Alex Iwobi remains in discussions with Everton over the possibility over a new contract, but there is not anything imminent when it comes to the attacker’s future.

The 27-year-old has less than 11 months left to run on his contract at Goodison Park, and he has thus far been unable to come to an agreement over an extension.

Everton boss Sean Dyche told the Liverpool Echo that discussions are ongoing with the players who are entering the latter stages of their contracts.

“Me and (director of football Kevin Thelwell) have been speaking about the idea of being open with the agents, open with the players and fathoming out in a way that is a more open scenario – open conversations, where are we at with it, what is the truth of it, and working it all out,” he said.

“That is just an ongoing process, not just with him but with every player whose contract has either got a renegotiation or a question mark or time lapse.”

Iwobi played the full 90 minutes of Everton’s 2023-24 Premier League opener against Fulham on Saturday, and he has now turned out on 139 occasions for the club since arriving from Arsenal.

Axel Diasi scored on his Premier League debut as Chelsea began their Premier League season with a draw against Liverpool in manager, Mauricio Pochettino’s first competitive game in charge.

The French defender, a  £38.8m buy from Monaco equalised for the Blues in the 37th minute after Luis Diaz had opened the scoring early for Liverpool.

Ben Chilwell and Mohamed Salah then saw their goals ruled out in the first half following video assistant referee checks.

Salah’s run of scoring on the Premier League’s opening day also came to an end after six consecutive seasons.

Despite half chances for Diaz and another debutant, Nicolas Jackson, neither side could capitalise on their opportunities and prevent a fifth consecutive draw between the sides.

Chelsea’s new manager Pochettino will have hoped to start his reign with a victory but there was plenty for him to be satisfied about as his new team recovered from a shaky start to deliver many encouraging signs.

The world body confirms that of the 44 individual winners from the 2022 edition in Oregon, 38 are entered to defend their titles in Budapest

The World Athletics has released the final entry lists for the World Athletics Championships billed for Budapest, Hungary from 19-27, August 2023.

Despite the controversies and uncertainties hanging over her neck, Nigeria’s Tobilola Amusan has been listed for action albeit with a proviso that the World Record holder’s participation is subjected to the outcome of the pending arbitration with the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

The difficult situation Amusan presently finds herself. However, there appears to be some hope, if the reigning world champion can successfully argue her case against the AIU.

As revealed by the World Athletics, over 2000 athletes from 202 teams intend to compete for honours at Hungary’s new National Athletics Centre at the 2023 World Championships.

The world body confirms that of the 44 individual winners from the 2022 edition in Oregon, 38 are entered to defend their titles in Budapest, with Peru’s double champion Kimberly Garcia set to contest both the 20km and 35km race walk events.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce seeks a record-extending sixth world 100m title after she led a Jamaican sweep of the medals last year, winning a championship record of 10.67.

Pawel Fajdek also has the chance to secure a sixth gold medal, having won the past five consecutive world hammer titles.

For Nigeria, the AFN has selected a decent team they hope to better the performance achieved in Oregon.

Iteshekiri Usheoritshe, Ashe Favour, Seye Ogunlewe, Alaba Akintola, Fakroede Adekalu, Karlignton Anunagba, Dubem Nwachukwu, Nathaniel Ezekiel, Chidi Okezie, Samuel Ogazi and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi are the male athletes that would be defending Nigeria’s Green and White colours in Budapest.

Topping the women’s list is Olympic Bronze medalist, Ese Brume, along with Rosemary Chkuwma, Favour Ofili, Umukoro Success, and Okwose Faith, fresh from her exploits at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago.

Others are; Patience Okon, Uko Imaobong Nee, Eyakpobeyan Justina, Patience George Okon, One Opeyemi One, Omojuvwewo Ella, Ruth Usoro, Amaechi Obiageri, Aumba Ashley, Chioma Onyekwere and Olatoye Oyesade.

Official start lists according to the World Athletics will become available after the technical meeting on the eve of the championships.

As expected, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria ‘omitted’ Amusan’s name from the list made public on Tuesday  as no federation is allowed to enter a banned athlete for any competition.

However, the AFN had already given the World Athletics its permission to have Amusan on its final entry list so she will not miss out on competing once her pending appeal against AIU’s provisional ban is successful.

With three more gold medals won on the final day of action, Team Nigeria took its total haul to six gold and two silver medals.

Team Nigeria finished their campaign on a blistering note at the Commonwealth Youth Games  on Thursday night; winning three gold medals and setting a new Games Record in the 4x100m mixed relay.

Having initially won the gold medal in the 100m and 400m events respectively, Faith Okwose and Samuel Ogazi claimed the gold medal in both the women’s and men’s 200m events.

As rightly predicted, Okwose won the women’s 200m gold in a time of 23.36s while her compatriot Eyakpobeyan Justina settled for the silver medal with her time of 23.47s.

Unfortunately, the other Nigerian who made it to the 200m men’s final, Okon Israel Sunday narrowly missed out on a podium finish as he settled for fourth position with a time of 21.94s.

Team Nigeria kept the best for the last when the quartet of Ogazi, Eyakpobeyan, Okwose and Okon claimed gold in the 4x100m Mixed Relay with a time of 42.68s.

The winning time by the Nigerian youngsters eclipsed the former 43.19 feat set by Australia at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games in Nashua.

With three more gold medals won on the final day of action, Team Nigeria took its total haul to six gold and two silver medals.

This put them better placed on the overall medals table; finishing 5th behind the quartet of Australia, England, Scotland and South Africa.

Team Nigeria competed at the Games held in the Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago with 25 athletes, aged between fourteen (14) and eighteen (18) years.

Awoniyi, who ended Arsenal’s title hope last season and effectively handed the title to Manchester City, needed barely ten minutes on the pitch to make an impact.

Super Eagles striker Taiwo Awoniyi got off to a promising start in the Premier League scoring a well-taken goal in the season opener against Arsenal on Saturday at the Emirates Stadium.

Unfortunately, the goal scored by Awoniyi was not enough as Arsenal prevailed 2-1 over Nottingham Forest in a game the Gunners dominated almost all the departments.

Several reports had suggested Awoniyi will not be fit for the trip to London to face the Gunners but the 26-year-old surprisingly made it to the bench.

He was finally introduced into the game in the 72nd minute when he came on as a replacement for Brazilian forward, Danilo.

Awoniyi, who ended Arsenal’s title hope last season and effectively handed the title to Manchester City, needed barely ten minutes on the pitch to make an impact.

He combined well with Anthony Elanga, another substitute to score for Forest in the 83rd minute.

Though the visitors pushed to have a share of the spoils with Arsenal, the first-half goals scored by Eddie Nketiah in the 26th minute and Bukayo Saka just after the half-hour mark gave the Gunners maximum points and a somewhat perfect start to the season.

Despite his injury setback, Awoniyi scored 10 goals in 27 EPL games in the 2022-23 season campaign, proving how dangerous he is as a striker.

With a goal from his first game, many are confident Awoniyi with lesser injury spells should get over a dozen goals for Forest this season and also ensure they retain their Premier League status for another season.

While Forest will be counting on Awoniyi for goals upfront, they have added another Nigerian, Ola Aina, to their roster, who will be saddled with ensuring they concede the least number of goals possible.

Aina made his full debut for Forest on Saturday against Arsenal as Steve Copper handed him a starter’s shirt

The former Torino of Italy defender featured for 71 minutes before he was replaced by Neco Williams.

Though Aina was booked in the 28th minute for a foul against Bukayo Saka, he largely had a decent outing for Forest on Saturday.

The next stop for Awonyi and Aina is a home game against the newly promoted Sheffield United.

Australia goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold surely won a legion of fans with her steely-eyed heroics in Saturday’s quarter-final penalty shootout victory at the Women’s World Cup.

Once the target of criticism in the women’s game, goalkeepers have been show-stoppers Down Under with umpteen theatrical game-salvaging saves.

Arnold – known affectionately as “Macca” – saved three spot-kicks against France on Saturday, despite pinging her own penalty kick off the post.

Calling it the “craziest game” she had ever played in, the 29-year-old West Ham keeper had to stop Kenza Dali’s spot-kick twice after the referee whistled Arnold had moved off her line.

“For Macca, missing that penalty and then staying in the game and being that player that wins the game for us, it’s unheard of,” raved Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson. “I mean, that mental strength of hers.”

Of the 60 games played through three rounds, goalkeepers have been named player of the match in nine of them, including Arnold.

Netherlands coach Andries Jonker was full of praise for Daphne van Domselaar after the Aston Villa keeper’s string of saves against South Africa helped secure the Dutch a spot in the quarter-finals.

“Four years ago, there were goalkeepers that could not deal with the ball just under the bar and now we’ve got a whole generation of very athletic goalkeepers, who don’t let in that kind of ball,” Jonker said.

“Daphne is one of that new generation,” the coach added. “They’re athletic, they’re in good shape, they’ve got good positioning, so the developments in that area are incredible and the Netherlands are right along there.”

Nadine Angerer, who kept goal for Germany in their World Cup triumphs of 2003 and 2007, said there were clear signs of improved goal-keeping standards.

“Overall, there’s way better goalkeeper performances,” Angerer said at FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) press conference on Aug 4. “Especially I want to highlight . . . making the decision to come out and then a decision whether to punch it or to actually catch the ball.

“We saw an absolute increase in decision making to come out and then finally, the punching technique and the punching has improved.”

Forty-six percent of teams have kept a clean sheet in a game, up from 33% from four years ago. And save percentages with the hands have risen from 74% to 78% despite there being more attempts at goal from within the penalty area.

“The positioning of the goalkeepers, they’re way more connected to the defence line, the positioning is higher, and the timing is better,” Angerer added. “They’re coming out more ruthless. And yeah, the technique itself is better, so that’s one area we saw big improvement.”

England’s Mary Earps was named FIFA female goalkeeper of the year for 2022, and the Manchester United player has shown why at the World Cup. She conceded just one goal during a group stage in which the Lionesses outscored opponents 8-1, while leaping and diving in an array of dazzling saves.

“I personally love to see when goalkeepers are doing well,” Earps said. “Obviously, we talk about the ‘goalkeeper union’ and that’s something that might be a bit of a cliche, but it’s really, really true.

“I very much hope (people are) praising goalkeepers, because I think the performances have been fantastic and deserve a lot of credit.”

Days before the World Cup kicked off, Earps voiced her anger in Nike excluding her shirt in the jerseys that were available for fan purchase.

Sixteen-year-old Emmy Somuaroo started a petition on change.org calling on Nike to reverse the decision. It has over 38,000 signatures so far.

Cristiano Ronaldo guided 10-man Al-Nassr to their first ever Arab Club Champions Cup title after scoring twice in a 2-1 extra-time win over fellow Saudi side Al-Hilal on Saturday.

Ronaldo failed to land a trophy last season after his move to Al-Nassr, who finished runners-up in the Saudi Pro League, but the 38-year-old scored six times in the tournament to finish as its top scorer en route to the title.

The tournament is played by top Arab clubs in the region and included teams from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

The star-studded Al-Nassr side had many chances to score in the first half with close season signings Sadio Mane, Seko Fofana and Marcelo Brozovic all denied by goalkeeper Mohammed Alowais.

The game at King Fahd Sports City stadium remained scoreless until six minutes into the second half when Al-Hilal’s Malcom crossed the ball and found fellow Brazilian Michael, who put his side ahead with a free header.

To rub salt into their wounds, the 27-year-old even produced the Ronaldo goal celebration as he ran to the corner flag and leapt into the air.

That seemed to fire up Ronaldo and the Portugal captain equalised in the 74th minute when he got on the end of a low cross from right back Sultan Al-Ghannam to score for a fifth game in a row.

Al-Nassr defender Abdulelah Al-Amri was sent off in the second half before Nawaf Boushal was given his marching orders while on the bench for arguing with an official, but they held on to take the game to extra time.

Ronaldo then doubled the lead in the first half of extra time when he pounced on a rebound off the crossbar and headed home with the goalkeeper off his line.

There were concerns, however, when Ronaldo was carted off the field with an apparent injury after a collision in the second period of extra time — just two days before their Saudi Pro League opener against Al-Ettifaq.