Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon has heaped praise on Jeremie Frimpong as the young Dutchman nears a move that will net Celtic a significant sell-on fee. The Bayer Leverkusen wingback is wanted by a number of top teams with a fee of upwards of £40m mentioned.

As reported by Glasgow World, Lennon revealed the process behind signing Frimpong as well as his initial impression of the talented youngster.

“He was brilliant for me. I saw him playing for Man City’s Under-21s at Lennoxtown and I really liked the look of him.

“It was great to see him in the flesh and it’s so much better than looking at Y Scout and watching videos. He came in and he just blew us all away with his pace and his quality – and his enthusiasm. He’s got a very infectious personality. He’s a lovely boy but he could be quite naughty at times too.

“He took the plunge to go to Germany and he has excelled and I’m really proud of him. He’s deceptive. He’s small but he’s so powerful, good on the ball and quite different from a lot of fullbacks out there. I follow his career and I hope he gets the move that he wants now.

“It will mean more money for Celtic – and that’s the model: find a young player who can enhance the team and then sell him on for a profit.

“We got a bit lucky with him and got him for about £300,000 because he was a wee bit under the radar but it worked out very well for Celtic.

“We had a few of these with Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama and Virgil van Dyk and I always follow guys like that – but not just the Celtic lads, Hibs boys too like John McGinn and Ryan Porteous who have obviously gone on to do very well.”

Frimpong joined Leverkusen in January 2021 after an impressive spell with Celtic; albeit, he was only there for 18 months.

The move has paid dividends for both Celtic and the player as he has been able to push on after struggling to see a path under Neil Lennon in the 2020/21 season. Now, he is attracting interest with powerful running down the right hand side. Clearly Frimpong is attracting interest having played in a more advanced role, playing him as an out-and-out winger as opposed to a full-back.

Celtic, who paid £350,000 for the players services from Manchester City, received an offer they couldn’t refuse for Frimpong and it was off to the Bundesliga and Bayer Leverkusen for Jeremie for a fee on £13m. Even with a sell on clause due to City, Celtic will likely net a tidy sum on Frimpong’s next move.

[caughtoffside]

U.S. soccer veteran Megan Rapinoe raised the ire of retired tennis great Martina Navratilova when she said this week she would "absolutely" support a trans woman playing on the American squad.

The inclusion of transgender athletes in women's events is one of the most contentious and divisive issues in sport with World Athletics and World Aquatics among global federations that have tightened their rules in recent months.

The Women's World Cup which kicks off July 20 in Australia and New Zealand will feature some of the fiercest advocates for LGBT rights and visibility, but FIFA are reviewing their trans eligibility policies, a move announced a year ago after swimming passed their new tighter rules.

"We as a country are trying to legislate away people's full humanity," Rapinoe told Time. "It's particularly frustrating when women's sports is weaponised. Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women's sports?"

Navratilova, a trailblazer for gay rights, tweeted a one-word response: "Yikes . . ."

Rapinoe and partner, retired WNBA star Sue Bird, were among the 40 professional athletes to sign a letter to U.S. lawmakers in April, opposing a federal bill that stipulates Title IX compliance requires banning transgender athletes from playing women and girl's sport. Title IX is a 1970s civil rights law which bars discrimination based on sex.

Critics of transgender inclusion in women's sport say going through male puberty imbues athletes with a huge physical advantage that transition does not mitigate.

The U.S. women's team, including Rapinoe, famously lost 5-2 to an under-15 FC Dallas boys team in an informal training match in 2017.

There is no timeline for FIFA's updated guidelines as officials, like those in swimming and athletics did, try to balance the desire for inclusion with safety and fairness.

"Certainly the pendulum is swinging back in a negative way. There's little doubt of that," Joanna Harper, a Canadian-born transgender woman and author, told Reuters.

"In terms of FIFA, I'm reasonably optimistic that FIFA will continue likely to be inclusive, although I don't know that for certain.

"I'm not necessarily optimistic about various more regional or national football organizations. In much of the world, trans people are just lucky to stay alive. So those countries will not be having trans football players."

"CORRECT GENDER"

FIFA's rules, first published in 2011, state that only men are eligible to play in men's competitions, and the same for women.

Each participating member association must, "prior to the nomination to the national team, ensure the correct gender of all the players to be considered ... by actively investigating any perceived deviation in secondary sex characteristics."

Swedish defender Nilla Fischer revealed in her recent book that she and her team mates had to "show their genitalia for the doctor" at the 2011 World Cup, after allegations that the Equatorial Guinea squad had male players.

A cloud of uncertainty hung over Zambia captain Barbra Banda after she was ruled ineligible for last year's Africa Cup of Nations amid speculation of high testosterone levels.

The 23-year-old, who twice netted hat tricks at the 2020 Olympics, will captain Zambia at the World Cup in Australia, but she has been the target of unforgiving scrutiny.

LGBT advocates say the debate over transgender inclusion in women's sport has also made for an increasingly hostile environment for gender diverse people in North America.

Quinn - who goes by one name - became the first openly non-binary trans athlete to win an Olympic medal when Canada captured women's soccer gold in Tokyo.

The 27-year-old, who will make their second World Cup appearance in Australia, told the Toronto Star they have witnessed growing negativity towards gender diverse people.

"I think it is a scary time, for me," Quinn said. "I think I do have a lot of points of privilege when entering this conversation, so I have to be mindful of that. But I think the reality is, it's scary."

According to LGBT website Outsports, a record of at least 87 out players will compete at the World Cup, more than double the 38 who played in the 2019 version.

Several teams including England had hoped to wear a "One Love" armband at the World Cup, but FIFA instead designed eight armbands with different "Unite" messages that teams can support. The "Unite for Inclusion" most resembles the "One Love" band.

Sarah Gregorius, of players union FIFPRO, said she thought it was a sensible solution given the geographic breadth of the teams at the tournament.

"You've got players who might feel something individually, but know because of their cultural context that that's going to be a particularly dangerous stance to take, so it's difficult to say 'This is the position on behalf of all 32 captains of all 32 national teams'," she told Reuters.

[Reuters]

Lionel Messi has finalised his deal to join Major League Soccer, and after years of planning and pursuing, Inter Miami has landed a global icon.

Messi’s contract became official Saturday, a little more than five weeks after he declared that he would be coming to Inter Miami. The team will introduce him Sunday night at its stadium in Fort Lauderdale, and the first home match of the Messi era could be as early as Friday in a Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul.

A formal news conference is scheduled for Monday, and his first training session with his new club is expected on Tuesday. The club previously announced that Messi’s deal will be for 2 1/2 seasons and will pay him between $50 million and $60 million annually — putting the total contract value between $125 million and $150 million in cash alone.

“BIENVENIDO 10,” the team posted Saturday on Twitter.

Welcome, Messi, indeed.

“We are overjoyed that the greatest player in the world chose Inter Miami CF and Major League Soccer, and his decision is a testament to the momentum and energy behind our League and our sport in North America,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement. “We have no doubt that Lionel will show the world that MLS can be a League of Choice for the best players in the game.”

It is, in many ways, an unusual marriage. Messi — still perhaps the biggest star in the game — is signing with a team that entered Saturday in last place in the MLS’s Eastern Conference standings. It’s a club in just its fourth season that plays in a temporary home that will seat only about 22,000 people when some rushed renovations like adding extra bleacher seats get completed.

Doesn’t matter. Soccer royalty now plays for Inter Miami.

Messi arrived in South Florida on Tuesday following vacation, then started the process of physicals and paperwork on Wednesday and the deal got finalized Saturday afternoon. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner — the trophy given annually to the world’s best player — is making his Miami move after two years with Paris Saint-Germain.

“I’m very excited to start this next step in my career with Inter Miami and in the United States,” Messi said in a statement. “This is a fantastic opportunity and together we will continue to build this beautiful project. The idea is to work together to achieve the objectives we set, and I’m very eager to start helping here in my new home.”

It was widely known that Messi would be leaving PSG. The mystery was where he was going. Some thought Messi eventually would choose to play for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, following longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo to a kingdom where some clubs now are funded by its sovereign wealth fund. Going back to Barcelona, a storied franchise where he spent most of his career, was another possibility.

In the end, Miami won. An idea that co-owner David Beckham began floating publicly in 2021 — two years before, evidently, the team actually started thinking about how to pull this off — has now become reality.

“After winning the World Cup and not being able to return to Barcelona, it was my turn to go to the league of the United States to live football in another way,” Messi said in June when announcing his decision.

He led Argentina to the World Cup title last December. Messi has more than 800 goals in his career for club and country, making him one of the greatest scorers in the sport’s history. He scored twice in last year’s World Cup final against France, a match that ended 3-3 with Argentina prevailing 4-2 on penalty kicks.

He is a four-time Champions League winner and his 129 goals in the top club competition are second to Ronaldo’s 140. Messi has won 10 La Liga titles and two Ligue 1 championships, seven Copa del Reys and three Club World Cups plus a Copa América and Olympic gold medal for Argentina.

“Ten years ago, when I started my journey to build a new team in Miami, I said that I dreamt of bringing the greatest players in the world to this amazing city,” Beckham said. “Players who shared the ambition I had when I joined LA Galaxy to help grow football in the USA and to build a legacy for the next generation in this sport that we love so much.

“Today that dream came true.”

The club had a road match Saturday at St. Louis, yet when word got out that Messi may have been at the team’s facility that morning a couple hundred fans showed up just hoping for a glimpse, not even deterred by a late-morning thunderstorm. Many wore Messi jerseys — some the light blue of Argentina, some the pink-and-black of Inter Miami. Some carried flags; one carried a sign mostly in Spanish, but the words “Messi” and “GOAT” made the messaging clear.

It’s just part of a welcome party that is only getting started.

Messi was seen at a Publix supermarket near Fort Lauderdale — the grocery chain is an Inter Miami sponsor — with his family earlier in the week, and the cart had a few items picked out by the kids: Froot Loops, Cap’n Crunch, Lucky Charms. The scene went viral by the time he hit the checkout lane.

A serial goal scorer is evidently a cereal fan as well.

And now, it’s time for the soccer to start. Inter Miami plans to introduce Messi on Sunday night, at an event the club is calling “The Unveil.” Shakira is rumored to be attending, and tickets are long gone for the show that has been anticipated for weeks.

Hopes for the franchise are now officially sky-high. Inter Miami has never contended for a title; Messi could change everything in a hurry for a team that has won only 34% of its matches in MLS play.

“Lionel Messi is an incomparable talent,” Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson said. “What he brings on and off the field will elevate everyone around him and we’re excited to have him at Inter Miami.”

[firstpost]

It happened on Thursday night at the Yar Adua Conference centre, Abuja.

Some of the most outstanding athletes in Nigeria’s Olympic sports in the past six decades (therefore all Olympians), assembled for a special bi-annual re-union organised to remind their government and prick the conscience of Nigerians about the pledge embedded permanently in eternal words within their national anthem, words passionately sung by the athletes when going into ‘battle’ in their sports: “the Labour of our heroes past, shall never be in vain”.

It was a very emotional night for me because I was given the privileged role of delivering the dinner-talk.

Unfortunately, that meant waiting till the tail end of the event, when all the awards would have been given, tributes paid ànd the lavish citation of awardees read and dinner served.

Emmanuel Babayaro, the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Olympians Association, called me after the event and lamented that it was a poor idea to have put my speech after dinner, because soon after, the big hall emptied of the invited guests.

My dinner-talk ended up as a sermon to the Olympians. It was meant to take the audience into the world of Olympic athletes, to be presented from my personal first-hand experience of the Olympics since 1968 to date. It was to serve also as a reminder of what it takes and what it means to be an Olympian.

Before going into how that turned out, permit me to tell you about the award and awardees.

The hall was packed with awardees and their ‘supporters’. The most notable recipients included the Deputy-Governor of Edo State, the wife of the immediate past Governor of Benue State, the immediate past Minister of Sport, the President of the Nigerian Olympic Committee, and several other outstanding athletes from past Olympic games.

All of that went well.
Then, my sermon.

My earliest impression about the Olympics, derived from Greek mythology, is that the the sports events at the Games were the pastime of gods on Mount Olympus. The gods would run, jump and fight to the cheers of the large population of angels. Humans were not in the picture.

The news from Mexico that hit the airwaves with a bang in Nigeria was that the Green Eagles, the national team of Nigeria, that quietly went to football’s first Olympic Games, had held ‘giant’ Brazil to an unbelievable 3-3 draw! That attracted every Nigerian’s attention.

It was the first realisation that humans took part in the Olympics. Our footballers were human. We were familiar with them. They were flesh and blood. The Olympic ‘gods’ were actually human: Peter Fregene, Inua Lawal Rigogo, Samuel Garba, Peter Anieke, and so on. It shattered a myth.

Last Thursday night, for the first time since that team returned to Nigeria in the summer of 1968, the Nigerian Olympians Association, invited three surviving members of that historic team to Abuja to honour them.

They were celebrated and given special awards. The gladiators were Durojaiye Adigun, Ganiyu Salami and Kenneth Olayombo. Kenneth actually scored two goals in that memorable match.

Four years later in 1972, now freed from the psychological prison that Olympians were not human, a Nigerian boxer went to the Munich Games and fought his way to Nigeria’s first medal, a Bronze. Last Thursday night, Isaac Ikhuoria was present to receive his well deserved award.

Since Ikhuoria, boxing has become a good source of medals for Nigeria at the Games.

In 1976, Nigeria, now fully prepared for an onslaught on the Theatre of dreams, took probably the most powerful squad in the country’s history to the Montreal Olympics. The team was pulled out of the Games at the last minute to ‘fight’ a global political cause, and the athletes, therefore, missed out on fulfilling their greatest dreams.

Moscow 1980 was a most uneventful Olympics. It was marred by the politics of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR over Afghanistan. Taking a page from the book of the consequence of the 1976 boycott, led by Nigeria and Tanzania, the USA led their own boycott of the Mosçow games by Western countries.

The power of sport was now evident, a tool that can be deployed to serve various purposes even outside of sport.

FoU Nigeria, Moscow was barren.

1984, Los Angeles Games. The USSR avenged the treatment by the USA in 1980. They marred the Games with their own boycott, along with their allies.

But Nigerians seized the opportunity to make their mark. Led by Innocent Egbunike, Henry Amike, and a superb 4 x 400m relay quartet, they resumed their Olympic hunt for medals with the country’s first Silver medal in Track and Field.

In 1988, in Seoule, South Korea, Nigeria had a large squad that included football again and tennis for the first time.

For some reason, it was more memorable for its lack of medals.

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, it was both historical and memorable for right and wrong reasons. On the eve of the Games, one of the fastest girls in the world was a Nigerian. Along with a few others, she was charged and suspended for drugs usage.

FoU Nigeria, it was a shattering development, particularly for àthletes that had spent 4 previous years, come rain, come shine, pounding the tracks and the fields in search of a few seconds, minutes or even milimetres that could change their lives forever.

Meanwhile, some other athletes wrote their names in the history books at Barcelona ’92. Mary Onyali led a quartet relay team that also included Christy Okpara-Thompson to run a race that defined the true essence of ‘winning’ at the Olympics. Thè quartet came third but were celebrated more than the teams that came first and second because of the manner they celebrated third place. Mary and Christy were in Abuja last Thursday and were both celebrated.

The 1996 Atlanta Games came and became the best Olympics for Nigeria, ever.

For Chioma Ajunwa, it marked a vindication. From the depths of hell four years before, she emerged, rose and became the brightest star in the constellation with a performance and a result of a life time. Her Gold medal remains Nigeria’s only individual Gold medal to date.

Her victory opened the flood gates to more victories: a second Gold Medal in Football; Silver medals and Bronze medals in other events.

At this point, Nigerian athletes had joined the club of gods and goddesses of the Olympics.

From Atlanta Nigeria finally launched into the spirit of the Olympics as proper and equal contenders.

From Sydney 2000 and thereafter, a new generation of gods and goddesses was born and bred. Some of them were remembered and received awards last Thursday night.

It was indeed, a great night of bright Stars.

Through the generations of these gods and goddesses, I had been a LIVE witness.

I am thinking.

Why would I, an ordinary football player, without any imprint on the Olympics landscape, be the one to tell the story of Olympians?

I think my purpose for being an Olympian is to be a part of it in order to document them, experience what it takes to be an Olympian and to regularly remind the athletes that it is the hardest status to achieve in sports. That it is a long, lonely, expensive, hard, and challenging journey, strewn all the way with the requirements of self-sacrifice, hard work, highest level of discipline, single-mindedness, supreme patience, pain, failures, injuries and disappointments.

Yet, at the end, all of these come down to a few seconds, or minutes, of competing and hoping to win against the very best opponents in the world.

It is no mean feat and should not be treated with levity, laxity, or, worst of all, taken for granted. It is hard! If others do not, Olympians must constantly remind themselves and each other of their hard-earned successes and sacrifices in sport.

They must always remind themselves never to forget what Nelson Mandela said about the power of sport to change the world. His life was influenced greatly by the boycott of 1976 when Nigerian athletes led other African patriots to make the ultimate sacrifice to boycott the Games and support his cause and that of his people in South Africa.

That sacrifice was party responsible for the end of Apartheid in South Africa, Mandela’s release from jail, his ascension as the first Black President of a new South Africa, and granting the hosting rights of the first FIFA World Cup to be held in Africa to South Africa.

That ‘power’ of sport is still available and must be deployed creatively by Nigeriàn Olympians to change their lives, impact their country and make the world a better place.

They can do those things if only they always remember that, indeed, they are gods and goddesses!