image via DailyMail

Anytime you go on International Duty for your country, you’ve been given a specific time and date that you have to be back by.  In this case it’s Nigerian striker Yakubu, who’s two day late arrival from the African Nations Cup was made even worse by countryman/teammate  Joseph Yobo arrival on time (talk about getting thrown under the bus).  Although manager David Moyes initial statement to the press is that it’s “an internal matter”, Yakubu will not be dressing for Everton’s Saturday match against Reading and a minimum two week fine (40,000 pound) has been levied.

image via SkySports

For the last four days everyone in the Barclay’s Premiership has been waiting to hear what the hell went on in the transfer of Portsmouth’s Benjani to Manchester City. The truth behind the mess started with Benjani falling asleep at the airport and then the next flight being canceled and the following delayed. Yeah, this was some crazy shit and actually forced the transfer fee down, but if Benjani hits 75 starts in his Man City tenure, Portsmouth would receive a total of 7.5 million pound.

image via CNN

This has got to be bullshit, but here it is anyways. Drogba has always been a master of making questionable statements to the press, but this comes from the Ivory Coast press officer regarding the African Player of the Year Award which was won by Frederic Kanoute.

Mali and Sevilla forward Frederic Kanoute was today named Africa’s Player of the Year for 2007, beating out Chelsea’s Michael Essien and Didier Drogba (the 2006 winner). The 30 year old Kanoute was also the 1st European born African to win the award, born in France to Malian parents.

So I was reading this week about the influx of South American players in MLS. There are more players from South America heading to MLS than ever before. I personally am a fan of this, and there have been some huge success stories for MLS as far as South American players are concerned (see Etcheverry, Moreno, Valderrama, Gomez, et al). The thing is, I have also been keeping up on the African Nations Cup this week, and I started wondering, why MLS isn’t being more proactive with African players. Teams all over Europe have found raw, but extremely talented players, with huge upside throughout Africa. Why isn’t MLS doing the same? Somebody in the league, or someone with one of the MLS clubs needs to take some initiative, and seek out and bring over some African players. If it was me, I would invest both time and resources to uncovering the seemingly unlimited and barely tapped soccer talent this exists on the African continent. But that’s just me…

Image via Mimi Magazine

So I just waxed all poetic about why I choose Jessica Biel for our fan of the week. And then I came across this story which I found over at Dunord, I just had to showcase this cat real quick. After doing some digging into this subject, I found that Malian Mousa Diop walked for 27 days to support the Mali Eagles at the Nations Cup. He arrived during the first half of the Mali v Benin match. When asked why he did it, this was his response “I did it to express my love for my team so that the Eagles won’t lack support at the Nations Cup.” This might be the biggest fan gesture of all time. All I have to say is WOW!!

With the Africa Cup of Nations tournament just around the corner,  we wanted to hip you to the official ball that will be used. The adidas “wawa aba” ball is one of the best official tournament balls that has come out. Not only is it the most visually stimulating, but it also has significant meaning.  The colors of the ball are the national colors of Ghana, the host nation, and the name of the ball has deep history in Western Africa.

According the the adidas press release, “For the Akan culture originating from Western Africa the name “wawa aba” is a symbol of persistence. People there particularly believe in the strength and team spirit of a community.  The wawa aba is the seed of the wawa tree, one of the strongest and most processible woods of Africa. For the population, the wawa aba mainly has mystical significance. These are people who don’t let failure discourage them, who seize all opportunities successfully and who are thus just as strong and adaptable as the wawa aba.”

Good to see some color and creativity being thrown into the performance side of the sport. I say it’s about time.