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Owners Of Manchester United Consider Sale Of Club After Ronaldo’s Departure

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Owners Of Manchester United Consider Sale Of Club After Ronaldo's Departure

By John Michael Ojo
Following the explosive interview which led to the termination of Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract at Manchester United recently, the club’s American owners, the Glazer family have now disclosed their intention to sell off the Premier League side having  acquired the club 17 years ago.

Manchester United in a statement made available on Tuesday shortly after announcing the immediate departure of the former Real Madrid and Juventus forward, stated that they were considering “all strategic alternatives, including new investment into the club, a sale, or other transactions involving the company.”

Analysts have now disclosed that the Manchester  United who are also seeking a new star as a replacement for the Portugal international, could make around £5billion ($6 billion) from the sale of a club it spent £790 million to buy, largely with debt, in 2005.

READ ALSO: Ronaldo Sends Message To Manchester United New Manager

British billionaire and United fan, Jim Ratcliffe, is seen as a front runner for the club, which has fallen behind English rivals Liverpool and Manchester City in trophies won and stadium modernisation.

Ratcliffe, who owns the Ineos chemical group, expressed interest in buying United after his unsuccessful bid for another Premier League team, Chelsea, in May. The London club eventually went for a world-record £2.5billion.

Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at SKEMA Business School, said interest would likely also come from outside the United Kingdom.

“I can imagine that billionaires in South East Asia, from Malaysia or Indonesia where United have a lot of supporters, would be interested. That or a consortium of US investors,” he told AFP.

Chadwick added that the Glazers may believe the club has reached its peak value after Europe’s elite teams failed to win support for a Super League, and with United needing big investment.

“The Super League discussion will continue to rumble on, until it either happens or doesn’t, but these are harsh economic times and football is a high-cost industry,” he said.

READ ALSO: Manchester United Tipped To Hire Wayne Rooney As Manager

United’s “Old Trafford (stadium) needs massive investment. We have seen Real Madrid and Barcelona take action to modernise their stadiums and in England, look at Tottenham who are now in a position to also make revenue from NFL matches.”

AFP

 

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Paul Onuora Football Tournament Begins

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Participants and others in the Hon. Paul Onuora and St. Eve football competition

By Esther Kainebi-Daniel

Committed to promoting unity among Nigerians through sports, especially football and empowering more than 500 youths between ages 15 and 17, the maiden edition of Hon. Paul Onuora and St. Eve football competition, has commenced.

Dubbed Hon. Paul Onuora League Tournament, the football competition which began on Sunday with the official flag-off and unveiling of the participating teams from across 20 local government areas in Lagos is taking place at three venues – The Training Pitch, National Stadium; Eagles Club football field, and the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) field, all in Surulere, Lagos.

At the flag-off ceremony the sponsor, Hon. Paul Onuora aka Nwa Jesus said the tournament is a vehicle to extract the best potential from the youths, stressing that it doesn’t matter who the youths are, where they come from or the tribe they are of.

His words: “What matters is how those youth become successful in life, and when they become successful, the new life, they will live. Even if he touches 10 people, their lives will be changed because he has succeeded.

“That’s why anytime, anyday, in my closet, anywhere I’m, I think about how we can better the life of the youth, not even of you going to lie for the poor people in our society. This is very important.”

Asked his expectations from the participants, Onuora said, “I expect them to be of good behaviour, character and association. You can’t be a youth maybe playing football or any other sports and you are into drugs, cultism, armed robbery and other nefarious activities. You cannot succeed because you will go half way.”

“If you are a youth, you have talents, you have good behaviour, you will go far even in the shortest of time, because there is nobody that will see you as a hard working young man that will say no, I will not take this. Anybody who sees you would like to associate with you because of your character and your behaviour,” he added.

On what motivated him to finance the tournament, the businessman, who also plays active football and recently scored against one-time Nigeria number one choice goalkeeper, Peter Rufai aka Dodo Mayana said, “Beyond the tournament, we want to expose the participants to scouts from Europe.

“We are bringing in some managers, scouts that will be looking for players. Some of them are playing football but they have not really played in a good competition. So if they play this competition they will be exposed and they will have more sense of belonging because they will meet people they have not one way or the other interacted with. Because I believe this is from all the local governments and they will see more players that are more talented than them, which will inspire them to do more in what we are doing.”

On her part, Evelyn Okereke, founder of St. Eve, and brain behind the league tournament said the initiative is to encourage the youths, keep them busy during this long vacation, adding that they could play this competition and get opportunities.

He words, “You see what’s happening in Nigeria. As a mother, we thought of a way to help bring our youths and close that gap between the rich and the poor, and there is no better way than sport. Sport (football) is something that is very unique and is a unifying force.”

“Football is one of the biggest sports in the world. Whether you’re a man or you’re a woman, you know when your club or team is winning, you’re jumping and you’re excited; you’re all sharing ideas. Very soon we’re going to be having people worshipping football. It’s going to be the latest thing in the world,” she added.

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How Moroccan Footballer’s Wife Discoverd In Divorce Suit Husband Has Nothing Despite Making Millions

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Achraf Hakimi

Moroccan international, Achraf Hakimi owns nothing to his name despite earning millions of Euros with Paris Saint Germain (PSG) and the Moroccan national football team, his wife Hiba Abouk has discovered.

Abouk filed for divorce and asked for half of all the property and money owned by Hakimi.

She, however, discovered during ongoing divorce proceedings in court that Hakimi, 24, had registered all his properties and monies in his mother’s name.

Whenever the Moroccan footballer needed anything, he would ask his mother to buy it for him, it was revealed.

All his houses, cars, clothes, and jewellery were found to be in his mother’s name, and millions in salary were deposited in accounts bearing his mother’s name.

It was reported that 80 percent of all that he owns is registered in his mother’s name.

The couple began dating in 2018, married in 2020 and have two sons. She filed for divorce around March 2023.

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30 percent of Pele’s Assets Go To Widow – lawyer

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Pele

The 30 percent of the assets of the late legendary footballer Pele will go to his wife,according to his will disclosed by his lawyer.

The will states that Marcia Cibele Aoki, Pele’s third and last wife, will inherit his mansion in Guaruja, a seaside resort town south of Sao Paulo, where the couple lived, according to her lawyer Luiz Kignel.

Other assets belonging to Pele, who died after battling cancer in late December at age 82, include more real estate and a stake in the Pele brand, Kignel said, adding that a complete inventory has yet to be made.

The remaining 70 percent is reserved for Pele’s children, including an unrecognized daughter that he may have.

“He indicated the possibility of the existence of another daughter, whose recognition will depend on a DNA test, which could not be carried out (on Pele) due to the pandemic and the state of his health,” said Kignel.

According to Kignel, the woman in question is a Brazilian national and she has taken legal steps to be recognized as Pele’s daughter.

In September 2022, a court in Sao Paulo ordered Pele to submit to a DNA test, according to the G1 website. The test must now be performed on one of his seven recognized children.

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