Yaya Toure named Africa's best

Football | Africa

 

Yaya Toure landed the African Footballer of the Year award on Thursday for the third time running.
The Manchester City midfielder edged out Nigeria's John Obi Mikel and fellow Ivorian Didier Drogba to make it a hat-trick of wins, emulating Abedi Pele and Samuel Eto'o.
Ghanaian Abedi Pele won three in a row between 1991-93 while Cameroonian Eto'o took the award from 2003-05.
Eto'o, who plays up front for Chelsea, also won it in 2010.

Wits loan out four for rest of season

Football | Absa Premiership

Bidvest Wits have agreed to loan deals for four of their players as they trimmed down their squad for the second half of the Absa Premiership season, officials said on Thursday.

Miguel Timm has joined Mpumalanga Black Aces for the rest of the season while experienced centre back Musa Bilankulu has gone to Bloemfontein Celtic.
Bilankulu’s departure on loan comes after just six months and five matches at third placed Wits, who he joined from Lamontville Golden Arrows in July.

Timm had only played three games this season.
Letsie Koapeng and Sipho Mngomezulu have gone to National First Division club Chippa United.

Everton sweating on injured quartet

Football | Barclays Premier League

Fifth-placed Everton have injury doubts over Ross Barkley, Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin for Saturday's English Premier League home game with struggling Norwich City.
Midfielder Barkley has a toe injury while left back Baines has a back problem. Centre halves Jagielka and Distin have hamstring strains.
"Those four players are the ones we have got a question mark over," manager Roberto Martinez told the club's website (www.evertonfc.com) on Thursday. "Everyone else is fine."

Everton, seven points adrift of leaders Arsenal, are looking for their third home win in a row following victories over Southampton in the league and Championship side Queens Park Rangers in the FA Cup.
Norwich, who are sixth from bottom, have midfield pair Bradley Johnson and Wes Hoolihan and defender Sebastien Bassong available after injury.
"Our form away from home has improved from earlier in the season," said manager Chris Hughton. "That had to be the case and it needs to be the case again this weekend because we're going to a very good side."

Arrows sign Pirates duo on loan

Football | Absa Premiership

Relegation-threatened Lamontville Golden Arrows continue their bid to strengthen their squad for the second half of the Absa Premiership season by taking Manti Moholo and William Twala on loan from Orlando Pirates.
The move continues a recent tradition of the Buccaneers helping out the Durban team with playing talent.

Arrows, who are bottom of the standings, last month secured the Ghanaian centre-back Seth Owusu on a free contract and this week added the Zambian striker Festus Mbewe on a six-month loan from champions Nkana FC.
Veteran goalkeeper Arthur Bartman, who had retired and was training Maritzburg United's goalkeepers this season, has been persuaded to don his gloves again and join Arrows as a back-up goalkeeper.

Moyes on manager of the month shortlist

Football | Barclays Premier League

Manchester United manager David Moyes, reeling from three defeats in a row in 2014, must think that every cloud has a silver lining after being nominated for the Premier League's Manager of the Month award for December.
Moyes's side have endured a terrible start to the New Year but they did manage four wins, a draw and two defeats from seven league matches at the end of 2013.
The Scot has been nominated along with Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini, who went unbeaten in December, Chelsea's Jose Mourinho and Everton's Roberto Martinez.
Chelsea had five wins from seven games, one draw and a defeat while Martinez, who replaced Moyes at Everton, led his side to four wins from six matches, one draw and one defeat.

Glo-Caf Awards : Live blog

Football | Football Features

Welcome to our coverage of tonight’s 2013 GLO-CAF Awards in Lagos, Nigeria. The highlights will be the announcement of the African Footballer of the year, 2013.
The event has taken on greater significance with the choice down to one of Yaya Toure, Didier Drogba or John Obi Mikel. The event will be live on your world of Champions, SuperSport 9 on Channel 209 at 10pm CAT. Former Nigeria International, Sunday Oliseh and Carol Tshabalala from Supersport will anchor the show.
We will combine live updates on the proceedings, comments and your tweets in this blog. Join the conversation and share in the excitement. Use #SSFootball to leave your comments on Twitter.
We'll pull the best of them into our coverage below.

Bayern set to sign Rode from Frankfurt

Football | Transfer Watch

Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder Sebastian Rode will join Bayern Munich when his existing contract expires in the summer, his current club admitted.
Eintracht chairman Heribert Bruchhagen confirmed from the club's winter training camp in Abu Dhabi that Rode, a 23-year-old defensive midfielder, was on his way to the reigning champions.
Rode is the second player to commit to joining Bayern in the summer, after the Bundesliga leaders confirmed the signing of Borussia Dortmund and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski on a pre-contract agreement last weekend.
Rode, who joined Eintracht from Kickers Offenbach in 2010, had been linked with a move to Bayern for several months.

Sophia Bush Got To Know Herself Better By Dating The Wrong Guys

 

Brooke Davis and Lucas Scott, the fictions characters of the once popular Season series, ‘One Tree Hill’ were never meant to be just like Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray shouldn’t have dated in the first place… ironically, they were stars in this movie but when Sophia caught the handsome Chad unable to stop chasing after hotel heiress Paris Hilton and cheating on her, she kicked him away and started dating Google program manager Dan Fredinburg. Sophia has admitted that the wrong guys have always come her way, we are wondering if Dan is one of them too.
She said “I’ve dated a couple of the wrong guys, but I’ve also had great love in my life. I think every woman on Earth has dated the wrong guy at some point.”She said: “At the end of the day, I’m an open book. If I were looking at myself objectively,

Alesha Dixon Desperate To Keep Daughter, Azura Out Of Limelight

 

We were taken aback when Britain’s Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon and a Nigerian dancer, Azuka Ononye, who once earned about £1.25k a month, started dating, people whispered that Azuka wanted her for money, a story that was rubbished, with Azura Sienna their daughter now 14 weeks, Alesha has started work but wants Azura out of the paparazzo’s way.
She recently launched her first fragrance Rose Quartz and talks about motherhood. Once upon a time, Azuka was the backing dancer for Alesha before they got to know each other better, she said : “I have been fully in the mummy zone! She has become my world! She’s only 14 weeks – she smiles all the time. I haven’t shown her off yet, I try and keep [her] out the limelight as much as I can. I just want to keep everything balanced.”

Kelly Osbourne Separates With Fiancé Matthew Mosshart

 

Kelly Osbourne said her separation from fiancé Matthew Mosshart barely a month after Kelly has gushed that 2014 is going to meet her a single lady, is an amicable split, that is the truth, the couple who met in the Summer of 2011 at Kate Moss’s wedding and they found love that December did not see a reason to be together again.
“Kelly Osbourne and Matthew Mosshart have decided to end their engagement,” her rep told Us Weekly. “The split is amicable and the pair continue to have nothing but the utmost respect for one another. Kelly is looking forward to a new year full of fresh beginnings.