El Clasico, Eternal Rivalry at the Heart of Global Soccer!

Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two most successful clubs sides in Spanish soccer clash tonight in the 265^th edition of El Clasico, arguably the world’s fiercest football rivalry and all eyes will be on Estadio Camp Nou never disappoints in entertainment and controversy. 

The two giants come into the match on the back of two contrasting forms! 

Real Madrid sit atop the table, six point ahead of their Catalan rivals win tonight for Zinedine Zidane’s side will open a nine-point gap, a nightmare to Barcelona fans in the race for the season’s La Liga title.

Los Blancos, as Real Madrid is popularly called, are un-defeated in the 32 matches since April and recently welcomed their most important yet under-rated defensive midfielder Venancio Casimiro aka Casemiro, back from injury. 

The other notable absentees are talismanic winger, Gareth Bale and German midfield machine, Toni Kroos.

The Bale-Benzema-Christiano (BBC)-attack will not test itself against a usually suspect Barcelona defence, because of Bale’s injury and Karim Benzema’s on and off appearances so far. 

Bale’s absence which deprives Madrid of a devastating physical and counter-attack play, the presence of the little magician who is never short of moments of brilliance to decide great matches and the pressure that Barcelona must react after successive and disappointing draws in the last two La Liga matches, is enough fire to drive the feared tik-taka juggernaut to destroy their inform rivals!

Andreas Iniesta, Barcelona captain and one of the planet’s most brilliant midfielders is back from injury, and his presence at the centre is set to test Madrid’s midfield which is without its cog, Kroos. 

It’s not only an El Clasico on the field but also on the touchline. Barcelona’s Luis Enrique scored five goals while Zidane hit three during their playing stints at two of Spain’s most prestigious sides.

It promises awe-inspiring moments and scenes of madness too! 

Perhaps the most enduring yet infamous memory is back in 2002, Portuguese legend, Luis Figo on his return to the Camp Nou, police had to escort him on his corner-kick duties as missiles poured from Barcelona’s home crowd that never hid its rage after Figo traded the Blaugrana for Los Blancos! 

A pig’s head was hurled too at the midfield gem, considered a traitor by Catalonians.

Granted it remains the most controversial transfer in world history, not on the financial bit but the betrayal of loyalty in the eyes of the fans.

In 2005, Ronaldinho, at the peak of his powers drew a standing ovation from a packed Santiago Bernabeu with a virtuoso performance capped by two goals, as Barcelona won 3-0!

Two years later, Messi used the stage to announce his arrival on arrival, becoming the first player in years to hit a hat-trick in a 3-all draw. 

The un-disputed masterclass however came in November 2010, when a Pep Guardiola Barcelona destroyed Real Madrid 5-0, inflicting an eternal wound in a team led by one of the world’s best tacticians, Jose Mourinho!

Away from the usual Christiano-Messi rivalry, and expected sparks from Neymar, Luis Suarez, Benzema and Sergio Ramos there are several men who, in the eyes of soccer pundits, will undoubtedly define tonight’s match.

Real Madrid’s ever-green rampaging left-back Marcelo, who packs a deadly offensive threat, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Barcelona’s goalkeeper who has redefined the man between the sticks with his masterly build-up with his feet, Luka Modric and Iniesta, two great midfielders on the opposite sides, will be key in tonight’s duel!

Kekana’s Breath-Taking Screamer for FIFA Puskas Goal of the Year!

Hlomplo Kekana, Bafana Bafana and Mamelodi Sundowns influential defensive midfielder is in line this year’s FIFA Puskas Goal of the Year Award. 

Kekana’s scorcher from inside his own half during a 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifier in Yaoundé in March, this year may bring the prestigious award to African soil.

He disposed Tony Tchani on the right wing inside his own half in the 50^th minute, and struck a screamer past Ndy Assembe who was off his line in the Indomitable Lions goal. 

Others nominated for the prize is Neymar’s volley against Villarreal in a Spanish La Liga match last season, Lionel Messi’s sublime free-kick against Argentina in this year’s Copa Centenario against the United States and Atletico  Madrid midfielder, Saul Niguez’s solo effort against Bayern Munich in this season’s UEFA Champions League group match. 

Other midfield greats to have scored from their own half are Spanish legend and Bayern Munich anchorman, Xabi Alonso and English great, David Beckham.

The Sundowns skipper is the third South African to be nominated for the prestigious award.

In 2009, former national team and Sundowns striker, Katlego Mphela’s 30-yard scorcher against Spain at the Confederations Cup was nominated but got a paltry 2.59 percent votes as Real Madrid talisman and Portugal captain, Christiano Ronaldo ran away with the prize.

The following year, Kaizer Chiefs’ fleet-footed attacking midfielder, Siphiwe Tshabala’s screamer against Mexico at the opening match of the 2010 World Cup, was nominated. Turkey’s Hamit Altintop won the award, for his 18-yard pile-driver in a European Championship qualifier against Kazakhstan on September 3^rd, 2010.

Other past winners of the award are Brazil’s Neymar (2011), James Rodriguez of Colombia (2014), Zlatan Ibrahimović of Sweden (2013) and Wendel Lira of Brazil (2015).

The award, named after Hungarian great and captain, Ferenc Puskas was inaugurated in 2009, to honor the goal judged to be the most beautiful in a year.

The winner of the award, which is determined by public vote will be announced on January 9, next year during FIFA’s Player of the Year gala in Zurich, Switzerland.

Voting will be done in two rounds, with the first open from November 21^st to December 2^nd, this year after which the list will be whittled down to three.

The final round will close on January 9^th, next year.

Kekana’s nomination comes barely a month after he led Sundowns to lifting the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League title, for the first time in its history, beating Egyptian giants, on a 3-1 aggregate win.

Brazilian Soccer Thrown into Grief

Chapecoense Football Club of Brazil is mourning the death of its players after a LaMia Airline Flight 2933, carrying its 22-man team delegation Bolivia crashed in a mountainous region near Medelin, Colombia on Monday night, killing 76 of 81 passengers on-board. 

The top-division club was due to face Atletico Nacional of Bolivia in the final of the Copa Sudamericana on Wednesday in the first leg of a two-legged final.

Heavy rain and low visibility hampered rescue efforts by the Colombian Air Force, causing the operation to be delayed into the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests travelling with our delegation,” the club wrote on its Facebook page. 

Chapecoense players, who were not on the ill-fated flight, were visibly shattered in their dressing room.

The three survivors are Alan Ruschel, Marcos Danilo and Jackson Follmann, according to reports by Colombian authorities in the rescue operations.

Nivaldo, a former Brazilian national team goalkeeper who did not travel with the team, told UOL Esporte, a Brazilian media organization that a phone call from one of his friends who called to ask if he was on the flight, revealed the shattering news.

Nivaldo said that he tried calling his teammates who were on the plane but the calls went un-answered.

“Thank God Alan is in the hospital, stable. We are praying for all of those who were not yet rescued and offer our support to all their relatives. This is a complicated, difficult situation.  Only God himself can give us strength. Thank you God,” Amanda Ruschel, wife to Alan wrote on Instagram. 

The club, founded in the city of Chapeco in 1973 had taken Brazilian football by storm since 2009 when it rose from Serie D to the elite Serie A in 2014, before going on to historically qualify for this year’s final of the Copa Sudamericana, America’s equivalent of UEFA Europa League.

World football governing body, FIFA led the global community in condoling with the Brazilian club.

“At this difficult time, our thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends,” Giovanni Infantino, FIFA president tweeted.

South American football governing body, CONMEBOL has suspended all football matches in the continent following the crash.

Atletico Nacional, in a rare show of sportsmanship has requested CONMEBOL to award the Copa Sudamericana title to their bereaved Brazilian opponents in honor of the team’s members who died.

Austerity the Magufuli-Style!

President John Magufuli, known for his tough stand against corruption and wastage of public funds since he came to power in October, last year took another bold move last week when his wife, Mama Janeth got admitted at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

This is the latest lesson on austerity and servant leadership that is frowned upon by our presidents and politicians who never trust the very systems they are mandated to ensure are serving the hoi-polloi.

The public hospital where Tanzania’s most powerful lady got admitted, serves about 1,000 patients daily. A week after Magufuli’s election, he sacked the hospital’s acting managing director after due to the facility’s poor conditions.

Magufuli’s latest act caused a stir on social media as pictures of his visit to check on his wife went viral, in a continent where governments care little about public hospitals because top officials and their families seek private treatment locally or in Europe, Asia and America.

Kenyans, Zambians, Malawians, Nigerians, Zimbabweans know this too well! Their former or current presidents have taken the expensive rides outside Africa seeking treatment, all on the public purse.

African leaders have the dubious distinction of wasting public funds, to reward their families, cronies are political die-hards, all looted from the tax-payer!

From seeking treatment abroad, to upgrading their private homes using the public purse, leadership in Africa is not close to serving its true cause, since greats like Nelson Mandela, Samora Machel, Kwame Nkrumah exited the stage.

In East Africa’s smallest economy, Magufuli is leading by example and making a joke of the leadership norms that most of Africa is accustomed to.

Arguably Tanzania’s best president on his current track record so far, Magufuli is fast redefining the institution of presidency.

Following his ascension to power, Magufuli banned all foreign trips by his government officials, and ordered them to visit their countryside for the harsh truths on the plight of Tanzanians.

In neighboring Kenya, the devolved governments have turned into a shame as colossal amounts of money have been lost by county government officials in foreign trips for bench-marking.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto also faced criticism for their numerous trips abroad.

Down in South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, President Jacob Zuma, who is facing numerous graft cases and a political battle to redeem his image, used $23 million to upgrade his private home in Nkandla.

The Treasury ordered him to pay about $500,000 of the money, in a nation where the economy is struggling, at the back of a high unemployment rate and a struggling national currency.

Zimbabwe is one of the continent’s crippling economies, with an unprecedented rate of unemployment and a sky-high inflation rate, yet its octogenarian leader, Robert Mugabe spent $1.1 million on his 92^nd birthday.

The nation is facing a dire food crisis, with about half a million people, nearly a half of the rural population in need of food aid in the coming months due to failed rains.

In Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the longest-serving despot in Africa has turned the nation into a family enterprise, since he came into power in 1979.

The above incidents paint the grim picture of how African presidents abuse power as the rest of population continually sink lower by the day in economic struggles.

It is the most powerful seat the world over and used as an opportunity to improve the socioeconomic and political lives of the masses, but in Africa, it serves to impoverish the millions as an ‘anointed’ few lead lavish lives.

In a continent of few morally-befitting examples, Magufuli is re-writing the script and offers an opportunity to the continent’s next crop of leaders to learn from and make Africa realize its true potential hidden beneath in vast mineral and natural resources.

As African presidents, their families and cronies waste public funds on personal luxuries, about 250 million people go to bed hungry while more than 50 percent of our children below five years die of malnutrition each year!

Austerity can provide funds to deal with the African shame of poverty, and Magufuli is leading the fight!

Gebrselassie To The Rescue

Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopia’s long-distance and marathon running legend is the head of the nation’ s athletics federation, a move that Africa’s former sports persons should emulate to save sports from the ill-management that describes sports federations in most African countries.

Gebrselassie will serve four years at the helm of Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) following his election on Sunday, with an overwhelming nine out of 15 votes, The National reported.

Prior to the Olympics Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August, the track legend criticized EAF’ s handling of the selection criteria of the team to the games, urging them to resign in the face of doping allegations that hit about five athletes.

In neighboring Kenya, another middle and long distance running giant, despite its Rio exploits, the athletes attended trials in a venue against their wish, some had their Nike kits missing and had to put up with poor accommodation in the course of the games, Daily Nation reported.

The sport is also reeling from a doping crisis that is threatening the hard-earned reputation Kenyan athletes have gained over the years.

In Nigeria, the national Under-23 football team landed in Brazil hours before its opening match against Japan after haphazard travel arrangements saw the team stranded in the US.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) ordered athletes to make travel arrangements to the games, claiming it did not have funds to arrange for their travel, Newsweek reported.

The competition kit for the Nigeria team also arrived barely days to the end of the games in Rio. 

Most of them used kits from past competitions while the football team had its own-sponsored kit.

The above incidents are the norm in most of the sports federations across the continent, where all manner of ills have been disguised as leadership.

Most of the leaders, who have been at the helm for years did not represent their nations in continental or global competitions. They never experienced the pains that face African sports persons face whenever they fly their nations’ flags high.

The federations serve personal and parochial interests at the behest of a few, forgetting the millions of sports talents who never realize their potential due to mismanagement.

Retired athletes like Gebrselassie, Geremi Njitap in Cameroon and Kalusha Bwalya in Zambia have taken up the leadership mantle.

They have been through the African pain in sports and are the realistic chance through which most of the sports federations across the continent will breathe fresh air!

The malaise with the athletics federation in Nigeria and Football Kenya Federation (FKF), largely blamed on officials seeking parochial self-interests at the expense of sporting talent, is a reflection of a disease running deep in several federations across the continent.

It must come to an end and the bold steps by Gebrselassie and Bwalya are in the right direction. 

Retired sportsmen and women in other African countries should embrace the challenge and help current generations avoid the hell they went through in their careers!

Corruption; the Jubilee Legacy!

The nation is yet again licking the pains of corruption after individuals swindled the state of Sh 5 billion, just days after President Uhuru Kenyatta publicly admitted that his government is losing the war on corruption.

People entrusted with providing medical services to the people chose to manipulate the Integrated Financial Management Systems (IFMIS), divert funds and make double payments of goods to enrich themselves on the blood of dying Kenyans and cancer patients who die in their thousands due to lack of cancer treatment every year. 

“As president, if there is one issue that has frustrated, it is this issue (of corruption). And I will say why. Because the pressure is on me,” Nairobi News quoted Kenyatta.

It is a tale of contrasts at the helm of the nation’s leadership. First lady, Margret Kenyatta is leading the noble ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’ that aims to provide mobile clinics to all 47 counties.

At the ministry of Health, those responsible for overseeing the provision of healthcare services have betrayed our trust!

The latest theft, hot on the heels of the Sh 1.8 billion through the National Youth Service (NYS) months ago came after Kenyatta admission of losing the fight.

The scandal at ‘Mafia could present the biggest scandal since the Anglo-Leasing saga in the 1990’s where individuals defrauded the state of about Sh 40 billion. 

The consequences are already dire on the ordinary folk. 

At least At least 27,000 Kenyans cancer patients die each year, while access to quality medical services remains a mirage for most mothers and infants in far-flung parts of the nation.

Corruption has made Kenya the rich man’s society where the affluent seek private medical services that are beyond the reach of the peasants or go abroad, especially the government officials who cannot use the very medical services they claim to be fit for Kenyans!

Kenyans must be worried when the very man who they entrusted the nation’s leadership into admits the war on grand-corruption is one we are losing as few individuals who should otherwise be prosecuted in accordance with the law loot from the public coffers to lead lavish lives.

Lastly Mr. President, corruption describes your government and many would be forgiven for thinking it was one of your election promises!

The inflated diesel-fueled Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is inferior to the recently opened Ethiopia-Djibouti electric railway. 

Our Kenyan project is shorter and costs more than the historic railway linking Ethiopia and Djibouti. Sadly, the concerns on the inflated cost have not been addressed.

The wounds from the NYS scandal have not healed yet the mafias have struck again! Why do you tell us that you are helpless in the face of vicious souls hungry for our taxes?

The country loses about Sh 608 billion to corruption each year! Funds that can help set-up several cancer treatment facilities to ease the burden on the over-worked one at Kenyatta National Hospital, save Kenyans from perennial cases of starvation or build several football stadia fit enough to help groom the nation’s immense sporting talents!

Sadly, there are souls that prefer to loot it all as the rest of hard-working tax-payers fail to enjoy the public services that they pay for!

Mr. President, mega-corruption is fast describing your tenure in office, save your legacy and save Kenya too!

The good thing is that those who loot public funds are highly rewarded with plum political seats by the electorate and never get prosecuted by the courts, instead only bear the little pains of lip service by those who should clobber and sent them to the gallows!