Cameroon midfielder Frank Boya has revealed he turned down the chance to sign for Rangers this summer to move to Antwerp instead.

The 24-year-old signed for the Belgian side earlier this month after his contract expired at Royal Mouscron, who he joined after playing for German side Munich 1860.

And Boya claimed he turned down the chance to sign for Steven Gerrard’s Gers because he wanted to stay in the Belgian League.

He said: “The proof that I did well at Mouscron was the amount of offers I received from big clubs.

“I had no shortage of offers and Rangers and Werder Bremen were the most keen for me to join them.

“So leaving Belgium could have been a solution, but I wanted my future to be settled quickly and none of the teams interested have as much ambitions as at Antwerp.

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard was aware of the midfielder’s availability

“As soon as I moved here, I knew it was the right decision.

“The staff here integrated me from my first day and my new teammates have been a huge help.

“I always believed I would make it because football is an environment where everything is possible.

“You just have to give yourself the means to get there.”

Source: The Sun

The teenage midfielder came off the bench to make his second appearance in the Italian top-flight on Wednesday evening

Lucien Agoume has expressed his feelings after playing a part in Inter Milan’s 3-3 draw against Sassuolo in Wednesday’s Serie A fixture.

The Yaounde-born midfielder replaced Christian Eriksen in the 62nd minute for his second appearance in Antonio Conte’s team this term since his summer-signing from French club Sochaux.

Goals from Romelu Lukaku, Cristiano Biraghi and Borja Valero were not enough to give the Nerazzurri maximum points at the San Siro Stadium.

During the 28 minutes he spent on the pitch, Agoume completed 10 passes with a 100 per cent accuracy, and he also managed three tackles – the third-highest by an Inter player after defenders Milan Skriniar and Andrea Ranocchia.

In his reaction, the 18-year-old rued Inter Milan’s missed chances as the dropped points leave them unmoved from the third spot in the Serie A table with four points behind second-place Lazio and eight points behind leaders Juventus.

“I am happy to have entered today even if the result is a pity. We had many opportunities, we had to win,” Agoume told the club website.

He made his league debut against Fiorentina last December, and he has disclosed how he is working to make himself a better player in Italy.

“I always try to work to be available to the coach when he needs me and I hope to continue like this,” he added.

“I try to learn from everyone, in my role there they are many strong players, I want to learn the best to improve more and more.

“Everyone told me to be calm, to play as I can do without haste. I tried to do it when I entered.”

Although born in Cameroon, Agoume also has a French nationality and he has represented the European country across their U16, U17 and U18 youth teams.

He led the France U17 team as captain to the 2019 World Cup in Brazil where they won bronze.

The 18-year-old is currently France U18 captain and he is still eligible to play for Cameroon at senior level.

Source: Goal.com

The Belgium international found the back of the net as the Black and Blues edged Claudio Ranieri’s men at Giuseppe Meazza

Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku equalled two Samuel Eto’o records in his side’s 2-1 narrow victory against Sampdoria in Sunday’s Serie A game.

The Belgium international opened the scoring for the Black and Blues in the 10th minute of the game after he was set up by Christian Eriksen.

The strike is the 18th league goal of the former Manchester United and Everton striker, thus becoming the seventh Inter player to reach the 18 goal-mark in a single Serie A campaign after Cameroon legend Samuel Eto’o, Mauro Icardi, Diego Milito, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Christian Vieri and Ronaldo.

Source: Goal.com

Former Cameroon defender Henri Bedimo, a French champion with Montpellier, on Tuesday announced that he was retiring two years after playing his last professional match.

“I’m ending my chapter as a professional footballer,” Bedimo said on Instagram.

Bedimo played 52 times for Cameroon, taking part in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup in Brazil four years later.

The 36-year-old began his career at Toulouse in 2003 and after four years in Ligue 2 established himself in the French top flight with Lens in 2010.

He joined Montpellier the following year, just in time to win the only major honour of his career – the 2012 Ligue 1 title which was also his team’s first and only French championship crown.

He then spent three seasons at Lyon before finishing his career at Marseille, where he last took the field as a professional player in 2018.

Bedimo, who played close to 400 club matches in his 15-year career, had been without a club since his contract at Marseille expired two years ago.

Source: Supersports.com

Pierre Kunde Malong on Saturday became the latest Bundesliga player to pay tribute to George Floyd when he took a knee after scoring the second goal in Mainz’s 2-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt.

As thousands assembled in Berlin and Munich to demonstrate against police brutality and for racial equality, Mainz midfielder Kunde Malong paid tribute to Floyd, a black American man who died in Minneapolis last month while being arrested by police officers.

The Cameroonian will face no sanction from the German Football Federation (DFB) for the gesture after it gave the green light on Wednesday to players who wanted to honour Floyd or support the Black Lives Matter protests which have raged across the USA.

Borussia Dortmund players also wore messages on their T-shirts during their pre-match warm-up ahead of their clash with Hertha Berlin later on Saturday.

Jadon Sancho and Achraf Hakimi wore the messages “no justice, no peace”, while midfielders Axel Witsel and Emre Can’s T-shirts displayed the words “black”, “white” and “yellow” crossed out, with the word “human” below.

Sancho and Hakimi had avoided punishment by the DFB following their on-pitch calls for justice for Floyd last week, as German football’s governing body gave players the go-ahead to show their feelings regarding Floyd’s death and the subsequent protests.

Earlier, German champions Bayern Munich became the highest-profile club in the country to show their support the protests.

Prior to their 4-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen, players warmed up in T-shirts bearing both the Black Lives Matter hashtag and the slogan of the club’s official “Reds Against Racism” campaign.

“As players, we always have the same message: we are tolerant, we are open, we are open to the world,” Bayern captain Manuel Neuer told Sky after the game.

During the game, all Bayern players also wore black armbands bearing the words “Black Lives Matter”.

“FC Bayern stands for a world in which racism, discrimination, hate, injustice and violence have no place. The death of George Floyd and the images from the USA have shocked us all,” said club president Herbert Hainer in a statement.

“It’s a matter of actively and loudly showing our colours. Black Lives Matter and Reds Against Racism. We stand for togetherness that goes far beyond sports.”

Source: AFP

Former Cameroon coach Clarence Seedorf shared a video on Instagram in which he spoke about the ongoing unrest over the killing of George Floyd, asserting “violence solves nothing”.

The American died in the city of Minneapolis on May 25 after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes while he was apparently struggling to breathe.

Floyd died in hospital and the action of the police officer has drawn outrage all over the United States, with some of the protests turning violent which has been strongly condemned.

The football world has stood in solidarity for Floyd and has issued numerous calls for an end to racial injustice.

“Hi folks, I’m reflecting here, reflecting with you, reflecting about us, reflecting about the world,” Seedorf said in the video.

“Violence has never solved anything in the world, education has.

“I wish it would be more, I wish it would be really a movement of humanity to get things as they should be, not just better.

“But the passiveness of looking and seeing what is happening by the white people, that is not acceptable because then you become as guilty as those who started manipulating and killing for fun just because they thought they were superior.”

Seedorf joined a host of African stars like Didier Drogba, Jordan Ayew, Mikel John Obi, Franck Kessie, Michael Essien, Thomas Partey, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and many others who posted plain black squares on social media in what was tagged #BlackOutTuesday.

Borussia Dortmund and Morocco international Achraf Hakimi alongside his teammate Jadon Sancho wore a shirt with the inscription ‘Justice for George Floyd’ in their 6-1 thrashing of Paderborn on Sunday.

The Liverpool squad with African stars Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Naby Keita and Joel Matip, all stood on their knees in solitary with Floyd.

Seedorf was the manager of Cameroon between August 2018 and July 2019.

He led the Indomitable Lions to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt but lost out 3-2 to fierce rivals Nigeria in the Round of 16.

Seedorf managed a total of 13 games with Cameroon, winning four, drawing five and losing four.

Source: Goal.com

The Ghanaian has placed the Cameroonian at the top of his list of outstanding footballers from the continent

Cameroon and Barcelona legend Samuel Eto’o Fils is the greatest man from Africa to have played the beautiful game, former Ghana and Bayern Munich star Samuel Osei Kuffour believes.

Eto’o is indeed a celebrated football icon globally, having won the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) on two occasions (2000 and 2002), a 2000 Olympic Games gold medal and the Champions League on three occasions.

Adjudged African Footballer of the Year four times, the former striker also has a 2010 Fifa Club World Cup title in his cabinet.

“It’s difficult to say [who is the greatest African Footballer of all-time] because it’s a different generation now,” Kuffour, himself a 2001 Champions League winner, a Fifa U17 World Cup champion and an Olympic bronze medallist, told Goal in an African Legends Series interview.

“When you look at my generation, people may say [Augustine] Jay-Jay Okocha [of Nigeria] was brilliant. When you go to another generation, people may say Eto’o was brilliant.

“For the generation ahead of me, people may say George Weah [of Liberia] was good, Kalusha [Bwalya of Zambia]] was good.

“When you go to the next one, they would say Rabah Madjer [of Algeria] was great. Some people may also say Mahmoud El Khatib from Egypt was good. [You also have] Lakhdar Belloumi [from Algeria]… different, different generations.

“But for me, if you tell me to choose one, I will choose [based on] consistency. I don’t hate anybody, but I have to be strong and firm and choose.

“He may not have won the world player of the year but for me, I think because of the consistency, I’ll give you Samuel Eto’o [as my best of all-time].”

At club level, Eto’o’s first major success was winning the Spanish Copa del Rey with Real Mallorca in 2002-03, having cut ties with Real Madrid who brought him from Cameroon as a youth team player. While with Real, he also had loan stints with Leganes and Espanyol.

Eto’o joined Barcelona in 2004 and would go on to win the Spanish league title on three occasions, the Copa del Rey in 2009, the Spanish Super Cup twice and the Champions League in 2005-06 and 2008-09.

In 2009, the 39-year-old transferred to Italian fold Inter Milan, with whom he won a quintuple of trophies (Serie A title, Coppa Italia, Italian Super Cup, Champions League and Fifa Club World Cup) in 2010.

He has also played for English outfits Chelsea and Everton, Sampdoria in Italy, Turkish duo Antalyaspor and Konyaspor as well as Qatari side Qatar SC.

On an individual level, Eto’o, who stands as the all-time top scorer at Afcon with 18 goals, and also as the all-time top scorer for Cameroon and Real Mallorca, won the African Footballer of the Year awards in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010. He finished third in the race for the 2005 Fifa World Best Player award. These are only few of his many individual accolades.

Source: Goal.com