Author: Chronicle Editor

Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has become the latest big name player to join the Chinese Super League gold rush after leaving Chelsea for Tianjin Teda. Mikel, who failed to make a single appearance for Antonio Conte’s side this season, had a medical in the port city some 130 kilometres from Beijing on Thursday and the Asian Football Confederation confirmed the deal on Friday. Mikel was frozen out of Chelsea’s first team this season by N’Golo Kante, Nemanja Matic, Nathaniel Chalobah and Cesc Fabregas who were all ahead in the pecking order. The 29-year-old, who spent more than a decade…

Shortly after securing a work permit, Wilfred Ndidi who joined champions Leicester City from KRC Genk was thrown straight into the next training session. The highly-rated Nigerian international midfielder was introduced to Claudio Ranieri’s Foxes squad ahead of their penultimate training session in preparation for Saturday’s trip to Everton in the Emirates FA Cup. WATCH VIDEO HERE: WATCH: New Foxes signing @Ndidi25 talks of his delight after putting pen to paper on a five-and-a-half-year deal at #lcfc. #WelcomeNdidi pic.twitter.com/i5pHUdd675— Leicester City (@LCFC) January 5, 2017 Ndidi, 20, will be in the travelling party that heads to Merseyside on Friday and,…

Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann, 25, has been offered £220,000 a week at Manchester United – the same amount as France team-mate Paul Pogba. (Sun) United are set to offer £32.5m for Roma defender Kostas Manolas, 25, after a deal to sign Victor Lindelof, 22, from Benfica fell through. (Sun) Juventus left-back Patrice Evra, 35, has held talks with West Ham and his former club Manchester United over a potential January move. (Calciomercato.com) West Ham have added Celtic striker Moussa Dembele to their transfer shortlist and are willing to spend £20m on the 20-year-old. (Goal) Chelsea are still in talks…

Outgoing U.S. President, Barack Obama has recalled one of his worst days while serving his 8 year tenure which ends January 20. While reflecting on his legacies in a series of exit interviews, he said that the day he met with the parents of victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 the toughest day of his presidency. “I still consider the day I traveled up to Newtown to meet with parents and address that community as the toughest day of my presidency. “It’s the only time I ever saw Secret Service cry at an event. So…

Members of the Nigerian football family on Thursday in Abuja picked up four of the awards at the Glo-CAF Awards 2016 for outstanding football personalities and teams in 2016. While no Nigerian player made it to the final shortlist of three in the African Player of the Year Award category, Super Falcons forward Asisat Oshoala made the day for Nigerians. Oshoala won the 2016 Women’s Player of the Year Award to cap an exciting year when she won the top scorer award at the Women’s AFCON in Cameroon. The Arsenal Ladies FC player scored six goals in helping Nigeria to…

On Thursday, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo enjoined faith-based organisations in the country to shun rumours that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was moving to Islamise Nigeria. He told religious leaders after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Student Christian Movement of Nigeria (SCM) in his office, that they should dwell on facts. Before the election in 2015, Prof. Osinbajo spoke out that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was not secretly plotting to Islamise Nigeria if it won the election. He again reaffirmed that stand stressing that the rumour making the rounds about plans to make Islam the official…

On Thursday, Arik Air has complained incessant attacks by some aggrieved passengers on its staff and property at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. The airline made this known in a statement signed by its Communications Manager, Mr Ola Adebanji and obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. The statement said the airline staff and property were attacked by the passengers on Wednesday while its flight operations were disrupted again on Thursday. It said the issue started when the airline’s Lagos-New York flight was rescheduled from Wednesday to Thursday due to the shortage of aviation. “Our…

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered security agencies to take decisive measures to bring an end to the recurring acts of violence and destruction in the southern part of Kaduna State. This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu. Shehu said that already, on the directive of President Buhari, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, was in Southern Kaduna on Saturday and Sunday to assess the situation. He said that in addition to the conventional policemen deployed to the area, a squadron of mobile policemen…

The United States on Thursday designated Hamza bin Laden, son of late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, as terrorist, the State Department said in a statement. As a result of the designation, all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction in which Hamza bin Laden has any interest is blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him. On Aug. 14, 2015, Hamza bin Laden was officially announced by al-Qaeda senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as an official member of the group. The State Department said that Hamza bin Laden has called for acts of terrorism in Western…

A local worker for the International Committee of the Red Cross was shot dead in the northern Mali town of Gao late on Wednesday night, a spokesman for the aid organization and local residents said. “We are trying to confirm the details, but we can confirm the worker was killed,” Saoure Barthelemi said on Thursday, without providing further details. The Malian man was not working at the time of the shooting and was visiting family, Barthelemi said. Kader Toure, a resident of Gao, said the worker had been shot by two men on a motorcycle late at night. He was…