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It will forever be a mystery, the reason Manchester United choose to keep Cristiano Ronaldo beyond the summer even more due to the role he is playing under their new manager, Erik Ten Hag. The Dutch manager said in the summer that the Portuguese is in his plans, though Ronaldo requested a move away following the club's inability to secure Champions League qualification. Certainly, it would have been better for all parties, mostly Ronaldo and Ten Hag should the player got his move away in the summer. The clash of egos is always going to come to be at the Theater of dreams after that denied move. For Ten Hag, he would have inherited only a group of players who have gone through the preseason campaign with him. Also, there is no denying the issue of Ronaldo's ego, he will not settle for less play time, not because of any reason. For Ronaldo, whose hunger and efforts last season was not equally shared by his teammates, as they were mostly found wanting when needed to step up, maybe

A host of top teams in Europe have benefited from integrating graduating players from their Academy into the first team down the years. Catch them young; many top teams prefer snapping up exciting players in the later stages of their development from their boyhood clubs to in the near future make them first team regulars. Some have build a reputation of promoting players from their system to the first team. Teams like Borussia Dortmund, Ajax, Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal and others have good history with players who have come through the ranks at their clubs. Barcelona's golden generation was a concentration of players from their famous La Masia Academy. Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andreas Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Gérard Piqué and others were students at the club, progressing thereon to become club legends. Today, there are the likes of Pedri Gonzalez, Ansu Fati, Pablo Gavi, Alejandro Balde and more, starting regularly for the first team, continuing the legacy and keeping the clu

European countries The dominant continent in the global competition. Europe have produced more different winner than the other continents combined. Although, the above is a bit of sarcasm because aside Europe, only South America has produced winners of the World Cup in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The other five countries that made up the eight different nations to have won the competition are European countries. Germany, Italy, France, England and Spain have all tasted glory in the global tourney. In this edition of the competition, all the above named countries still carries the tag of favourites and in this article, we access the chances of UEFA flag bearers in Qatar. Of course, unlike the South Americans, who will only be counting on Brazil and Argentina, Europe have several countries to look forward to. Aside those with reputations in this competition, there are several others with world class players and in fine form. 13 European nations have gone through a thorough qualifying

If you call it a fairytale, then there are still pages left to be filled because this is not just a flash in the pan for Mikel Arteta and his minions, so welcome to reality. It could have become obvious last season but the eventual stumble is still much acceptable because this is a team in transition, and maybe a season more out of Europe’s most prestigious competition gives them the avenue to prepare ahead for the main task. Reminiscing their first three games at the start of last season, which was rounded off with a 5-0 humiliation at the hands of Manchester City at the Ethiad, though many could foresee the end even before the start, there was this believe that the result had nothing to do in defining their season. Thereon, Arsenal went on to record some impressive results though there were also lows midway through the season, like their inability to overcome adversity which saw them lose when you'd expect them to win. However, only Manchester City and Liverpool earned more point

To stop Erling Haaland from scoring, it is not by man marking him because this leaves your defense vulnerable. The aforementioned only affords other City players making late runnings into the box more opportunities to wreck havocs as continuously stalking one man leads to men disadvantage. It has never been easy dealing with Manchester City on their day and the presence of Haaland is just that of a hungry striker in the midst of creative players, goals after goals until he breaks every single record available as long as he remains a City player. After only eight games in the Premier League, Erling Haaland is already nine goals away from equaling the tally that won both Mohamed Salah and Son Hueng-Min the top scorer award last season. They help him make it look so easy and now he is unstoppable. Of the 12 games he has played in all competitions for the club, he has score two or more in six of them, failed to score in two and failed to register a goal contribution in just one, and that o

South Americans We access first, the chances of South America teams in a bid to end their 20 year wait for a World Cup success in the part one of our World Cup power rankings. The wait must have started to grow into frustration for South America legends, who have watch European countries dominate and won each the last four editions of the FIFA World Cup after themselves have made history with their countries in their time. Since Brazil beat Germany in the final to win the first edition of the competition to be held outside Europe, South America, or North America, when Korea and Japan hosted it in 2002, European countries like Italy, Spain, Germany and France have won the following editions respectively. Only once has a country from another continent other than Europe reached the final in that time as well, with Argentina losing to Germany in the final of the 2014 edition. Record winners, Brazil also reached the semi finals that year but faltered badly as they were beaten by eventual Ch