Portsmouth and their African Squad

Life has taken its toll and I haven't been posting as much as I want. Too much to do, not enough time to do it.

But enough about me. Let's catch up with some news. This item comes from the BBC and writer Ben Wyatt. It's about Portsmouth and their African contingent. To read the full article, please click here! The following is an excerpt of the enlightening article.

Having recently captured Senegal's Papa Bouba Diop, manager Harry Redknapp has signed up an array of the continent's talent.

Fratton Park is now home to the all-Nigerian strike force of Nwankwo Kanu and John Utaka, Ghana's midfield maestro Sulley Muntari, Mali defender Djimi Traore, Cameroon's Lauren and Zimbabwe forward Benjani Mwaruwari.

Despite this assistant manager Joe Jordan denies the existence of an 'Africa specific' transfer policy.

"The players we have brought to the club are there because they are the best we could find for their respective positions.

"As long as the players who come into the club apply themselves we are glad to welcome them," Jordon added.

It's refreshing to hear a manager talking about the qualities of the players, not specifically where they're from. I wonder how the club feels about the upcoming African Cup of Nations?

Africans Excel in Europe, Led by Adebayor

African players showed talent and agility this weekend on the world stage, scoring epic goals and stunning volleys around the European leagues.

The most memorable goal of the weekend goes to Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor. His strike capped a 3-1 victory for Arsenal in their north London derby clash at Tottenham Hotspur, his unstoppable volley whizzing past England goalkeeper Paul Robinson. He had earlier scored with a header to make it 1-1. To see the goal, click
here!

In other English top flight matches, Portsmouth's all-Nigerian strike-force of Nwankwo Kanu and John Utaka caused Liverpool's defense problems throughout their match at Fratton Park but Kanu missed a first half penalty.

In the English league's second division, former Nigerian captain Jay-Jay Okocha made an impressive debut for Hull City in their 1-1 draw at home to Stoke. The 34-year-old former Bolton player has returned to England after a season playing in the Middle East with Qatar SC.

In Spain, Mali forward Frederic Kanoute scored two goals on Sunday as Sevilla notched a 4-1 win over Recreativo Huelva.

Cameroonian midfielder Daniel Ngom Kome scored for Valladolid in their 2-1 loss at Valencia, his first goal for over a season cancelled out by Fernando Morientes' equalizer and David Silva's late deflected winner. (For more on this and Valencia, check out my Valencia blog!

Nigerian Kalu Uche of Almeria scored once and had a goal wrongly disallowed as his newly promoted side lost 3-1 at Real Madrid.

In the French Ligue 1, Ivorian star striker Aruna Dindane scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot as his Racing Lens team beat AS Nancy 1-0 at home.

In Lille, Moroccan striker Marouane Chamakh was sent off in his Bordeaux team drew 1-1 on the road.

In the German Bundesliga, Tunisian defender Karim Huggui scored the opening goal for Bayer Leverkusen as they won 2-0 at home against VfL Bochum.

Best African Players & A Comment About Censorship

A few days ago I posted about the greatest African player ever. A post like this gets noticed and many people commented with their opinion.

I also managed to get readers from the Big Soccer forum and Xtratime.com community.

Here, I share some of the best comments.

Reader Chxta said: 'As with most things African, this is a topic that would be quite controversial, for example a lot of the titles won by Egyptian clubs have always been hotly debated.

For me it is a straight fight between Milla, Hassan and Kanu.

Milla shone on the world stage, but never got to the pinnacle of club football.

Kanu has shone on the world stage, but arguably in youth competitions (Olympics for example), however truth be told is that he is, the most decorated player in the English Premiership at the moment, and the most decorated African player ever. However, he hasn't even scored a Nations Cup goal much less win the tournament.

I'd probably give it to Hassan on the strength of the impact he had on his country's game.'

BigSoccer poster Cazlon said: 'Unfortunately there is little point in a ranking like this.

Who outside of their respective country still knows about Abdul Razak, Thomas N'Kono, or even the legendary Kalusha Bwalya ?

European/American tabloids don't, certainly not if you limit the selection to the last decade.

Fair enough.

Xtratime reader Andy Christ said: 'It's between Weah and Eto'o and the Cameroonian will probably edge it after another 3-4 good seasons. Drogba might also come close to Weah's legend if he stays in the form he showed last season. Kanu and Okocha have never been world class and Milla never did enough in Europe. Hassan is somebody who is an unknown factor outside Africa but I doubt if that many Africans outside Egypt seriously rate him above Weah or Eto'o.

He may be right. Only time can tell.

The issue isn't settled and only time will tell who really is the greatest African player ever. Kanu? Milla? Eto'o in a few years? Or someone unknown to the masses, as Cazlon pointed out? Let the debate continue.
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A few days ago, we posted a story about censorship and FIFA's attempts to discourage use of their brand. We noted the case of Anton Vosloo, who ran the wildly successful www.2010-soccer-worldcup.com. FIFA ordered it shut and the site was closed within days.

This comment comes in from Anton Vosloo himself: 'They said the actual domain name was the problem and not so much the content. There are already much more than 7 sites out there.I think it was more the group of us that had a high page rank on google. My site was a free directory for travel related sites in Southern Afica.


I think it's sad that FIFA has come to this, but maybe they're right? Maybe they do need to protect their assets? What do you think?

Read the article and the posted link in the article to learn more about this story.
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Kudos to the Iraqi soccer team on their Asian Cup victory. Once again, football uplifts and transforms a nation. The power of a ball. It's incredible ...