Former U.S President, Bill Clinton has congratulated the eight year-old Nigerian chess champion, Tanitoluwa Adewunmi and also invited him and his parents to his office for personal introduction.

The young Nigerian recently won the New York State Chess championship for his age bracket.

The New York Times reported that Adewunmi had won seven chess trophies including the state tournament, where he outwitted other children.

The story went viral and got the attention of Clinton.

According to the New York Times, the young chess champion’s family are taking asylum in a homeless shelter in Manhattan after they fled the Boko Haram insurgency since 2018.

Adewunmi, went undefeated at the state tournament, outwitting children from elite private schools with private chess tutors.

Tanitoluwa rating is now 1587 and rising fast and he is being compared with the world’s best player, Magnus Carlsen, who stands at 2845.

His feat has attracted commendations from parents and celebrities.

In a tweet on his Twitter handle-@BillClinton, the former number one citizen said: “Refugees enrich our nation and talent is universal, even if opportunity is not.”

The former U.S president now joins the queue of people celebrating the boy and his feats.

Clinton said “this story made me smile, Tanitoluwa “ you exemplify a winning spirit – in chess and in life.”

“And kudos to your hardworking parents. You all should stop by my office in Harlem; I’d love to meet you.”

Tanitoluwa placed first in the New York State Scholastic Championships tournament for kindergarten through third grade, a remarkable win for anyone.

In an interview with New York Times, the young chess champion said: “I want to be the youngest grandmaster.”

Liverpool eased to a 3-1 victory over Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday to reach the Champions League quarter-finals as Sadio Mane scored twice.

After a goalless first-leg draw, last season’s runners-up Liverpool were too strong for a tame Bayern, completing a clean sweep of four English teams reaching the last eight for the first time since 2008-2009.

(AFP)

Zinedine Zidane has made a sensational return as coach of Real Madrid after Santiago Solari’s sacking was finally confirmed on Monday.

Zidane has been given a contract until June 2022, just nine months after he resigned at the end of last season, having led Madrid to an historic third consecutive Champions League triumph.

Solari’s dismissal was expected after three consecutive home defeats – to Barcelona, twice, and Ajax – deemed Madrid’s season all but over before the middle of March.

But Zidane coming back, with only 11 games left in La Liga and almost nothing to play for, is a surprise, particularly after he left on the incredible high of yet another European triumph.

“Real Madrid’s board has decided to terminate Santiago Solari’s contract as coach of the first team,” read an official statement on Monday.

“Real Madrid appreciates the work done by Santiago Solari and the commitment and loyalty he has always shown to this club.

“The board has also agreed to the appointment of Zinedine Zidane as the new coach of Real Madrid with immediate effect for the remainder of the season and the next three, until June 30, 2022.”

(AFP)

Title holders Real Madrid were sensationally knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday after being thrashed 4-1 at home by an outstanding Ajax Amsterdam.

Ajax overturned a first leg deficit to reach the quarter finals 5-3 on aggregate.

Moroccan midfielder Hakim Ziyech fired Ajax into a shock seventh minute lead after a lay off from the outstanding Dusan Tadic, who also provided the pass for David Neres to double the Dutch side’s advantage in the 18th.

Madrid, who were missing inspirational captain Sergio Ramos through suspension and hit the woodwork twice in the first half, came out stronger after the interval.

The champions were however dealt a fatal blow when Serbia international Tadic crowned his sensational display by hammering into the top corner in the 62nd minute.

Substitute Marco Asensio gave Madrid a glimmer of hope by striking back but it was quickly extinguished by a breathtaking free kick from Lasse Schone, condemning Real to a fourth consecutive home defeat in all competitions.

Things got worse for the hosts, who had won the last three Champions League titles in a row, when Nacho was sent off in stoppage time for two bookings.

Ajax, who have won the trophy four times, most recently in 1995, reached the last eight of Europe’s top competition for the first time since 2003.

Thirteen-times winners Madrid, who have lifted the trophy in four of the last five years, and had reached at least the semi-finals for the last eight seasons, suffered their earliest elimination since 2010.

Madrid, who had suffered consecutive home defeats to Barcelona in the run up to the game and are an embarrassing 12 points behind the Catalans in La Liga, endured rotten fortune throughout the game, losing Lucas Vazquez and livewire Brazilian teenager Vinicius Junior to injury in the first half.

The night could have gone very differently had Madrid defender Raphael Varane headed under the crossbar instead of against it in the fifth minute, moments before Ziyech scored.

Ajax had Madrid on the ropes after the second goal and should have further increased their advantage, as Neres chipped wide when clean through against Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois.

The Belgian later leapt across his goal to parry a shot from Ziyech, and used his body to thwart Tadic.

He made some more impressive saves in the second half but was powerless to stop Tadic’s thunderbolt and was caught out by Schone’s free kick, which looked to be a cross but went straight in.

Real substitute Gareth Bale blasted against the near post in the first half and suffered a painful end to the match.

The Wales forward was forced to stay on the pitch after appearing to injure his ankle late on as coach Santiago Solari had used all three substitutes.

The pilot of the plane that crashed with Cardiff City striker Emiliano Sala on board did not have a licence for commercial flights, investigators say.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch confirmed David Ibbotson held a private pilot’s licence.

Its interim report said he could only fly passengers in the EU on a cost sharing basis, not for reward.

Cardiff City said it had “grave concerns” and questions over the validity of the pilot’s licence.

Investigators have not yet been able to establish what arrangement Mr Ibbotson had with Sala, and the status of the 59-year-old’s licence at the time of the crash on January 21 will form part of the AAIB’s investigations.

Sala was found in the wreckage of the Piper Malibu N264DB, which was found on the seabed 13 days after it vanished over the English Channel near Guernse

British Nigerian heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua will defend his IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles against Jarrell Miller in his US debut at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 1.

The 29-year-old last fought in September at Wembley, stopping Russia’s Alexander Povetkin in seven rounds.

“It has been an honour and a blessing to fight at some of the best venues in the world at home in the UK, not least Wembley Stadium, but the time has come to head across the Atlantic and defend my Heavyweight titles in the USA,” said Joshua.

(AFP)

Former Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho, would be coughing out 3.3 million euros (2.8 million pounds), to avoid the confines of the prison wall, no thanks to tax evasion.

In what would have seen him spend one year in prison, Mourinho, on Tuesday, accepted to pay the fine instead for defrauding the Spanish tax system.

The filing said the tax ministry and Mourinho’s defence team had agreed to exchange the 12-month prison sentence with a daily fine of 250 euros for 24 months, equivalent to 182,500 euros, as under Spanish law jail terms under two years can be served under probation.

The court filing said Mourinho leased his image rights to companies based in the British Virgin Islands and Ireland in 2004 but left those earnings out of his tax returns from 2011 and 2012.

When he was coach of Real Madrid and a fiscal resident in Spain, “with the aim of obtaining illicit profits”.

As well as the one-year prison sentence, Mourinho has been fined 1.9 million euros, 60 per cent of the amount defrauded, as well as 121,764 euros in interest.

The 56-year-old and his representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mourinho is one of the most successful coaches in modern European soccer, winning league titles with Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Porto.

He also won the Champions League in 2004 with Porto and in 2010 with Inter Milan.

He was sacked in December, 2018 by Manchester United after the Premier League club, who won the last of their record 20 top flight league titles in 2013, endured their worst start to a season for 28 years.

The first woman to coach a football club in Germany’s top five divisions has put a journalist in his place by joking that she selects her line-up based on her players’ manhoods.

Imke Wubbenhorst was appointed as head coach of fifth-tier outfit BV Cloppenburg in December after half a season leading their women’s team.

In an interview with German newspaper Welt, she was ready with a witty retort to a poorly judged question.

Asked if her players should cover themselves up before she came into the changing room, she replied: “Of course not. I’m a professional – I pick the team on penis size.”

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate prosecution of president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, over an alleged financial scam running into billions in the football house.

According to Punch, Buhari ordered Pinnick’s prosecution after receiving the Okoi Obono-Obla preliminary investigation report, which allegedly indicted the former Delta state sports commissioner.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) also submitted another report from their findings to Mr. President, highlighting most financial activities already spotted by the Obono-Obla’s panel.

EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu also confirmed to Buhari via a six-page report that the anti-graft agency had investigated and prosecuted eggheads in the NFF that includes the Director, Finance and Administration, Christopher Andekin; Head, Finance and Administration, NFF, Jafaru Mamzah along with a cashier in NFF’s Finance and Administration department, Rajan Zaka over his role in an alleged scam involving financial payments from Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) and Confederation of African Football (CAF) to NFF between 2014 and 2016.

Buhari was reportedly furious with the findings over the alleged massive scam and ordered for Pinnick’s immediate prosecution.

He also charged the EFCC’s boss to further carry out a discreet investigation into financial remittances in the football house between 2017 and 2018.

Magu also informed Buhari about another petition dated April 24, 2016 captioned ‘Monumental stealing and financial crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation’, from James Peters of Amal Pepple Estate, Abuja.

“Investigation into this petition has so far established that the NFF has sponsorship deals with 21 corporate organisation. The investigation further revealed that between 2008 and 2018, 11 out of the 21 corporate organisations made sponsorship payment of N5,288,990,000 and $1,550,000 to NFF as against the amounted stated in the ministers’ letter under reference .

“One of the companies appointed as financial consultant to the NFF is owned by the 2nd Vice President of the NFF in person of Alhaji Shehu Dikko. The audit trail of the funds and its utilisation is currently ongoing with a view to prosecuting anyone found culpable of any offence,” Magu submitted.

Jose Mourinho is unlikely to be out of work for very long, after being sacked by Manchester United, with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, reportedly keen to bring him back to the Bernabeu.

Mourinho was fired at Old Trafford on Tuesday morning, after overseeing United’s worst start to a Premier League season in 28 years.

However, his stock remains high in Europe and according to Spanish newspaper, El Pais, he is already being lined up to lead a rebuild of Real Madrid.

It is claimed that he was infact offered a return this season twice.

Madrid have endured a difficult campaign themselves, with Julen Lopetegui replaced by Santiago Solari and they still sit fourth in the LaLiga table.

Perez does not see Solari as the long-term solution and wants Mourinho to oversee a complete overhaul of the squad.

He reached out to Mourinho’s camp twice in recent months, offering him £18m a year after tax, as well as promising him complete control over buying and selling players.

Manchester United have sacked Jose Mourinho as manager after two and a half years in charge, BBC Sport is reporting.

The Portuguese, 55, won the League Cup and the Europa League at Old Trafford.

But United are sixth in the Premier League, 19 points behind leaders Liverpool, who beat them 3-1 on Sunday.

“A caretaker-manager will be appointed until the end of the season while the club conducts a thorough recruitment process for a new, full-time manager,” United said in a statement.

“The club would like to thank Jose for his work during his time at Manchester United and to wish him success in the future.”

United’s haul of 26 points after their first 17 Premier League games, is their worst tally in the top flight at this stage since 1990-91.

They are 11 points off the top four and closer to the relegation zone than the top of the table.

Mourinho’s sacking comes after a fall-out with £89m record signing Paul Pogba, who was an unused substitute for the defeat at Anfield on Sunday.

And it continues his run of never completing four consecutive seasons in charge of a club.

Only once has he made it into a fourth campaign, but he left Chelsea on 17 December 2015 during his second spell at Stamford Bridge.

More to follow

Egypt and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has been voted BBC African Footballer of the Year for the second time in a row.

The 26-year-old beat Medhi Benatia, Kalidou Koulibaly, Sadio Mane and Thomas Partey to the prize.

The Premier League’s player of the year scored 44 goals in 52 games for Liverpool last season.

“It’s a great feeling to win again. I’m happy and I would like to win it also next year!” said Salah.

As well as inspiring his club to the Champions League final, Salah scored twice for Egypt at this year’s World Cup, having netted both goals in the match which took his country to the tournament for the first time since 1990.

“There have been many good moments in 2018,” he added. “The game against Roma at Anfield [Champions League semi-final first leg] was unbelievable. I’m scoring goals and helping the team to get the points to be top of the league. That’s always a great feeling.”

Salah said his aim for 2019 is “to win something with the club so everyone is excited”.

“I try to push myself every day to help the team win something,” he added.

The BBC received more than 650,000 votes this year – a record for the award.

Salah becomes the first player since Nigerian Jay-Jay Okocha to win in consecutive years.

The former Chelsea player signed for the Reds from Roma in the summer of 2017. He scored 15 goals and made 11 others for the Italian side in 2016-17 as they finished second in Serie A, their best league placing for seven years.

In a phenomenal start to his Liverpool career, Salah scored 19 goals in his first 24 appearances. He went on to beat the previous record of 31 goals in a 38-game Premier League season shared by Luis Suarez for the Reds in 2013-14, Cristiano Ronaldo for Manchester United in 2007-08 and Alan Shearer for Newcastle in 1995-96.

Mohamed Barakat (2005) and Mohamed Aboutrika (2008) are the other Egyptians to have won the award.

President Muhammadu Buhari and Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Saturday, congratulated the Super Eagles on their qualification for next year’s African Cup of Nations.

After the Super Eagles drew with the Bafana Bafana of South Africa  at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, Buhari in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said he joined millions of football-loving Nigerians in commending the team for their performance against a very formidable opponent which earned them qualification with the final match against Seychelles a mere formality.

Part of the statement read, “Having keenly followed the senior national football team’s progress in the qualifying stages, President Buhari is enthused by their confidence, sense of patriotism and professionalism, and commends these attributes to other Nigerians.

READ ALSO: UPDATED: Super Eagles draw South Africa to qualify for 2019 AFCON

“He equally commends the coaching crew, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Supporters Club, especially Nigerians residing in South Africa who turned out in great numbers to cheer the players, for a job well-done, and assures them of the unflinching support of the Federal Government going forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, Atiku shared his congratulatory message via his verified Twitter handle, @atiku.

He said, “Congratulations SuperEagles on qualifying for the 2019 AFCON. We will be here to cheer you to victory in the coming tournament.”

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, had said he will consider buying a football club other than London-based Arsenal if controlling shareholder Stan Kroenke refuses to sell.

Dangote has long said he wants to buy the Premier League team, of which he’s a fan, but only after he’s completed one of the world’s biggest oil refineries in Lagos.

“By the time we’ve finished, we’ll be a $30bn company in terms of revenue,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the New Economy Forum in Singapore. “We’ll have an excess amount of cash to start playing around with.”

Kroenke owns almost all of Arsenal after buying Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s 30 per cent stake in August in a deal that valued the club at about £1.8bn. It was funded with a £557m , two-year loan from Deutsche Bank AG. The 71-year-old American is worth $8bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and also controls the National Football League’s Los Angeles Rams.

I’m very attached to Arsenal but if he won’t sell, I might have to change,” said Dangote, 61 years old and worth $11.1bn. “I’m very much a fan of football. I have to have a club. I don’t have to own Arsenal.”

The refinery is scheduled to start producing fuel in early 2020, and Lagos-based Dangote Cement Plc will probably be listed in London around September next year, he told Bloomberg.

Cristiano Ronaldo has finally opened up on reason he decided to leave Spanish giant Real Madrid  FC for Italian clubside Juventus.

Ronaldo said he sensed that the Spanish club’s president, Florentino Perez, no longer saw him as being “indispensable”.

“I felt within the club, especially from the president, that I was no longer considered in the same way as I was at the beginning,” Ronaldo said in an interview with France Football magazine.

“For the first four or five years, I felt like Cristiano Ronaldo. Less so after.

“The president looked at me in a way that suggested I was no longer indispensable, if you know what I mean. That is what made me think about leaving.”

The 33-year-old Portuguese superstar joined Juventus in a 100 million-euro ($115 million) deal in July, ending a glorious nine-year association with Real.

His last act with the Spanish club was to participate in them winning the Champions League for a third consecutive season by beating Liverpool in the final in May.

But Zinedine Zidane departed as coach in the wake of that game, something which Ronaldo admits confirmed to him that it might be time to move on.

“My decision to leave was not based on him going. That said, it was one of the little details that confirmed to me what I had been thinking about the situation at the club,” Ronaldo said.

He added that he would “deserve” to win the Ballon d’Or this year, and in doing so would pass Lionel Messi by taking the award for a sixth time.

The winner of the prize, awarded by France Football, will be announced in early December.

Former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell will go on trial for money laundering in February, Spanish judicial sources revealed on Wednesday.

Rosell, his wife and four others are accused of “large-scale money laundering” of at least 19.9 million euros ($23 million) since 2006 relating to television rights and sponsorship in Brazil.

Prosecutors at the Madrid-based National Court have called for the ex Barca boss to be jailed for 11 years and fined 59 million euros.