IFFHS STATISTICS AND NEWS OF THE WEEK 1
DEYNA CASTELLANOS AT ATLETICO DE MADRID !
At 20, Deyna Castellanos (picture ) will begin her professional soccer career in 2020. After a decorated career at Florida State University, Castellanos confirmed last week that she had signed a contract with Spain Champion Atlético de Madrid through the 2022 season.The club plays in Spain’s top division and also competes in the UEFA women’s Champions League. Castellanos was a star on the pitch for the Seminoles team, winning a College Cup in 2018. She was named to the All-ACC First Team in three seasons, and was named ACC Offensive Player of the Year in 2019. She was also on the watchlist for the MAC Hermann Trophy — awarded to the top player in college soccer — in three of her four seasons.
Castellanos led the Florida State Seminoles in goals-scored in each of her four seasons. In all, she totaled 48 goals and 22 assists across 82 appearances. Castellanos owns or co-owns FSU records for most assists in a single game (3), game-winning goals in a career (20) and most multi-goal games in a single season (6).
The striker is no stranger to the international stage. She has already been capped 13 times by the Venezuelan senior national team, scoring six times. Castellanos gained notoriety through her performance at a pair of FIFA U-17 World Cups, where she notched 11 goals across the 2014 and 2016 tournaments. In 2017, Castellanos was a finalist for the best women’s football player at the annual FIFA Awards, becoming the youngest woman to be nominated to the World Top 3 with 18 years old !
Atlético Madrid has finished first in its league in each of the past three seasons. The club won the Copa de la Reina in 2016 and has advanced to the Round of 16 in Champions League twice in the past four seasons. Some of the club’s current high-profile players include 2019 IFFHS THE WORLD’S BEST WOMAN GOALKEEPER Award winner Sari van Veenendaal and English winger Toni Duggan.
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NEW RECORD FOR CRISTIANO RONALDO
Cristiano Ronaldo became today the FIRST PLAYER EVER to score at least one goal on one of the Top Five Leagues in Europe in each of the last 18 years (2003 to 2020) ! He scored three goals at the match Juventus – Cagliari for his first Serie A game of the year 2020 !
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CAF SPEED TOWARDS HISTORIC 2ND AFCON HOSTING WITHHOLDING
Cameroon, native land of IFFHS legends, Albert Roger Milla and Samuel Eto`o fils, are speeding towards a historic second withholding of hosting rights of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations by the Confederation of African Football. This follows the submissions of the President of CAF, Ahmad Ahmad in an interview granted Insideworldfootball just before the end of the recent FIFA Club World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
The Malagasy who is so concerned about the meteorological situation in Cameroon during the June/July period initially intended to host the event, insists it is for the good of the game and for its image, and that the final decision would be arrived at in the next CAF Exco meeting.
Mr. Ahmad said, ”In my view, it is not possible, because of the climatic conditions in Cameroon, to stage the Africa Cup of Nations in June/July. This is clear, so we must make a decision on the date.
When we took the decision to move the Africa Cup of Nations to June, which we did for the last tournament in Egypt, we have always said that we need to have some flexibility over the dates. I don`t know why the media has forgotten that this was discussed in detail at the 2017 CAF symposium in Morocco.”
Just moving the date alone is not the problem. But it does spell disaster for Cameroon because with the available time frame, not all the sites retained to host the novel 24-team tournament will be ready for that. So far, only the Japoma Sports Complex on the outskirts of the country`s economic capital, Douala is fully ready in both competition venue and training fields. Seven others, including the Paul Biya Complex at Olembe, Yaounde, earmarked to host the Opening and Closing ceremonies, still require a lot of work to earn hosting eligibility. To add on to that, other infrastructure in the domains of roads and hotels are still to resonate in phase with requirements
It would be recalled that Cameroon were granted hosting rights for the 2019 AFCON in 2014. But then after characteristic feet-dragging and delays in advertising tenders, poor performance in living to their billings, as well as failure in meeting deadlines, the ultimate CAF-inspection team to the country found Cameroon desperately wanting in readiness for hosting the competition. So, the country was stripped of hosting rights for the 2019 event and given a second chance for 2021 as Egypt came in to rescue the event with the hosting of the 2019 AFCON. This also caused Ivory Coast and Guinea Conakry to witness delays in their hosting of the event as they were shifted to 2023 and 2025, respectively.
The last time 5-time winner of the tournament, Cameroon, hosted the Africa Cup of Nations was in 1972 when 8 countries competed in Douala and Yaounde with Congo Brazzaville winning the trophy after eliminating the hosts at the semi-finals.
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GHANA FA SWEEP CLERAN COACHES OF ALL NATIONS TEAMS
In a historic and unprecedented move, the Ghana Football Association, GFA, have removed all the coaches of all levels of their national teams, almost all of whom, including the coach of the senior men`s team, the Black Stars, Kwesi Appiah had their contracts running up to December 2019.The move is seen as a cast-iron guarantee to restore the lustre of Ghanaian football which for quite some time now has been dimmed by the absence of results by any of the teams in international competitions.
With the men`s senior team scheduled to resume qualifiers for the Total African Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021, and subsequently engage in the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar, GFA authorities insist time is up to give the Black Stars the required coaching expertise to shepherd them to a blistering campaign within three months. For now, the choice on who takes over from Appiah is not clear but his assistant, Akunor who is a former Black Stars player could officiate as interim while the review process is on for a credible technician, likely to be an expatriate.
The Black Stars are four-time winners of the African Cup of Nations tournament, winner of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2009 and, alongside Cameroon and Senegal are the African trinity to have reached the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup in 1990, 2002, 2010, respectively.
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SAMBA GOLD
Alison Becker, Brazilian,’s and FC Liverpool’s Goalkeeper, has received the GOLD SAMBA, the Award given each year since 2008 to the Best Brazilian playing in Europe ! The winner of IFFHS Award THE WORLD’S BEST GOALKEEPER succeeded to Roberto Firmino (2018), Neymar (2017), Philippe Coutinho (2016), Neymar (2014 and 2015), Thiago Silva (2011, 2012 and 2013), Maicon (2010), Luis Fabiano (2009) and Kaka (2008).
LONGEST UNBEATEN RUNS
FC Liverpool is unbeaten in PREMIER LEAGUE games since January 2019 (37 games) ! FC Arsenal holds the record in England’s Premier League with 49 games unbeaten from may 2003 and october 2004, FC Chelsea is second with 40 games unbeaten between october 2004 and november 2005. Is Liverpool able to beat the records ? This is the question for the next weeks…