19, June 2019
Drogba, Eto’o, Toure, Kanu named Total AFCON 2019 ambassadors 0
Seven African football legends, including Nigeria’s Nwankwo Kanu have been named by the Confederation of African Football(CAF) as ambassador for the 2019 Total Africa Cup of Nations, which begins this Friday in Egypt, ending 19 July.
The championship will kick off Friday with hosts Egypt taking on Zimbabwe in Group A. The match will be played at 21.00 Nigerian time.
The other ambassadors are Mahmoud El Khateeb of Egypt, Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba of Cote d’Ivoire, Rabah Madjer of Algeria, and El Hadji Diouf of Senegal.
On its redesigned website, CAF offers the profiles of its seven ambassadors:
Nwankwo Kanu
‘Papilo’ as he is fondly called featured six AFCON editions from 2000 to 2010. The highlight of his career was his coronation as CAF Player of the Year in 1996 and 1999.
Mahmoud El Khateeb
Ranked among the best African players of all time, El Khateeb was the first Egyptian to win African Player of the Year in 1983. “Bibo” as he is fondly called among Egyptian supporters won the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt at home in 1986.
Samuel Eto’o
Eto’o is widely regarded as the greatest players of all time in the history of African. A four-time CAF Player of the Year (2003,2004,2005 & 2010), he also won the Africa Cup of Nations with Cameroon in 2000 and 2002.
Yaya Toure
The Ivorian enforcer ranks amongst the best in his native, Africa and rest of the world. Toure was crowned CAF Player of the Year for an unprecedented four times in a row (2011, 2012, 2013 &2014), and ultimately guiding Cote d’Ivoire to the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015.
Didier Drogba
Two-time CAF Player of the Year – 2006 & 2009, Drogba ranks amongst the foremost forwards of his generation. Besides successes at club level, he appeared in five AFCONS (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 & 2013) reaching the final in 2006 and 2012.
Rabeh Madjer
Madjer was part of the squad that won Algeria’s AFCON title, 1990 on home soil. He is revered by all and is famous for his stint with Portuguese side Porto. He also won the Ballon d’or Africain in 1987.
El Hadji Diouf
He remains the only Senegalese to have been crowned CAF Player of the Year, decorated in 2001 and 2002. Diouf was a key member of the Teranga Lions golden generation that made headlines across the world in the early 2000’s.
Source: Pmnewsnigeria
19, June 2019
Women’s Football World Cup: Estelle Johnson brings US experience to Cameroon 0
Born in Cameroon, raised in Colorado, forged in the North American women’s league, Estelle Johnson adds reassuring defensive experience as the Indomitable Lionesses as they try to grab their last World Cup chance against New Zealand on Thursday.
Johnson smiles all the time, happy to be playing in her first World Cup at the age of 30 for her country of birth.
“I’m a happy person, I just enjoy football and I enjoy everything that goes along with it,” she told AFP. “But I think I’m extra happy because it’s a great competition.”
Even though Cameroon have lost their first two games in Group E, Johnson says her first World Cup has “been even better that I could have imagined.”
A victory over New Zealand in Montpellier would give Cameroon three points and could be enough to earn a place in the last 16 as one of the four best third-place teams.
Johnson was born in Maroua, Cameroon, in 1988. Her American father was a crop scientist.
At seven she moved to Fort Collins in Colorado. She tried “all type of different sports, basketball, volleyball. I’ve played baseball as well with a team full of boys, only girl on the team!”
“But soccer has always been the sport for me.”
She has played for three US clubs, but was aware that she could appear on the international stage with Cameroon.
“I’ve always thought about it, but once I saw them playing in 2015, I think that’s what really made me want to join the team and I’ve been trying to get on the team for a little while now.”
Her dream was held up by red tape.
“I wanted to play in the African Cup a couples of years back, but nothing really was happening,” she said.
Once Alain Djeumfa took over as coach in January he moved to have her application approved.
“When the second coach Alain took over everything started working,” she said.
VERY MOTIVATED
Djeumfa said he wanted Johnson on his team.
“She is a girl of unparallelled maturity in the game, she is really experienced, has an excellent reading of situations, she anticipates a lot and has a very good footwork,” he said. “She was very motivated. Now she is in Cameroon and we are very proud of her.”
She had a week in Cameroon in May to meet her teammates “and eat African food,” said Djeumfa. “She laughs, and eats all the food!”
In a bilingual, French and English-speaking country, the US star, who plays for New Jersey’s Sky Blue in the National Women’s Soccer League, quickly adapted on the field as well.
“On the pitch, I try to communicate in French,” she said, laughing as she repeated the terms. “‘Droite’, ‘dans ton dos’, stuff like that, it’s not good French but get the message across.”
She’s even trying to adapt to the fact that in most of the world outside the United States the sport is not called ‘soccer’.
“Sometimes I say ‘football’ talking with my Cameroonian teammates.”
Johnson now has six international caps. The last two came in the 1-0 loss to Canada and a 3-1 defeat by the Dutch.
“We’ve played really good matches so far, but sometimes football doesn’t go the way that it’s supposed to go. Against Canada we could have come away with a point,” she said.
Even victory against the Kiwis might not be enough, depending on results in other groups.
“Some things need to happen in our favour, but we just need to make sure we win on Thursday and make sure we do everything possible and get to the next round,” she said.
“We all believe we can do it, we’ve no doubt in our mind we are going to put on a good performance.”
Source: Supersports