Eboboritse Uwejamomere

AFCON 2025 | Into the final four we go. What an amazing experience so far, two more to go… 🇳🇬🦅

Never a dull moment with the DG, National Sports Commission, Hon. Bukola Olopade. We always have one or two things to talk about anything I visit him. He was Commissioner for Youth & Sport in Ogun State while I was an undergraduate in OSU. The Great Ozo! A solid sports administrator, all round great man. Thanks for all you do for us @BukolaOlopadee

Ruhe in Frieden, Mircea Lucescu! 🕊️ 🏆 Zuletzt war Lucescu Nationaltrainer Rumäniens. Seine vielleicht größten Titel waren der UEFA Cup mit Shakhtar Donetsk (08/09) und der UEFA Supercup mit Galatasaray (00/01). ⚽ Seine Stationen 1981–1986Rumänien 1985–1990Dinamo Bukarest 1990–1991SC Pisa 1991–1996Brescia Calcio 1996–1997AC Reggiana 1997–1998Rapid Bukarest 1998–1999Inter Mailand 1999–2000Rapid Bukarest 2000–2002 Galatasaray Istanbul 2002–2004 Beşiktaş Istanbul 2004–2016Schachtar Donezk 2016–2017Zenit St. Petersburg 2017–2019Türkei 2020–2023Dynamo Kiew 2024–2026Rumänien #SkySport #Lucescu

Congratulations to our own Samson Adamu who has been appointed Acting General Secretary of CAF

Sporting Lagos’ Farouk Alimi (2009, CDM, 🇳🇬) profiles a midfield organiser who controls games through intelligence and positioning. Press resistant, technically clean and always available in build up. A calm tempo setter with real tactical value. ⚙️👇

Anyone who knows @BukolaOlopadee will know he doesn't like to fail. He puts in efforts to succeed. He's a born winner, one of the appointments of President Tinubu that you can't fault.

Lookman played a midfield role throughout the tournament…

@TaiwoMakindeOL1 They have a really good one already.

AFCON 2025 | Smile if your country has arrived next round with a game to spare… 🇳🇬🦅

Bukola Olopade served as Commissioner for Sports in Ogun State during the administration of Otunba Gbenga Daniel. Under his leadership, Ogun State successfully hosted what many still regard as the best National Sports Festival in Nigeria’s history. It is, therefore, no surprise that he also spearheaded the preparation and successful bid that secured Ogun State the hosting rights for the 2024 National Sports Festival, an achievement that surpassed the standards set in 2006. He initially served as chairman of the Local Organising Committee before his subsequent appointment as the Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC). After completing his tenure in the Ogun state government, Olopade went on to build one of the largest and most respected sports brands in Africa, Nilayo Sports Management Limited. The company is behind several internationally recognised road races, including the gold-labelled Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, the PremiumTrust Bank Abuja City Marathon, the Abeokuta 10km Race, the Ijebu Heritage Marathon, and the Remo Ultra Race, among many sporting events. As an addendum, at a time when lesser-known sports struggled for visibility, Olopade stepped in as President of the Nigeria Wheelchair Basketball Federation, mobilising private-sector support to revive the sport. Upon his appointment as DG of the NSC, he resigned from his role as Managing Director of Nilayo Sports Management Limited to focus fully on national service. Without mincing words, Bukola Olopade is a deeply grounded professional, experienced, visionary. You would have known this with just a single Google search, but you wanted to run agenda. I sincerely hope you have learnt something new today.

José Mourinho answers on what is important for a coach nowadays, compared to 20 years ago. "I'd say that today the most important thing is to speak very well. Because nowadays it's all about perceptions. In the past, the best coaches were the ones that won. Now, the best coaches are the ones with the better looking perceptions. You used to get important jobs by winning, today you get important jobs just with perceptions. When I went to the Premier League in 2004, only 2 foreign coaches arrived to the league: me as a European Champion, and Benitez as the Europa League winner. Benitez won with Valencia and went to Liverpool, I won with Porto and went to Chelsea. Nowadays some coaches go to the Premier League and I don't even know their names. And I don't say it in a disrespectful way, it's just the reality. There are coaches who are chosen based on data, numbers, and it's not on the number of wins. Nowadays there is this idea that winning is not as important as playing like this, or looking like that. In that aspect, things changed in a radical way."

Mourinho comments on football's recent tactical revolution. "I think the problem is when people want to make copy-paste without having the conditions for it. If you want a full-back playing inside, you need a player with a certain adaptability. If a full-back is weak on attack, I like to say that he shouldn't attack from the inside or from the outside. He should stay back and build alongside the centre-backs. Something I don't like is when I see coaches trying to copy-paste things they saw but doing it in completely different contexts. If you want to build with the goalkeeper with a goalkeeper that has a wooden leg, it will be complicated. For example, when Pep arrived to Manchester City, the goalkeeper was the best English goalkeeper, which was Joe Hart. Pep didn't want Joe Hart, he wanted Claudio Bravo, coming from Barcelona with that culture of playing from behind. But then it wasn't enough, he wanted more than Claudio Bravo, so he signed Ederson, who could play short and long. If you want to copy-paste the ideas of a coach who can buy, and buy, and buy, it will be complicated. And then you also have those coaches who try to do things that just don't work, and because of that they die, but they say 'I died but I died by my ideas'. My friend, if you died by your ideas you are stupid."

José Mourinho comments on strict tactical philosophies and adapting to the players. "For me it's wrong to be tied to one philosophy. One thing is for a coach to say what is ideal. I also have my ideal, and I built my ideal team when I could. But it's important for a coach to adapt to what he has. I love seeing a quality full-back coming inside to create superiority in midfield, but how many can do it? I love Hakimi projecting on the attack, attacking on the inside and scoring lots of goals when the winger is wide. Do I like that? No, I love that! But there aren't many Hakimis." Can you explain what is the big benefit from that? "A lot of things. For example, if the full-back attacks on the inside and the opposite winger tracks him back, you can have a wide winger on a 1 vs 1 situation. But a thing is to create 1 vs 1 scenarios with a winger that smashes it, another is to create a 1 vs 1 scenario with Cândido Costa (interviewer)." 😂

🚨JUST IN: STORMERS SC @StormersSC Return back to NNL. Chairman of @StormersSC, Hon. Bukola Olopade @BukolaOlopadee assured fans the club will return to Nigeria second tier league NNL. Now they are back!!!

IBADAN TABLE LOG AFTER MATCHDAY THREE 📌 #NLO25 #NYMLNLO25 #PLAYOFF #NewYearMegaLottery #SofaScores #Afriskaut #MTN #Fmac

FULL TIME IN IBADAN 📌 FC EBEDEI 1-2 STORMERS SC ⚽ Abraham Sharwan 5' (FCE) ⚽ Philip John 8' (SSC) ⚽ Bassey Aniete 21' (SSC) #NLO25 #NYMLNLO25 #PLAYOFF #NewYearMegaLottery #SofaScores #Afriskaut #MTN #Fmac

Racking up the experiences | Another international match window completed…

Olu Ajayi (1963–2025): Tribute to the master of form, thought, and truth ntm.ng/2025/05/23/olu…

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