by FSL News | 30 Jun, 2018 | African News
Algerian international Hillal Soudani has joined Nottingham Forest for an undisclosed fee from Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb.
The 30-year-old, who accounted for 86 goals in Croatia, has agreed on a three-year deal at the City Ground.
The exciting forward, who has also scored 21 goals for Algeria, joined Aitor Karanka’s side ahead of the new season.
He is the fourth overseas signing to join the club this summer following Portuguese trio Gil Bastiao Dias, Diogo Goncalves and Joao Carvalho.
Carvalho cost Forest a club-record fee of £13.2m when he joined from Benfica earlier this month.
Photo: Algeria’s Hilal Soudani (C) vies with Guinea’s Fode Camara (L) during the friendly football match Algeria versus Equatorial Guinea.
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by FSL News | 29 Jun, 2018 | African News
Senegal created a piece of unwanted history on Thursday, becoming the first team ever to be eliminated from the World Cup on the new fair play rule.
Russia 2018 is the first World Cup in which fair play has been active after it was introduced to all FIFA competitions after Brazil four years ago.
With their game against Colombia looking destined for a draw and Poland beating Japan, Senegal was set to qualify for the last 16 as Group H winners.
But Yerry Mina’s late goal gave the South Americans victory and left Senegal and Japan level on points, goal difference and head-to-head.
It meant that, as the full-time whistles blew in Samara and Volgograd, Senegal were eliminated due to having accumulated two more yellow cards than Japan.
Senegal had been the last remaining African side in the competition and the elimination of Aliou Cisse’s side means that there will be no team from the continent in the second round of a World Cup for the first time since 1982.
Group H was won by Colombia, whilst Japan progress despite losing 1-0 to bottom of the table Poland.
Post Match reactions from both coaches.
Senegal coach Aliou Cisse: “It’s the law of football. We didn’t qualify because we’ve earned more yellow cards, but I’m proud of my lads, they’ve worked hard for this tournament and I think we’ve showed we can have a bright future.
“The rules have been established by Fifa and we have to respect it, even though we would have liked to have been eliminated another way.
“I think the players knew all about it. I’m not going to ask my players to go on the pitch and try to avoid being issued yellow cards. Football is a contact game.”
Colombia coach Jose Pekerman: “There is no magic formula to football and one single answer to why one team beats another. I think we worked the set piece very well and that was not a coincidence as we have players who are excellent with their feet and with their head.
“But there were also some very worrying moments, especially in the first half, when Senegal played very well and it was tough for us to maintain our identity. We managed to defend successfully though, and they didn’t create many goal scoring opportunities.
“The match was tough because we couldn’t get the necessary control in central midfield to enable us to feed the right kind of balls to Radamel Falcao. This was a very even group and you see that with Senegal, who had a very good tournament, going home. There was a lot of tension in the air today and, in that regard, I think my team did very well.”
Budweiser Man of the Match
He showed up when it mattered and Yerry Mina was awarded the Man of the Match for his match-winning header that sent Colombia to the knockout stages. It was his second goal of the campaign and he became the third defender at Russia 2018 to score two goals after John Stones and Andreas Granqvist.
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by FSL News | 28 Jun, 2018 | Players Abroad News
Alhassan ‘Crespo’ Kamara, George Davies and Hassan Milla Sesay are all set for action in the Europa League first qualifying round between 12 & 19 July.
A total of 121 teams were involved in the two draws conducted on 20 June.
Kamara’s Swedish top-flight side BK Häcken are up against Latvian outfit Liepāja.
Awaiting the winner is last season’s sixth-best team in Germany RB Leipzig, who will be hosting the first of the second qualifying round on July 26 and the second leg slated for 2 August.
In this campaign, the Leone Stars striker has scored twice for Häcken in the Swedish Allsvenskan from eleven matches.
On the same day, 12 July, Milla Sesay’s Lathi host their first leg against Icelandic team FH Hafnarfjördur hoping for a decent result ahead of the return fixture.
The 30-year-old defender scored his first goal of the season to help his Veikkausliiga side come from behind to draw 1-1 away to TPS 1922 Friday, June 15.
This will be the third time the Left-back will be part of FC Lahti European adventure since joining on Jan 2014. The winner of this contest will face Israeli top side Hapoel Haifa in the competition next phase.
While Davies’ Latvian side FC Riga will be up against Bulgarian premier side CSKA Sofia in what is expected to be a cracker in the early stage of the competition.
Should Davies side progress they will face Austrian Bundesliga outfit Admira Wacker Mödling in the next round.
Meanwhile, a total of 17 teams automatically enter the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League group stage, with 31 to join them via the qualifying process.
The 2018/19 UEFA Europa League final will be staged at the Baku stadium in the Azerbaijani capital on Wednesday 29 May 2019.
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by FSL News | 27 Jun, 2018 | African News
Manager Héctor Raúl Cúper has parted company with Egypt after they were knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage.
The Argentine, who has been the Pharaoh’s boss since 2015 help Egypt to their first World Cup finals after 28 years, but was unable to go pass Group stage as they failed to pick up a point.
The North African nation was beaten by Uruguay, Russia and then Saudi Arabia.
Their build-up and tournament were dominated by a shoulder injury to Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.
Speaking after the Saudia Arabia loss, he said he would “see what will happen” ahead of a meeting with the EFA.
A statement said: “We held a meeting after returning from Russia and the entire board decided to say thank you to Cuper and his technical staff.
“We appreciate the work from the coach, from reaching the Africa Cup of Nations after three years of absence and taking Egypt to the World Cup after 28 years of absence.”
Former Valencia and Inter Milan boss Cuper was appointed in March 2015 and led Egypt to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017, where they lost to Cameroon.
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by FSL News | 26 Jun, 2018 | Players Abroad News
Sierra Leone-born Chelsea young defender, Trevoh Chalobah has signed for English Championship side Ipswich Town on loan.
The 18-year-old becomes the club’s first signing of the summer. Trevoh is the younger brother of Nathaniel Chalobah, who is now an England International.
Trevoh is still eligible to play for his country of birth Sierra Leone.
The Chelsea’s academy defender has represented England across the younger age groups and was part of the side which won the European Under-19 Championships in 2017.
“Very grateful for the opportunity to join @Official_ITFC on loan for the season. Excited to get started, to learn and to give everything I’ve got for the team and the fans #itfc,” the youngster on Twitter.
Ipswich boss Paul Hurst believes the youngster has something to prove at Portman Road. He said: “He’s very comfortable on the ball, and he’s a very good player.
“He’s at an age where people might question him as he’s a bit young. There will be demands put on him that he might not have encountered in the past but from speaking to him I know he’s hungry to succeed.
“I like players who maybe have a little bit of something to prove and in Trevor’s case, he’s got a lot to prove. There’s a lot of good publicity around him in terms of potential but he understands, and he wants to go out and deliver.”
Ipswich kicks off their Championship 2018/19 campaign at home to newly-promoted Blackburn on August 4.
Date of birth: 5 July 1999 – Place of birth: Freetown, Sierra Leone – Position: Defender
International levels played at England U19s, U17s, and U16s
Trophies won at Chelsea: UEFA Youth League 2015/16; FA Youth Cup 2015/16, 2016/17; U18 Premier League 2016/17
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by FSL News | 24 Jun, 2018 | Players Abroad News
Sierra Leone striker, Alhaji Kamara has been in a red-hot form in the Moldovan top-flight after his latest impressive goalscoring form with FC Sheriff.
The former IFK Norrköping attacker scored for the third game running in FC Sherriff’s 1-0 win over FC Zimbru Chişinău today Sunday, June 24.
Since joining the club in February, he has registered eight goals in all competitions in this campaign.
Today’s goal was his third in succession following his brace in the Moldovan Cup as Sherrif thrashed second-tier side FC Iskra-Stal 7-0 on Wednesday, four days after registering his first hat-trick for the club.
The League leaders are three points ahead of second place club FC Milsami Orhei after winning their last four matches securing 29 points from 12 matches.
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