SportsNews
Rangers International FC The only Nigerian football club that has never been relegated from the top tier.
The Flying Antelopes.
Their dressing is well branded with prancing Antelopes. A beautiful departure to the popular Lion and Leopard heads.
Today at Lekan Salami Stadium Ibadan. We will witness a rekindling of one of the greatest football rivalries in the history of Nigeria.
Rangers Vs Shooting Stars.
No other came close.
And it entered the anals of football history in Africa after the semi finals of African Cup Winners Cup in 1977.
That game was played in Kaduna. Until then, Africa never saw anything like it. Even the Nigerian Air Force fighter jets did a great maneuvering display above the stadium before the start of the game.
To say it was electric would be downplaying it. But that was Rangers era. They arrived to rewrite history. The boys that rose from the ashes.
Rangers Vs Shooting Stars.
When Nigeria won its first African Cup of Nations in 1980. That feat was on the shoulders of Rangers and Shooting Stars.
Rangers had seven players in the then Green Eagles, Shooting Stars had five players. Rangers had Chairman Christian Chukwu, Silvanus Okpara, Okey Isima, Emmanuel Okala, Adokiye Amiesimaka, Ifeanyi Onyedika, and Aloysius Atuegbu.
Shooting had Mathematical Odegbami, Muda Lawal, Best Ogedengbe, Felix Owolabi and Tunde Bamidele.
The two boys from Benin were Henry Nwosu from New Nigerian Bank and David Adiele from Bendel Insurance.
Three foreign based footballers were invited. They are John Chiedozie from Orient FC, Usiyan Thompson from Appalachian State Mountaineers and Godwin Odiye from San Francisco Dons.
But Rangers and Shooting carried that team on their shoulders.
I remember one occasion during a birthday celebration of Chairman Christian Chukwu and Segun Odegbami was speaking about Chukwu’s leadership qualities and abilities to coach in the field. Such admiration and respect existed even when they were rivals at club level.
And that rivalry more than anything helped give us one of the greatest football commentators the world has ever heard of: Ernest Okonkwo.
He it was who named Christian Chukwu Chairman, Emmanuel Okala Man Mountain and Segun Odegbami Mathematical.
In one of his most celebrated commentary he churned out pieces of toasted bread buttered on all side with the slippery of his words.
Hear him:
“Odegbami dilly-dallies, shilly-shallies, and locates Elastic Humphrey Edobor. The storm is gathering near the opponent’s goal area, and it will soon rain a goal. Edobor turns quickly to the right and returns the ball to Odegbami. Odegbami kicks the ball towards Quicksilver Sylvanus Okpala who shoots an intercontinental ballistic missile from outside the penalty box. It is a goal! It is a goal!! Nigeria has scored!”
Pushing that art a little further during the 1985 World Cup qualifying game between Nigeria and Tunisia in Lagos, Ernest Okonkwo described the near perfect understanding between two Eagles players thus: “Okey Isima, with a short pass to Sylvanus Okpala. They both play in Portugal. They can communicate in Igbo; they can communicate in English; they can communicate in Portuguese and they just communicated with the ball”
Segun Odegbami describes Okonkwo thus:
” A master of descriptive language, always conjuring words easily, effortlessly and aptly like a magician with his bag of tricks. He had the power in words to give life to the most boring game. He was a flawless master of the English language, often taking listeners to the limits of their imagination.”
Okonkwo turned football commentary into high art of the most fluid form. Later day commentators like legendary Peter Drury naturally took it to another level.
Rangers and Shooting Stars……
I can’t forget when I was 10 years in primary school and we were at a final of school quiz competition. The last question was that I.I.C.C. Shooting Stars FC is one of the leading football clubs in Nigeria, what is the full meaning of I.I.C.C?
I smiled aloud because I knew nobody would get it. I was that confident. So I waited until they failed and I picked up the bonus points.
IICC = Industrial Investment and Credit Corporation.
It never left my brain till date.
If you are in Ibadan, Oshogbo, Abeokuta, Ọyo even Lagos. Go fill the stadium to capacity.
Alex Iwobi says Fulham must stay positive despite their 5-4 defeat to Manchester City at Craven Cottage on Tuesday.
Marco Silva’s side put up a spirited display in the encounter, and were unlucky not to get at least one point.
Iwobi started the fight back by scoring the second goal for Fulham early in the second half.
The versatile midfielder’s compatriot, Samuel Chukwueze then rose from the bench to score two more goals for the Cottagers.
Manchester City, however, held on to go home with maximum points.
Iwobi stated that they deserved more from the game.
“I feel disappointed because we didn’t get anything out of the fighting spirit that we showed, but I think we have to take the positivity from the game,” Iwobi told the club’s official website.
Fulham will be away to Crystal Palace in their next Premier League game on Sunday.
Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola has named the Premier League club that has impressed him so much this season.
The Spaniard said that Enzo Maresca’s side have really impressed him with the improvement they make everyday.
Speaking after Manchester City beat Fulham 5-4 in the Premier League on Tuesday night, Guardiola pointed out that a team must remain consistent to win the title.
Pep Guardiola’s side closed the gap at the top of the Premier League to just two points behind Arsenal with the victory over Fulham, but the Gunners could maintain their five points lead with a win over Brentford on Wednesday night.
“Chelsea impresses me more and more every day with Enzo [Maresca], but it’s long,” he told reporters after the win.
“Premier League is so long, many things will happen. We won six Premier Leagues, four or five when we in December, January or February we were behind.
“The team who wins the Premier League is the team who grows during the months and this is what we try to do. No injuries, it’s so long.
“But at the same time, if we push, we will be better and push ourselves and control the situations better, the emotions and we will see what happens.”
The 2025 World’s Strongest Woman final has sparked outrage after an alleged transgender athlete won gold.
American Jammie Booker, who is accused of being a biological male, beat Great Britain’s Andrea Thompson to victory at the event in Arlington, Texas.
According to Mail Online, Thompson walked off the podium, appearing to say ‘this is bulls***,’ while Booker celebrated. The Brit has since been crowned the ‘true World’s Strongest Woman’ by her coach and some of her peers.
Rebecca Roberts, a three-time winner of World’s Strongest Woman, has sensationally claimed that no one – not even the organizers – knew about Booker’s background.
Details on the American are not clear, but the publication sighted a YouTube video – uploaded to what appears to be Booker’s YouTube channel in September 2017, with Booker saying: ‘Everyone is dying to tell their own story and I am obviously no exception to that.
‘I’m 21-year-old trans woman with a history of abuse, struggling to stay true to herself while under the rule of her religious parents.’
On Monday night, Roberts posted a picture on Instagram that read ‘Protect Women’s Sports.’ She wrote alongside the picture: ‘I hold no hate toward transgender people. Everyone deserves dignity, respect, and the freedom to live their truth.
But I cannot stay silent about something that threatens the fairness and future of women’s strength sports. Transgender women, people born male, should not be competing in the women’s category.
This isn’t about identity. It isn’t about politics. It’s about the undeniable physical differences that exist in strength-based sports… differences that don’t disappear, and that matter more here than almost anywhere else. Women’s categories were created for a reason, and if we lose that, we lose the foundation of our sport.
‘What happened this weekend wasn’t transparent. None of us knew. Not even the organisers knew. And when fairness is taken by surprise, trust in the sport begins to crack.
‘My message is simple. Trans people belong in sport, but women’s divisions must remain biologically born female-only.
‘I love this sport. I have given my life to it. And I won’t ignore something that could quietly change it forever. Congratulations to @andreathompson_strongwoman… the true World’s Strongest Woman 2025’
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