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Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal want to sign Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah, 32, in time for next summer’s Club World Cup. (Talksport), external

Barcelona are also interested in signing Salah when his Liverpool contract runs out at the end of the season. (Sport – in Spanish), external

Liverpool plan to open talks on a new contract with their Scotland international full-back Andy Robertson, 30, in the summer. (Football Insider), external

Premier League clubs have reserved the right to seek compensation for lost earnings if Manchester City are found guilty of breaching the league’s financial rules. (Times – subscription required), external

Former Arsenal sporting director Edu rejected a lucrative new contract to stay with the Gunners in favour of taking up a multi-club role with Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis. (Mail), external

Manchester United are planning a fresh move for Everton and England centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, 22, in the summer. (Talksport), external

Incoming Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim wants a trio of Sporting players – Portugal centre-back Goncalo Inacio, 23, Ivory Coast defender Ousmane Diomande, 20, and 26-year-old Sweden striker Viktor Gyokeres – to join him at Old Trafford. (Sky Sport Switzerland – in French), external

England centre-back Harry Maguire, 31, will refuse to consider leaving Manchester United in January and believes he can earn a new contract at the club. (TBR Football), external

However, Manchester United will wait to assess developments from the UK government’s Budget before deciding whether to demolish Old Trafford and build a new stadium, or redevelop their current home. (Telegraph – subscription required), external

Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi has admitted he has had offers to manage in the Premier League in the past and, while the English top flight intrigues him, he is happy at his current club. (Mail), external

Paris St-Germain are preparing a bid to sign Colombia striker Jhon Duran, 20, from Aston Villa. (Fichajes – in Spanish), external

Manchester City may make one or two signings in January after their injury-hit start to the season. (Football Insider), external

Chelsea and England forward Cole Palmer will have a scan on his left knee after the 22-year-old was injured in Sunday’s draw with Manchester United. (Standard), external

New England manager Thomas Tuchel will not influence interim boss Lee Carsley’s selections for the Nations League matches later this month. (Mail)

His last Sporting home game, after four and a half years helping transform the club, pitted against a Manchester City side which cast a decade-long shadow over his new Manchester United team by virtue of the total domination that was once theirs.

A quirk of the fixture list – and Sporting’s refusal to let Amorim leave immediately – created the story. Destiny should decree it had the perfect ending.

“It was written it had to be like this,” said a delighted Amorim after Sporting had condemned Manchester City to their third defeat in a week and their biggest loss since September 2020.

The celebrations went on for a long time. Fans were still heard singing across the city hours after the final whistle had been blown.

Amorim was repeatedly pushed to the front of the Sporting squad as they made they way round a well-deserved lap of honour to take the acclaim of fans it had been said turned against the 39-year-old but it turns out still love him.

A reluctant hero on the basis he has said he didn’t really like attending the public ceremonies that have accompanied Sporting’s two Portuguese title wins, the first of which ended a 19-year wait, Amorim was eventually tossed in the air by his players.

They clearly have a huge amount of admiration for the man who will be their boss for one more game, at Braga on Sunday.

After that, he heads to England. For a new challenge. And what a challenge it is.

The Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association (ZNSSA) is mobilizing resources to ferry its members to South Africa and Cameroon for the Warriors’ make or break Africa Cup of Nations Group J qualifiers against Kenya and Cameroon in a fortnight’s time.

ZNSSA chairman Mattias Kufandirimbwa said that they are approaching corporate entities and well-wishers to help in raising funds to enable a huge number of fans to accompany the team to Polokwane for the crucial match against Kenya.
Zimbabwe host Kenya in Polokwane on Friday next week in their penultimate Afcon qualifier, needing to avoid a defeat to secure their ticket to the finals.
They will then travel to Yaounde to clash with the already qualified Cameroon four days later in the final qualifier.

Zifa have announced that the Kenya match will be played at the Peter Mokaba Stadium while Cameroon will host the Warriors at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo.

The supporters are scheduled to travel to South Africa on the 15th and watch the Kenya match, before connecting to Cameroon the following morning.

Kufandirimbwa said he is still appealing for more companies and well wishers to come on board so that they can increase their travel contingent.
Zimbabwe are second in Group J with 8 points, and only need to avoid a defeat against Kenya to secure their ticket to the Afcon finals.

Should they falter against the Harambe Stars, the Warriors will have to do it the hard way by beating group leaders Cameroon in their backyard.

Cameroon, on 10 points, are already through while Kenya are on four points and need a perfect record in their final two group games against Zimbabwe and winless Namibia to clinch a ticket to the finals.

Namibia, with zero points, are out of the race.

Ademola Lookman Olajade Alade Aylola is his full name. But he is simply known as Ademola Lookman. Fans now call him “Mola”

His career which started in 2008 with Waterloo saw him spend five years as a youth player. He moved to Charlton Athletic where he spent another two years before joining the senior team in 2015 where he spent another two years. It was here he won the FIFA U-20 World Cup precisely in 2017 with Young Lions of England.

If he didn’t switch allegiance to Nigeria in 2022 knowing that he had limited opportunities to play for England, perhaps this footballer won’t have been where he is talking about his recognition as the 14th best footballer on the planet.

If he decided to remain in England where he is underestimated and undervalued he probably won’t have achieved his present feat. Remember it took him five years to wait for senior England (Three Lions) call after winning the U-20 World Cup but the call never came hence his switch to Nigeria.

A move to Italy in the City of Bergamo was all he needed to spark off the shine in his club career with Atalanta.

The spark took him to Europa League final against a red hot Bayer Leverkusen who had conquered Germany and were expanding their conquest to Europe. He stole the show with a superb hattrick on that night that would announce him to the world.

That performance was all he needed to write his name in football’s Hall of Fame. He was named 14th best footballer on Earth in Ballon d’Or awards recently held in Paris, France and most likely he will be Africa’s best player come December 16 in Marrakesh Morocco

He probably knew or heard of the stories of Nigerian born footballers like Ugo Ehiogu, John Fashanu, Nedum Onuoha, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Carlton Cole among others. He decided to take his destiny in his own by going the way of his father land.

That was after he won the FIFA U-20 World Cup with England in South Korea 2017. The young Lions beat Venezuela 1-0 in the final played in Suwon. Ordinarily, that feat should have made him remain with England where he had played for the U-19, U-20 and U-21.

His decision is paying off. He featured in Cote d’Ivoire 2023 AFCON and scored three goals that helped Nigeria’s campaign in the final. She reached the final.

In Italy with Atalanta, he has built a reputation as one of football greats and the club’s most honoured player in recent times.

Lookman wad sent on loan thrice. First with Bundesliga side RB Leipzig in 2018. Then in Fulham in 2020/21 and later Leicester City in 2021/22. By he time he moved to Atalanta many didn’t know it was a move that will make his career dream come true.

Today he is living his dream…a dream that see him wear the crown of African football.

Gone are the days when Barcelona were rigid about playing with the tiki-taka philosophy for the entire 90 minutes, as Flick brought a fresh perspective to their game by promoting young talents from La Masia to the senior team. With financial restraints, Barcelona could only afford Dani Olmo in the summer transfer window when their opponents were splashing money to make some superstar signings – Real Madrid getting Kylian Mbappe and Atletico Madrid acquiring Julian Alvarez.

Barcelona started the season with identical results in their first three matches: 2-1 against Valencia, Athletic Club, and Rayo Vallecano. But the match against Real Valladolid CF saw the Barcelona attackers on steroids, with a 7-0 win, which saw Barcelona go all out until the final minutes of the match.

They kept winning game after game, and suddenly, the fans started witnessing dominant aspects of their play, but they were skeptical about whether the direct football and the off-side trap of Flick would work against big clubs or not. And Barcelona proved their doubters wrong when they faced three big clubs in the space of 6 days – Sevilla, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, where they ended up scoring 13 goals and conceded just two to show they are so back to rule the footballing world once again.