No fewer than 6,000 young footballers participated in the Zonal Trials of the ongoing Oceanic Football Talent Hunt with Jay Jay Okocha over the weekend at the playing ground of the Nigeria Army cantonment at Ikeja, Lagos.

Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini admitted Monday that managing all of the Spanish giants’ new stars “will not be easy” this season.
“That will be the big challenge of this project. Many were top players at their clubs, it will not be easy,” sports daily Marca quoted him as saying.

A total of 29 players in Nigeria’s team preparing for this year’s Fifa Under-17 World Cup are believed to have failed the MRI bone scan test.A letter from Fifa to the NFF over the weekend stated that: “13 out of the 36-man squad failed the test on level 6, while 16 others failed the tests on levels 4 and 5.” This means that only 7 out of the 36-strong squad are eligible for the tournament.

THE Management Board of Rangers International Football Club of Enugu wants former Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles, Clemens Westerhof, to handle the coal city club in the next season ahead of the September 5 interview slated for those wishing to take up the job and other vacant positions in the club.

Shaibu Amodu, the Super Eagles’ Chief Coach, has included Obinna Nwaneri and John Utaka but dropped Daniel Shittu and Joseph Akpala from the squad in his last minute decision to bloat his team to 23 for the crunchy September 6 South Africa 2010 World Cup qualifier against Tunisia in Abuja.