be patient. Already, the economy is bad and we can’t blame him for it, he also met it like that.

“You can destroy a building in a few hours but it will take you several months to repair it. We just need to be patient and wait for what the administration has to offer.”

[DailyPost]

Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon has heaped praise on Jeremie Frimpong as the young Dutchman nears a move that will net Celtic a significant sell-on fee. The Bayer Leverkusen wingback is wanted by a number of top teams with a fee of upwards of £40m mentioned.

As reported by Glasgow World, Lennon revealed the process behind signing Frimpong as well as his initial impression of the talented youngster.

“He was brilliant for me. I saw him playing for Man City’s Under-21s at Lennoxtown and I really liked the look of him.

“It was great to see him in the flesh and it’s so much better than looking at Y Scout and watching videos. He came in and he just blew us all away with his pace and his quality – and his enthusiasm. He’s got a very infectious personality. He’s a lovely boy but he could be quite naughty at times too.

“He took the plunge to go to Germany and he has excelled and I’m really proud of him. He’s deceptive. He’s small but he’s so powerful, good on the ball and quite different from a lot of fullbacks out there. I follow his career and I hope he gets the move that he wants now.

“It will mean more money for Celtic – and that’s the model: find a young player who can enhance the team and then sell him on for a profit.

“We got a bit lucky with him and got him for about £300,000 because he was a wee bit under the radar but it worked out very well for Celtic.

“We had a few of these with Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama and Virgil van Dyk and I always follow guys like that – but not just the Celtic lads, Hibs boys too like John McGinn and Ryan Porteous who have obviously gone on to do very well.”

Frimpong joined Leverkusen in January 2021 after an impressive spell with Celtic; albeit, he was only there for 18 months.

The move has paid dividends for both Celtic and the player as he has been able to push on after struggling to see a path under Neil Lennon in the 2020/21 season. Now, he is attracting interest with powerful running down the right hand side. Clearly Frimpong is attracting interest having played in a more advanced role, playing him as an out-and-out winger as opposed to a full-back.

Celtic, who paid £350,000 for the players services from Manchester City, received an offer they couldn’t refuse for Frimpong and it was off to the Bundesliga and Bayer Leverkusen for Jeremie for a fee on £13m. Even with a sell on clause due to City, Celtic will likely net a tidy sum on Frimpong’s next move.

[caughtoffside]

U.S. soccer veteran Megan Rapinoe raised the ire of retired tennis great Martina Navratilova when she said this week she would "absolutely" support a trans woman playing on the American squad.

The inclusion of transgender athletes in women's events is one of the most contentious and divisive issues in sport with World Athletics and World Aquatics among global federations that have tightened their rules in recent months.

The Women's World Cup which kicks off July 20 in Australia and New Zealand will feature some of the fiercest advocates for LGBT rights and visibility, but FIFA are reviewing their trans eligibility policies, a move announced a year ago after swimming passed their new tighter rules.

"We as a country are trying to legislate away people's full humanity," Rapinoe told Time. "It's particularly frustrating when women's sports is weaponised. Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women's sports?"

Navratilova, a trailblazer for gay rights, tweeted a one-word response: "Yikes . . ."

Rapinoe and partner, retired WNBA star Sue Bird, were among the 40 professional athletes to sign a letter to U.S. lawmakers in April, opposing a federal bill that stipulates Title IX compliance requires banning transgender athletes from playing women and girl's sport. Title IX is a 1970s civil rights law which bars discrimination based on sex.

Critics of transgender inclusion in women's sport say going through male puberty imbues athletes with a huge physical advantage that transition does not mitigate.

The U.S. women's team, including Rapinoe, famously lost 5-2 to an under-15 FC Dallas boys team in an informal training match in 2017.

There is no timeline for FIFA's updated guidelines as officials, like those in swimming and athletics did, try to balance the desire for inclusion with safety and fairness.

"Certainly the pendulum is swinging back in a negative way. There's little doubt of that," Joanna Harper, a Canadian-born transgender woman and author, told Reuters.

"In terms of FIFA, I'm reasonably optimistic that FIFA will continue likely to be inclusive, although I don't know that for certain.

"I'm not necessarily optimistic about various more regional or national football organizations. In much of the world, trans people are just lucky to stay alive. So those countries will not be having trans football players."

"CORRECT GENDER"

FIFA's rules, first published in 2011, state that only men are eligible to play in men's competitions, and the same for women.

Each participating member association must, "prior to the nomination to the national team, ensure the correct gender of all the players to be considered ... by actively investigating any perceived deviation in secondary sex characteristics."

Swedish defender Nilla Fischer revealed in her recent book that she and her team mates had to "show their genitalia for the doctor" at the 2011 World Cup, after allegations that the Equatorial Guinea squad had male players.

A cloud of uncertainty hung over Zambia captain Barbra Banda after she was ruled ineligible for last year's Africa Cup of Nations amid speculation of high testosterone levels.

The 23-year-old, who twice netted hat tricks at the 2020 Olympics, will captain Zambia at the World Cup in Australia, but she has been the target of unforgiving scrutiny.

LGBT advocates say the debate over transgender inclusion in women's sport has also made for an increasingly hostile environment for gender diverse people in North America.

Quinn - who goes by one name - became the first openly non-binary trans athlete to win an Olympic medal when Canada captured women's soccer gold in Tokyo.

The 27-year-old, who will make their second World Cup appearance in Australia, told the Toronto Star they have witnessed growing negativity towards gender diverse people.

"I think it is a scary time, for me," Quinn said. "I think I do have a lot of points of privilege when entering this conversation, so I have to be mindful of that. But I think the reality is, it's scary."

According to LGBT website Outsports, a record of at least 87 out players will compete at the World Cup, more than double the 38 who played in the 2019 version.

Several teams including England had hoped to wear a "One Love" armband at the World Cup, but FIFA instead designed eight armbands with different "Unite" messages that teams can support. The "Unite for Inclusion" most resembles the "One Love" band.

Sarah Gregorius, of players union FIFPRO, said she thought it was a sensible solution given the geographic breadth of the teams at the tournament.

"You've got players who might feel something individually, but know because of their cultural context that that's going to be a particularly dangerous stance to take, so it's difficult to say 'This is the position on behalf of all 32 captains of all 32 national teams'," she told Reuters.

[Reuters]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been taken to a local hospital after feeling dizzy, his office said, adding that it appeared he was suffering from dehydration as the Middle East country experiences a heat wave.

"Yesterday, I spent the day with my wife in the Sea of Galilee, in the sun, without a hat, with no water," a smiling Netanyahu shared from the hospital Saturday. "It's not a good idea."

The Prime Minister said that he had taken a holiday Friday with his family and temperatures were hitting 38 Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit). 

The prime minister's office said in a press release that the 73-year-old prime minister complained of mild dizziness and was admitted to the Sheba Medical Center emergency room on the recommendation of his personal doctor, Dr. Zvi Berkowitz.

The prime minister's office said that Netanyahu's wife Sara and his son, Avner, are with him.

The office said that initial tests came out as "normal, and no findings were found," adding that the initial assessment was dehydration.

"On the recommendation of the doctors, the prime minister continues to undergo additional routine tests," the prime minister's office said in a statement

His office later said Netanyahu would stay at the hospital overnight for observation.

Israel is currently in the midst of a fierce heat wave, with temperatures in the mid-30s degrees Celsius, mid-90s in Fahrenheit. 

"I have only one request for you - we're in the midst of a heat wave here in Israel; spend less time in the sun, drink more water, and may we all have a good week," the Prime Minister recommended.

Israel's longest-serving leader thanked the "fantastic" medical team caring for him as he recovers, assuring his constituents that he feels "very good."

"Praise the Lord, I feel very good," Netanyahu added in his video message.

Israel's head of the opposition and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid wished Netanyahu a "complete recovery" in a translated Twitter post.

[FoxNews]

Lionel Messi has finalised his deal to join Major League Soccer, and after years of planning and pursuing, Inter Miami has landed a global icon.

Messi’s contract became official Saturday, a little more than five weeks after he declared that he would be coming to Inter Miami. The team will introduce him Sunday night at its stadium in Fort Lauderdale, and the first home match of the Messi era could be as early as Friday in a Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul.

A formal news conference is scheduled for Monday, and his first training session with his new club is expected on Tuesday. The club previously announced that Messi’s deal will be for 2 1/2 seasons and will pay him between $50 million and $60 million annually — putting the total contract value between $125 million and $150 million in cash alone.

“BIENVENIDO 10,” the team posted Saturday on Twitter.

Welcome, Messi, indeed.

“We are overjoyed that the greatest player in the world chose Inter Miami CF and Major League Soccer, and his decision is a testament to the momentum and energy behind our League and our sport in North America,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement. “We have no doubt that Lionel will show the world that MLS can be a League of Choice for the best players in the game.”

It is, in many ways, an unusual marriage. Messi — still perhaps the biggest star in the game — is signing with a team that entered Saturday in last place in the MLS’s Eastern Conference standings. It’s a club in just its fourth season that plays in a temporary home that will seat only about 22,000 people when some rushed renovations like adding extra bleacher seats get completed.

Doesn’t matter. Soccer royalty now plays for Inter Miami.

Messi arrived in South Florida on Tuesday following vacation, then started the process of physicals and paperwork on Wednesday and the deal got finalized Saturday afternoon. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner — the trophy given annually to the world’s best player — is making his Miami move after two years with Paris Saint-Germain.

“I’m very excited to start this next step in my career with Inter Miami and in the United States,” Messi said in a statement. “This is a fantastic opportunity and together we will continue to build this beautiful project. The idea is to work together to achieve the objectives we set, and I’m very eager to start helping here in my new home.”

It was widely known that Messi would be leaving PSG. The mystery was where he was going. Some thought Messi eventually would choose to play for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, following longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo to a kingdom where some clubs now are funded by its sovereign wealth fund. Going back to Barcelona, a storied franchise where he spent most of his career, was another possibility.

In the end, Miami won. An idea that co-owner David Beckham began floating publicly in 2021 — two years before, evidently, the team actually started thinking about how to pull this off — has now become reality.

“After winning the World Cup and not being able to return to Barcelona, it was my turn to go to the league of the United States to live football in another way,” Messi said in June when announcing his decision.

He led Argentina to the World Cup title last December. Messi has more than 800 goals in his career for club and country, making him one of the greatest scorers in the sport’s history. He scored twice in last year’s World Cup final against France, a match that ended 3-3 with Argentina prevailing 4-2 on penalty kicks.

He is a four-time Champions League winner and his 129 goals in the top club competition are second to Ronaldo’s 140. Messi has won 10 La Liga titles and two Ligue 1 championships, seven Copa del Reys and three Club World Cups plus a Copa América and Olympic gold medal for Argentina.

“Ten years ago, when I started my journey to build a new team in Miami, I said that I dreamt of bringing the greatest players in the world to this amazing city,” Beckham said. “Players who shared the ambition I had when I joined LA Galaxy to help grow football in the USA and to build a legacy for the next generation in this sport that we love so much.

“Today that dream came true.”

The club had a road match Saturday at St. Louis, yet when word got out that Messi may have been at the team’s facility that morning a couple hundred fans showed up just hoping for a glimpse, not even deterred by a late-morning thunderstorm. Many wore Messi jerseys — some the light blue of Argentina, some the pink-and-black of Inter Miami. Some carried flags; one carried a sign mostly in Spanish, but the words “Messi” and “GOAT” made the messaging clear.

It’s just part of a welcome party that is only getting started.

Messi was seen at a Publix supermarket near Fort Lauderdale — the grocery chain is an Inter Miami sponsor — with his family earlier in the week, and the cart had a few items picked out by the kids: Froot Loops, Cap’n Crunch, Lucky Charms. The scene went viral by the time he hit the checkout lane.

A serial goal scorer is evidently a cereal fan as well.

And now, it’s time for the soccer to start. Inter Miami plans to introduce Messi on Sunday night, at an event the club is calling “The Unveil.” Shakira is rumored to be attending, and tickets are long gone for the show that has been anticipated for weeks.

Hopes for the franchise are now officially sky-high. Inter Miami has never contended for a title; Messi could change everything in a hurry for a team that has won only 34% of its matches in MLS play.

“Lionel Messi is an incomparable talent,” Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson said. “What he brings on and off the field will elevate everyone around him and we’re excited to have him at Inter Miami.”

[firstpost]

It happened on Thursday night at the Yar Adua Conference centre, Abuja.

Some of the most outstanding athletes in Nigeria’s Olympic sports in the past six decades (therefore all Olympians), assembled for a special bi-annual re-union organised to remind their government and prick the conscience of Nigerians about the pledge embedded permanently in eternal words within their national anthem, words passionately sung by the athletes when going into ‘battle’ in their sports: “the Labour of our heroes past, shall never be in vain”.

It was a very emotional night for me because I was given the privileged role of delivering the dinner-talk.

Unfortunately, that meant waiting till the tail end of the event, when all the awards would have been given, tributes paid ànd the lavish citation of awardees read and dinner served.

Emmanuel Babayaro, the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Olympians Association, called me after the event and lamented that it was a poor idea to have put my speech after dinner, because soon after, the big hall emptied of the invited guests.

My dinner-talk ended up as a sermon to the Olympians. It was meant to take the audience into the world of Olympic athletes, to be presented from my personal first-hand experience of the Olympics since 1968 to date. It was to serve also as a reminder of what it takes and what it means to be an Olympian.

Before going into how that turned out, permit me to tell you about the award and awardees.

The hall was packed with awardees and their ‘supporters’. The most notable recipients included the Deputy-Governor of Edo State, the wife of the immediate past Governor of Benue State, the immediate past Minister of Sport, the President of the Nigerian Olympic Committee, and several other outstanding athletes from past Olympic games.

All of that went well.
Then, my sermon.

My earliest impression about the Olympics, derived from Greek mythology, is that the the sports events at the Games were the pastime of gods on Mount Olympus. The gods would run, jump and fight to the cheers of the large population of angels. Humans were not in the picture.

The news from Mexico that hit the airwaves with a bang in Nigeria was that the Green Eagles, the national team of Nigeria, that quietly went to football’s first Olympic Games, had held ‘giant’ Brazil to an unbelievable 3-3 draw! That attracted every Nigerian’s attention.

It was the first realisation that humans took part in the Olympics. Our footballers were human. We were familiar with them. They were flesh and blood. The Olympic ‘gods’ were actually human: Peter Fregene, Inua Lawal Rigogo, Samuel Garba, Peter Anieke, and so on. It shattered a myth.

Last Thursday night, for the first time since that team returned to Nigeria in the summer of 1968, the Nigerian Olympians Association, invited three surviving members of that historic team to Abuja to honour them.

They were celebrated and given special awards. The gladiators were Durojaiye Adigun, Ganiyu Salami and Kenneth Olayombo. Kenneth actually scored two goals in that memorable match.

Four years later in 1972, now freed from the psychological prison that Olympians were not human, a Nigerian boxer went to the Munich Games and fought his way to Nigeria’s first medal, a Bronze. Last Thursday night, Isaac Ikhuoria was present to receive his well deserved award.

Since Ikhuoria, boxing has become a good source of medals for Nigeria at the Games.

In 1976, Nigeria, now fully prepared for an onslaught on the Theatre of dreams, took probably the most powerful squad in the country’s history to the Montreal Olympics. The team was pulled out of the Games at the last minute to ‘fight’ a global political cause, and the athletes, therefore, missed out on fulfilling their greatest dreams.

Moscow 1980 was a most uneventful Olympics. It was marred by the politics of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR over Afghanistan. Taking a page from the book of the consequence of the 1976 boycott, led by Nigeria and Tanzania, the USA led their own boycott of the Mosçow games by Western countries.

The power of sport was now evident, a tool that can be deployed to serve various purposes even outside of sport.

FoU Nigeria, Moscow was barren.

1984, Los Angeles Games. The USSR avenged the treatment by the USA in 1980. They marred the Games with their own boycott, along with their allies.

But Nigerians seized the opportunity to make their mark. Led by Innocent Egbunike, Henry Amike, and a superb 4 x 400m relay quartet, they resumed their Olympic hunt for medals with the country’s first Silver medal in Track and Field.

In 1988, in Seoule, South Korea, Nigeria had a large squad that included football again and tennis for the first time.

For some reason, it was more memorable for its lack of medals.

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, it was both historical and memorable for right and wrong reasons. On the eve of the Games, one of the fastest girls in the world was a Nigerian. Along with a few others, she was charged and suspended for drugs usage.

FoU Nigeria, it was a shattering development, particularly for àthletes that had spent 4 previous years, come rain, come shine, pounding the tracks and the fields in search of a few seconds, minutes or even milimetres that could change their lives forever.

Meanwhile, some other athletes wrote their names in the history books at Barcelona ’92. Mary Onyali led a quartet relay team that also included Christy Okpara-Thompson to run a race that defined the true essence of ‘winning’ at the Olympics. Thè quartet came third but were celebrated more than the teams that came first and second because of the manner they celebrated third place. Mary and Christy were in Abuja last Thursday and were both celebrated.

The 1996 Atlanta Games came and became the best Olympics for Nigeria, ever.

For Chioma Ajunwa, it marked a vindication. From the depths of hell four years before, she emerged, rose and became the brightest star in the constellation with a performance and a result of a life time. Her Gold medal remains Nigeria’s only individual Gold medal to date.

Her victory opened the flood gates to more victories: a second Gold Medal in Football; Silver medals and Bronze medals in other events.

At this point, Nigerian athletes had joined the club of gods and goddesses of the Olympics.

From Atlanta Nigeria finally launched into the spirit of the Olympics as proper and equal contenders.

From Sydney 2000 and thereafter, a new generation of gods and goddesses was born and bred. Some of them were remembered and received awards last Thursday night.

It was indeed, a great night of bright Stars.

Through the generations of these gods and goddesses, I had been a LIVE witness.

I am thinking.

Why would I, an ordinary football player, without any imprint on the Olympics landscape, be the one to tell the story of Olympians?

I think my purpose for being an Olympian is to be a part of it in order to document them, experience what it takes to be an Olympian and to regularly remind the athletes that it is the hardest status to achieve in sports. That it is a long, lonely, expensive, hard, and challenging journey, strewn all the way with the requirements of self-sacrifice, hard work, highest level of discipline, single-mindedness, supreme patience, pain, failures, injuries and disappointments.

Yet, at the end, all of these come down to a few seconds, or minutes, of competing and hoping to win against the very best opponents in the world.

It is no mean feat and should not be treated with levity, laxity, or, worst of all, taken for granted. It is hard! If others do not, Olympians must constantly remind themselves and each other of their hard-earned successes and sacrifices in sport.

They must always remind themselves never to forget what Nelson Mandela said about the power of sport to change the world. His life was influenced greatly by the boycott of 1976 when Nigerian athletes led other African patriots to make the ultimate sacrifice to boycott the Games and support his cause and that of his people in South Africa.

That sacrifice was party responsible for the end of Apartheid in South Africa, Mandela’s release from jail, his ascension as the first Black President of a new South Africa, and granting the hosting rights of the first FIFA World Cup to be held in Africa to South Africa.

That ‘power’ of sport is still available and must be deployed creatively by Nigeriàn Olympians to change their lives, impact their country and make the world a better place.

They can do those things if only they always remember that, indeed, they are gods and goddesses!