How times change. Rolake Olagbegi, the once elegant tennis queen of Nigeria from the famous Olagbegi family is now married to Moyo Kassim and boasts of all the features that make her a mother of three.

I received many messages especially in the first half of the game.
Nigerians could not understand what was happening. Three of the messages were similar as if the senders rehearsed them. They were apt questions. “What’s happening?”, one read. Next was “What’s going on?” Another said “it will be miraculous if we survive this.”

You can lose to a weaker team when you underrate them. With all your finesse and techniques, a fighting team, with guts and stupendous will, overpowers you. A team endowed with technical prowess can lose to a team full of determination. A hungrier team can shock a team with superior skills.

The world has been fed with all sorts of stories on the 2018 World Cup that went to Russia and the 2022 World Cup hosting right that Qatar won.

It was natural that Blessing Okagbare became emotional exactly two week ago. What Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan did overwhelmed her and she strongly fought back tears. When the emotions got the greater part of her the tears flowed.

I don’t think that any Nigerian President has shown the kind of concern President Jonathan has demonstrated in sports in the past two decades.
General Sani Abacha did well but those managing other sports other than football would not readily agree. Again, Nigeria was a pariah state at the time and only sports could give us succour. And Abacha embraced soccer. It paid off.

It happened in 1998. A black man was the main artist in the opening ceremony of the World Cup. He dazzled all. The world stood to celebrate him. He was the pride of the black race and perhaps an icon to the rest of the world.

I once wrote that I was yet to see serious efforts to change our London Olympics poor performance to a medal-winning one at the Rio Games in three years time.

Chief Assam E. Assam is Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation and Belarus.

Chief E. K. Clark may not be the most popular politician in the country. There are people who dread him for his harsh criticisms. They do everything to avoid him.

Uche Ejimofor will never forget that day in Gboko.

It could take good space if he were to chronicle his memoirs as team manager of Iwuanyanwu Nationale, once a top side in the continent.

Doctors treating Nelson Mandela said he was in a “permanent vegetative state” and advised his family to turn off his life support machine a week ago, according to court documents obtained by AFP Thursday.

They played some good passing game but were caught up with what you may now permit me to tag a disease in Eagles. This disease has been in the team for long, dating back to the days of Amodu Shaibu, Berti Vogts, Lagerback, Siasia and it even appears more prominent now. It is a disease that kills many of the attacking moves of the team.

Mike Itemuagbor is a sports marketer of repute and can confirm the difference between donation and sponsorship.

Shortly after his appointment as sports minister last year Bolaji Abdullahi was on his way to Zurich, the FIFA headquarters.