Michael Essien

Sunday, May 13th, 2012

The 10 best goals scored by African players in the Premier League

Ever since Rupert Murdoch invented football in 1992 (see Fivers passim), African players from all over the continent have lit up the English Premier League and helped turn the competition into a continent-wide obsession. (Just last week, Arsene Wenger said he had been “frightened” by the intensity of Arsenal’s popularity in Nigeria and Kenya.) African

Monday, December 5th, 2011

Africa’s best soccer football players are West African

On January 10 next year FIFA will announce its World XI 2011. The result, they remind us, will be based on voting by over 50,000 professional soccer players from around the world. “Every voting player selects one goalkeeper,...

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Lagos bleeds Chelsea Blue

The BBC debuts a new TV series this month, “Welcome to Lagos,” on the “ingenuity” of poor people in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.The Observer‘s acting arts editor, Akin Ojumu, who is also a fan of David Cameron’s...

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

FILM / “FOOTBALL FABLES”

The trailer for “Football Fables” by English director Baf Akoto about the globalization of Ghanaian football.

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

AFRICA’S WORLD CUP?

Tomorrow is the draw for the 2010 World Cup in Cape Town. Apparently Charlize Theron, the South African actress with the fake American accent will also be there. Can anyone explain that to me?