Sports
LaLiga: Barcelona face tricky trip to Real Betis
… It is a weekend full of New Beginnings
By: Justice Godfry
LaLiga Santander leaders Barcelona face a tricky trip to Real Betis on Sunday, with the weekend’s schedule packed with new beginnings and huge clashes at both the top and bottom of the table.
With 11 games to play Barça have a seven-point advantage at the top of the LaLiga Santander standings, having upped their form as the crunch period of the season arrives, with chasers Atletico de Madrid and Real Madrid waiting to pounce on any slip-ups.
Lionel Messi and company will not have it easy at the Benito Villamarin Sunday evening, however, as Quique Setien’s ball-playing Betis side were the last team to defeat the blaugrana side in a thrilling 4-3 victory at the Camp Nou last November.
Second-placed Atletico may have cut the gap at the top before then, with Antoine Griezmann and his team visiting Athletic Club’s San Mames on Saturday afternoon. Although Atletico and Athletic were ‘sibling clubs’ through the first decades of their history, the Bilbao side are aiming for Europa League qualification next term and have not lost at home in LaLiga since October.
Zinedine Zidane’s second coming as Real Madrid coach begins earlier on Saturday afternoon, with the arrival of the former ‘galactico’ and 2017/18 LaLiga title winner having lifted everyone at the Santiago Bernabeu. The visitors are a RC Celta team battling for points at the wrong end of the table, with their new coach Fran Escriba having debuted last weekend with a defeat to Betis.
The LaLiga weekend kick-off in San Sebastian on Friday evening with Real Sociedad welcoming Levante in a meeting of two mid-table teams looking to get back on track after recent defeats and maintain the gap with those below them.
Huesca may still be bottom of the LaLiga Santander standings but recent performances have given them a real chance of survival. The Aragonese side will be tested Saturday lunchtime at El Alcoraz though, as visitors Alaves are themselves unbeaten in five LaLiga games and still in the hunt for an unlikely Champions League qualification.
Saturday evening’s game at Butarque brings together two sides who look to have leaped clear of the relegation battle in Leganes and Girona, however both coaches Mauricio Pellegrino and Eusebio Sacristan will know their players cannot relax just yet.
Sunday’s schedule kicks off at Ipurua, with in-form Eibar aiming for a fourth home win in five LaLiga home games against a Real Valladolid team who need to improve on the road having lost each of their last four away matches.
Sevilla’s away record is also a problem with zero points from their last five road trips, but the sixth placed Andalusians will be aiming to change that on Sunday afternoon when they visit an Espanyol team who have picked up seven points from their last three at the RCDE Stadium.
Then comes a real relegation six pointer at the Estadio de la Ceramica with 17th placed Villarreal looking up after last week’s crucial derbi win at Levante hosting a Rayo Vallecano side who really need something to change after six straight LaLiga defeats.
There’s also a lot on the line at Mestalla later on Sunday afternoon, with 7th placed Valencia aiming to close in on 4th placed Getafe, with a sure to be closely fought game also bringing together two of LaLiga’s most inform strikers in Rodrigo Moreno and Jaime Mata.
Watch LaLiga Santander this weekend on SuperSport 7.
Sports
Portugal Football Club Signs on 19-Year-Old Nigerian- born Footballer, Yaqub Usman-Malah
Reporter: Sandra Ani
Brito Sporting Club of Portugal, a football club founded in 1956, has signed an official contract with a United Kingdom-based highly-talented, young Nigeria-born footballer, Yaqub Usman-Malah.
The official unveiling of the young promising footballer was carried out on Saturday, January 4, 2025.
Yaqub, born in Nigeria in 2006, is a budding Nigerian talent with unquantifiable promise and potential.
Prior to his official contract with Brito Sporting Club of Portugal, he was a student and a trainee player with the Brooke College Football Academy in the United Kingdom.
At Brooke College Football Academy, Yaqub had an impressive goal average of 17 goals in 32 matches with no injuries in 116 training days, cumulating into 2, 270 minutes of on-field action.
A clear testimony of his outstanding performance at the Academy was provided by the lead coach of the Under-17B team Yaqub played with.
The lead coach, Tomasz Wasylik, described Yaqub as a ‘well-liked person’ and a role model to his teammates due to his professionalism and unmatched work rate.
The Lead Coach further stated that Yaqub has played in National School Cup competitions against other colleges and programmes in the 2023/2024 session and is a good ‘tactical player’, ‘technically good” and can ‘play in multiple positions on the field’.
It is expected that Yaqub will live to the potential and promise identified by Coach Tomasz Wasylik of the Brooke College Football Academy and achieve greatness in his new club.
“While looking forward to the display of his unarguable skills and boundless stamina, we wish Yaqub a successful career and a place in the halls of football greatness across the globe,” Yaqub’s father, Mr Usman Malah said in a statement issued to the media, on Wednesday 8, 2025.
Man City counts 28 trophies in the last 10 yearsQNET, an Asian direct selling giant and Manchester City, a top Football club in and outside England, are celebrating 10 years of partnership with great results.
The anniversary was part of the 26th V-Malaysia Conference (VCON) at Penang in Malaysia.
The long-standing partnership will see QNET continue as Official Direct Selling Partner for City’s men’s and women’s teams, according to Techeconomy report.
This partnership marked a significant milestone in May 2018 when City welcomed QNET as the first sleeve partner in the Women’s Super League.
Throughout the next phase of this partnership QNET will continue to provide City-led football clinics to communities around the world, as well as engaging with consumers and distributors through this relationship with City.
In a message to the leaders of QNET and the 8,000 VCON participants from over 30 countries, Ferran Soriano, the chief executive officer of Manchester City FC, said they are pleased to achieve great milestones that would not have been possible without the support and the commitment of everybody at QNET, “and every single one of you. I do remember back in 2014 when I met the leadership of QNET for the first time, and we discussed our plans, our ambitions, and we promised a lot.
“We promised that Manchester City would be a great football team, and that they would play beautiful football. Now, 10 years since then, we hold 28 trophies. I have to be honest and say that when we promised we were going to do well, we didn’t think we were going to win 28 trophies.
“We’re excited now we’re starting a new season, and guess what? We want to win again, and if we do, it would be another record. Maybe we can win the fifth Premier League in a row. Obviously, something that hasn’t happened before. I can promise that we will fight for all the trophies like you fight for all your objectives. Manchester City and QNET have the incredible power to engage people from every country, create a sense of community and empower individuals and teams to achieve their aspirations”.
He promised Manchester City’s support to the QNET brand to achieve even more successes in the coming years.
Trevor Kuna, the CEO of QNET said that the partnership with Manchester City has made positive impacts on the business.
QNET’s grass-roots business model enables ordinary people from all walks of life to start their own business with minimal overhead.
With hard work and dedication, QNET distributors, known as Independent Representatives (IRs) have the opportunity to become economically self-sufficient, raising the standard of life for their families and communities.
QNET is driven by two important philosophies: RYTHM (Raise Yourself to Help Mankind) and InService.
Meanwhile, the highlight of the QNET and Manchester City celebration was the presentation of a 10-year partnership anniversary plaque by John Kirton, senior partnership marketing manager, Manchester City Football Club to the QNET team.
Former Manchester City and Real Madrid striker Robinho will reportedly serve a nine-year jail sentence for gang rape – Imposed on him by an Italian court — in Brazil, judges in Brasilia has ruled.
The 40-year-old was found guilty in Italy in 2017 and according to Globo, Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (BSCJ), made the ruling on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.
The former Premier League player, whose real name is Robson De Souza, was one of six men who were found guilty of a§§aulting an Albanian woman in an Italian nightclub in January 2013.
In January 2022, the Supreme Court in Rome dismissed his final appeal against the conviction, according to the report.
Robinho claims he is innocent and has been living in Brazil for the past seven years. It came after nine of the court’s 15 ministers had voted in favour of the decision to incarcerate the footballer in Brazil.
Globo also claims that the ex-footballer, who also spent time at AC Milan and Real Madrid, will now be arrested in Santos, where he currently resides.
Robinho, who was 28 and was playing for AC Milan at the time, admitted during his appeal to having ‘contact’ with the woman, but the Brazilian insisted it was consensual.
The Milan Court of Appeals found Robinho had ‘belittled’ and ‘br¥tally h¥miliated’ the victim as it upheld his original sentence in December 2020.
Intercepted phone calls between the Brazilian and those allegedly involved in the assault were used as key evidence in his initial conviction.
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