Author: Opalim Lifted

Liverpool have signed Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for a combined fee of £116 million. The reigning Premier League champions announced the acquisition of the 22-year-old German midfielder on Friday. The deal includes a guaranteed £100 million and another £16 million in add-ons. The transfer fee surpasses the £117 million that Chelsea paid for the purchase of Moise Caicedo in 2023. “I feel very happy and very proud. Finally, it’s done and I was waiting for a long time – finally it’s done and I am really happy,” Wirtz said. “I’m really excited to have a new adventure in front…

Premier League 2024-25 top scorer Mohamed Salah has been nominated for the Professional Footballers’ Association Players’ Player of the Year award, along with Liverpool teammate Alexis Mac Allister. Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak, Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes, Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer were the other four to be voted into the list by their peers, PFA said in a social media post on Friday. Salah scored 29 goals and provided 18 assists to equal the record of 47 goal involvements in a Premier League season, matching Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer who achieved the feat when each team played…

Liverpool have agreed a £40m deal to sign left-back Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth. The 21-year-old Hungary international is set to join the Premier League champions after two seasons with the Cherries. Bournemouth have already signed Adrien Truffert from Rennes as his replacement. Liverpool’s deal for Kerkez comes with the Reds close to completing a club-record £116m move for Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz. They have also signed Dutch right-back Jeremie Frimpong from the German club for £29.5m. Serbia-born Kerkez began his senior career at Hungarian side Gyor before a move to Italian club AC Milan. He failed to make…

Adekunle Gold, the Nigerian singer, has introduced a free health insurance programme to support 1,000 individuals living with sickle cell disease. The initiative, launched through Adekunle Gold Foundation and tagged ‘5 Star Care,’ aims to alleviate the financial strain of medical treatment and ensure access to comprehensive healthcare, including routine checkups, emergency care, and long-term support. The ‘Sade’ hitmaker announced the scheme on Instagram in commemoration of World Sickle Cell Day. Adekunle Gold also shared that the programme was inspired by his own journey with the condition and the transformative impact of proper care. The singer added that the initiative…

President Bola Tinubu’s speech was briefly interrupted in Kaduna on Thursday when an unidentified man attempted to breach his security. Tinubu was in Kaduna to inaugurate several projects executed by Uba Sani’s administration when the yet-to-be-identified approached him, prompting the president to pause his speech. The President appeared momentarily surprised but quickly regained composure as members of his security detail swiftly intervened, restraining the intruder before he could get any closer. In a calm yet firm manner, Tinubu instructed his security officials to “leave him alone”, signalling his desire to handle the situation without escalating tensions. Reacting to the incident,…

Terror struck the Federal Polytechnic town of Oko, Anambra on Wednesday night as a violent gun battle between suspected rival cult groups left two people dead and two others abducted. The chaos unfolded around 8:40pm at Total Junction and Tipper Junction in Orumba North LGA, sending residents into panic as gunmen opened fire indiscriminately. According to eyewitnesses, the attackers – armed and riding on a motorcycle and a black Lexus 350 SUV with no number plate – unleashed gunfire before abducting two individuals near Tipper Junction and fleeing the scene. Security operatives, including the Police, Army, Navy, Civil Defence, and…

President Bola Tinubu has inaugurated a 300-bed specialist hospital at Millennium Square in Kaduna state. The facility has been named the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Specialist Hospital. The hospital consists of nine wings: maternal and child health, radiology and imaging, intensive care unit, special care unit and others. The Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority is also said to have given approval for the establishment of a cancer center and nuclear facility in the complex. Speaking at the ceremony, Uba Sani, the state governor, requested Tinubu’s intervention in building the cancer centre as “that’s the only thing missing”. Responding, Tinubu commended Sani for…

Man City have been fined over £1m by the Premier League after repeatedly kicking-off or restarting matches late last season. Nine of Man City’s matches last season started or restarted late, with the longest delay coming before the second half of the Manchester derby in December 2024 which resumed two minutes and 24 seconds later than billed. The Premier League said Man City had accepted and apologised for the breaches, external, with the fines totalling £1.08m. They have 14 days to pay. Last season the club were fined £2.09m for delaying 22 matches, and manager Pep Guardiola said he would…

A pro-Israel hacking group has stolen the equivalent of $90 million from Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange in a high-stakes cyberattack that’s rocking the region. The group, known as Predatory Sparrow, claimed responsibility for the breach on Wednesday, targeting the Tehran-based Nobitex platform. The hackers allege the exchange is being used by the Iranian government to bypass international sanctions. In a brazen move, the stolen crypto was reportedly sent to digital wallets the hackers can’t access—effectively burning the funds. Cybersecurity firms Elliptic and TRM Labs confirmed the funds had been redirected to crypto addresses containing a vulgar message aimed at Iran’s…

A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) high court in Maitama has granted bail in the sum of N50 million to Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, senator representing Kogi central. In a ruling delivered on Thursday, Chizoba Orji, presiding judge, rejected the application by the federal government to remand the Natasha Akpoti in prison custody pending trial. The judge held that there was no justification to deny Natasha Akpoti bail, noting that there was “sufficient evidence” before the court showing her willingness to face trial. As part of the bail conditions, the court directed that the senator must produce one surety, who must be a…