Belenenses have terminated the loans of two players, including Ghanaian born African American forward Freddy Adu, as they look to turn their fortunes around in Liga Sagres. (more…)

Egypt forward, Ahmed Hassan says that they will be ready to tackle Nigeria when both teams meet at the opening group game of the Nations Cup in Angola. (more…)

The possibility of Angola hosting a celebrated Nations Cup is in jeopardy again following logistic problems barely 12 days to the kickoff of the championship. (more…)

Unless a miracle happens, Ghana’s right full back John Paintsil is in the verge of  missing both the African Nations Cup and peradventure the  World Cup after he suffered a knee injury in Monday’s 2-1 defeat of his club, Fulham at Chelsea. (more…)

Nigeria’s Super Eagles players have comend4ed the Nigerian Football Federation for hosting the team after their qualification for the 2010 World Cup before their departure Wednesday to Durban preparatory for the Nations Cup next month in Angola. (more…)

World Cup participants Korea DPR have won the opening match at the 2009 Qatar Tournament, earning a 1-0 victory over Mali. (more…)

Cameroun defence Ace, Rigobert Song will make history when he featured at the Orange Nations Cup in Angola for the record eight times. (more…)

Two African teams have been picked as the countries that could upset the established World Cup greats like Brazil, Argentina, England among others.

Zinedine Zidane in an exclusive interview with Paris based, France Football tipped the two teams to go far in the 2010 World Cup.

As for the other African representatives at the forthcoming World Cup, Zidane sees only Cameroon as a team who can be counted.

“Cameroon can possibly do well, even if not as well as the Ivory coast. They are a strong team too,” he said.

The 1998 World Cup champion with France adds that no other team in Africa who are endowed with more top players than the Ivory Coast’s Elephants.

“I have faith in the Ivorian team because their players have proved themselves in top European leagues. The Elephants have a chance in this World Cup,” Zidane said.

Yet, just as many analysts have alleged recently, Zidane considers the Ivory Coast’s Group G alongside Brazil, Portugal and North Korea, a hard nut to crack.

“It’s going to be difficult for the Ivorians because they inherited a complicated group,” the former Real Madrid powerhouse admitted.

The group has been tagged the Group of Death, but ‘Zizou’ has advised the West Africans on what to do in order to avoid getting buried in their section.

“The Ivorians should kick off their World Cup in a very high spirit, winning their first match imperatively, or else, it will be sad,” Zidane warned.

But much of the load will be on the head of coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, according to Zidane, because the Bosnian-French trainer has in his possession a group of players capable of going far in South Africa come next summer.

“The ball is in the court of the Ivorian coach. He has the men; he only needs to know how to use them. The team can withstand Brazil if the coach knows what to do,” Zidane affirmed.

The 1998 Ballon d’Or winner finally warned that it would be a great waste for the African continent if the Ivorian coach failed to exploit his team successfully.

Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou has told Sky Sports that he wants Ivory Coast show their strength against England at the South African World Cup.

The two sides have been drawn in different groups for the finals in South Africa next summer, but they could meet – should they progress to the semi-final stage.

Kalou was not happy Ivory Coast were not drawn alongside England in Group C. Kalou’s national team landed in Group G alongside Brazil, Portugal and North Korea what has been called the “Group of Death”.

When asked if he was disappointed not to be playing against England in the Group Stage, Kalou told Sky Sports, “Yes, because when you go to these type of competitions you want to play against the best and prove yourself.

“So playing against England was an opportunity for us to see if we are a good team.

“The draw was not on our side with England but, you never know, maybe we will meet them in later rounds.”

Ivory Coast’s first match is against Portugal on June 15, 2010 followed by a meeting with Brazil before concluding the group-stage against minnows North Korea.

He said, “We can go as far as we want. We should not be afraid of other teams and just play our game. At the end, it is 11 against 11.”

English and Scottish clubs have been affected by the Algeria Football Federation decision to start camping early ahead of the Orange Nations Cup.

Scottish Premier League leaders Glasgow Rangers are mostly affected as their Algerian international defender Madjid Bougherra, would not be available when the club face bitter rivals Celtic on January 3.

The Algerian football authorities have ordered its England and Scotland-based players, invited to take part in the 2010 African Nations Cup, that they can only fulfill their club commitments until December 30.

Bougherra can play for Rangers on Sunday against Hibernian, but not against Celtic on January 3 despite pressure from his boss Walter Smith.

Algeria, who have also qualified for the World Cup, will take part in the African Nations Cup from January 10-31 in Angola, with the some of the squad due to assemble in the south of France for a training camp from Saturday.

“A training session will also take place from January 1-7 which all players are expected to attend,” said a federation source.

In the English Premier League, Portsmouth duo Hassan Yebda and Nadir Belhadj are expected to play on Monday against Arsenal. At the African Nations Cup, Algeria are in Group A with Angola, Mali and Malawi.

Nigeria’s Super Eagles goalkeeper, Dele Aiyenugba is still sulking for his inability to help his Isreali Club, Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv FC improve their position on the league as last Sunday.

The former Enyimba of Aba goalkeeper told africansportsdigest.com that he regrets conceding two goals in the match against league topmost side, Maccabi Haifa. His worst performance of the day was conceding the first goal in the first minute of play and blamed poor marksmanship for it.

“I am really sorry for the mistake. Worst still, we lost the match which is painful. I wanted us to score in the match,” Aiyenugba said.

“I had hoped for the best in the match as we’re presently fourth on the league table. The third placed team has the same 23 points like us but better than our team on goals difference. I really want us to be up there, which is possible because we’re playing well.”

In the match S. Arbeitman opened scoring in the 1^st minute before Golasa made it two in the 83^rd to complete the Nigerian goalkeeper’s day of doom. The match was watched by 8500 spectators at Kiryat Eli’ezer Stadium, Ḥefa Haifa

“I am not happy with my performance but hoped to make up for it in subsequent match,” he added.

Bnei Yehuda’s next match is a home game after Christmas day on December 27 against Maccabi Netanya, this is a match that is very dear to Aiyenugba as he plans to keep a clean slate if selected to feature in the game.

The African football confederation, CAF and its partner adidas are due to unveil the new official ball for African football on Tuesday, December 22. The ceremony will take place at 11:00 am Cairo local time, at the main headquarters of CAF in 6th of October city. (more…)

As a way of testing the strength of an African team,England will engage  Egypt  next year in a friendly.

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Two Nigerian Female players, Juliana Bawa and Mimi Sanusi have distinguished themselves in the Finish Women League third division with different meritorious awards. (more…)

Ghanaian International and Black Stars’ captain, Stephen Appiah has condemned the racist attack on fellow African, by Juventus fans, calling on the World Soccer governing body, FIFA and their European counterpart, UEFA to look into the allegation against the fans with view to stopping further occurrence.

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Most of the teams for the Nations Cup are really complaining about  the climate in Angola saying that during this period  heat and humidity will be the bane of their players. (more…)

Following the furor over Ghana’s coach Milovan Rajevac exclusion of certain top ranked players from his 23 man list for next January’s Orange African National Cup, the Black Stars manager says he would rather go with fit players to the championship than recuperating stars. (more…)

Arrangement to secure a new sponsor for the Nigeria’s Super Eagles has been approved by the executive committee of the Nigeria Football Federations, NFF that is also planning to host the national teams. (more…)