logo
Colorado Rapids' Chidozie Awaziem returns to Nantes

Colorado Rapids' Chidozie Awaziem returns to Nantes

Yahoo23-07-2025
FC Nantes have signed Nigerian international centre-back Chidozie Awaziem (28) from Colorado Rapids, both clubs have announced. Awaziem is back at La Beaujoire after already spending the 2017-2018 season on loan from FC Porto with Les Canaris. Awaziem has now joined Nantes on a permanent basis, putting pen to paper over a three-year deal.
Nantes were in the market for a centre-back after parting ways with Jean-Charles Castelletto and Nicolas Pallois. Awaziem will wear the No. 6 jersey with Nantes. 'When the opportunity presented itself, I didn't hesitate for a second to come back, because for me, Nantes is like home', Awaziem said. 'The people are lovely, the club is great, and I was really looking forward to returning to this environment.'
'We're grateful to Chido for his time with the club this season,' said Colorado Rapids President Pádraig Smith. 'We wish him nothing but success in this next chapter.'
GFFN | Bastien Cheval
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Manchester United prioritising Benjamin Sesko
Manchester United prioritising Benjamin Sesko

New York Times

time4 minutes ago

  • New York Times

Manchester United prioritising Benjamin Sesko

Manchester United are prioritising a move for RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko if they sign a striker this summer. The Old Trafford club have made informal contact with their Bundesliga counterparts after Sesko emerged as their preferred option. Newcastle United are also targeting the 22-year-old as their top candidate. That interest comes amid Alexander Isak wanting to leave St James' Park and has accelerated the actions of Manchester United. Advertisement The Athletic reported on July 29 that United had narrowed their striker search to the 22-year-old and Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins and were exploring the costs of both potential deals. Watkins has admirers at Old Trafford but Villa told United early in the window that the 29-year-old is not for sale and are adamant he is staying. The United hierarchy are reluctant to pay what they thought it may have taken for Villa to consider doing business. United have already added two attacking reinforcements this summer with Matheus Cunha arriving from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bryan Mbeumo joining from Brentford. They previously held an interest in Sesko before his move to Red Bull Salzburg but, back in 2019, United viewed a €3million price as excessive. Sesko's Leipzig deal runs until 2029, having signed a new contract last year. When he signed that new deal, it came with the understanding that if an elite club — by his definition — offered in the region of €80m-€90m (£69m to £78m), Leipzig would allow him to leave. The Slovenia international joined Leipzig in 2023 from Red Bull Salzburg, with both clubs owned by the Red Bull GmbH conglomerate. He has made 87 appearances for Leipzig, scoring 39 goals and providing eight assists. He made his senior Slovenia debut the day after his 18th birthday and has scored 16 goals in 41 games, representing his nation at the 2024 European Championship. Additional reporting: Seb Stafford-Bloor and Adam Crafton Analysis by Manchester United correspondent Laurie Whitwell United's decision to go for Sesko over Watkins is fascinating in so many ways. This will be the more expensive of the deals, but would bring in a young player to complement the more established Premier League signings in Cunha and Mbeumo. United will hope he develops into the world-class striker he has shown promise to be. Advertisement United have years of scouting on him. They first looked at signing Sesko as a 16-year-old from Domzale in 2019, but failed to match the €2million fee agreed by Salzburg. They also held conversations in 2022 but Sesko preferred to agree to move to Leipzig for his pathway. United also made an approach last summer before signing Joshua Zirkzee, but Sesko opted to stay. United are planning to make it fourth time lucky, but Sesko will cost a lot more than the price from six years ago. Figuring out how United afford that will come down to sales yet to be realised, and hard negotiations with Leipzig are expected. Rasmus Hojlund's future will come into sharper focus. Christopher Vivell, United's director of recruitment, is influential on this proposed transfer. He was at Salzburg and Leipzig in executive roles when the Sesko deals were agreed, and has advocated for United making another move now. Watkins represents as guaranteed a Premier League option as possible, but United are going for a player who could spend a decade at the club if all goes well. Analysis by German football writer Seb Stafford-Bloor Reasonably well, but it was not the season he needed to produce to assuage the doubts. While his overall level of performance improved in the broader sense, with Sesko becoming more connected with the rest of the Leipzig side, his goalscoring numbers were down. He scored one fewer Bundesliga goal (13) in 2024-25 than he did the year before, despite playing almost an extra 900 minutes. He was never able to replicate that seven-game streak from the previous year, either, meaning that it felt underwhelming as a result, despite some eye-catching goals (particularly against Bayern Munich at the Red Bull Arena). But Leipzig had a bad season. They sacked Marco Rose in March, limped to their lowest finish since being promoted to the Bundesliga in 2016 and only won one game of their eight Champions League games. That's valuable context. Nevertheless, consistency was still an issue for Sesko and the gap between his best performances and his worst, which is a historic criticism, remains too wide.

Sunderland hold talks over loan deal for Chelsea's Marc Guiu
Sunderland hold talks over loan deal for Chelsea's Marc Guiu

New York Times

time4 minutes ago

  • New York Times

Sunderland hold talks over loan deal for Chelsea's Marc Guiu

Sunderland are in talks to sign Chelsea striker Marc Guiu on a season-long loan deal. The Athletic reported via the Transfer DealSheet on July 22 that Chelsea had turned down offers from clubs looking to buy the 19-year-old striker, with a preference to loan him to another English club. No deal has yet been agreed for the teenager with talks ongoing between the clubs. Advertisement Championship side Ipswich Town had been keen to sign Guiu on loan, as reported by The Athletic on July 1. Chelsea signed Guiu on a six-year deal last summer after activating the €6million (£5.1m; $6.4m) release clause in his Barcelona contract. The 19-year-old scored six goals in 16 appearances, of which seven were starts, in part due to a leg abductor injury he suffered in February which kept him sidelined for over three months. Guiu played 41 minutes in Chelsea's victorious Club World Cup campaign this summer. The Spain under-19 international scored twice in seven appearances for the first team at Barca. Newly-promoted Sunderland have signed seven senior players this summer including midfielders Granit Xhaka and Habib Diarra, alongside wingers Simon Adingra and Chemsdine Talbi, but no strikers have been added to Regis Le Bris's squad. Chelsea have once again been active in the transfer market this summer with the signings of attackers Joao Pedro, Liam Delap and Jamie Gittens, while Estevao has joined following a pre-existing deal with Palmeiras. Additional reporting by Chris Weatherspoon and Liam Twomey ()

Barcelona agree €44m sponsorship deal with DR Congo
Barcelona agree €44m sponsorship deal with DR Congo

New York Times

time4 minutes ago

  • New York Times

Barcelona agree €44m sponsorship deal with DR Congo

Barcelona have agreed a kit sponsorship deal with the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ministry of Sports and Leisure. The sponsorship ensures the central African nation's logo of 'DRC, coeur de l'Afrique' (DRC, the heart of Africa) will appear on the back of all of Barca's professional team's training kits. Advertisement Club sources indicate the total package for the deal, which is a four-year agreement, is worth €44million ($50.5m) to the Catalan club, with the first annual instalment in excess of €10m already paid. As part of the agreement, Barcelona say their revamped Camp Nou stadium will be home to the House of the DRC, an exhibition which 'will highlight the richness and diversity of Congolese cultural and sporting heritage through interactive exhibitions', according to the club statement. Barca added the agreement will see a program of sports camps and clinics for children in the area that would focus on football, basketball, handball, futsal, and roller hockey. The agreement will help Barcelona in their attempts to ease their deep financial problems and La Liga's strict salary cap rules, which have created complications for registering new signings. Growing the club's income and adding sponsorship agreements are crucial to the club's plans to incorporate new signings this summer, having added goalkeeper Joan Garcia and young forward Roony Bardghji on permanent deals, in addition to the loan addition of Marcus Rashford. In June, Monaco and Milan also struck agreements with DR Congo's Ministry of Sports and Leisure. The Monaco deal sees 'DRC, coeur de l'Afrique' appear on the sleeve of Monaco's first-team kit, which will feature in the 2025-26 Champions League, and will also appear as a front-of-kit sponsor on the club's academy teams. The Ligue 1 side say the association 'aims to contribute to the development of Congolese football and boost the country's international profile'. Monaco's CEO Thiago Scuro said the deal means the club can help 'to contribute to the country's reputation and support efforts to structure and develop local football'. Milan said their deal 'will be at the heart of an international platform aimed at supporting the socioeconomic development of the African nation' and 'will support the DR Congo's strategy to boost international tourism.' Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed 'a deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation' in DR Congo. HRW said president Felix Tshisekedi oversaw a 'crackdown on opposition members, civil society activists, critics, and journalists throughout 2024'. Monusco, the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, has condemned attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) — which it describes as an 'Islamic State-affiliated insurgent group' — this month. An attack over the night of July 26 to 27 saw at least 49 civilians killed, with many worshippers attending a night vigil in the Ituri province, Monusco reported. Earlier this month, an attack in the Ituri and North Kivu provinces saw 82 civilians killed. In June, DR Congo and its eastern neighbour Rwanda signed a peace deal in Washington D.C. aimed at ending decades of conflict between the nations, asking for 'a negotiated, political resolution — rather than a military solution'. The deal demanded the 'disengagement, disarmament and conditional integration' of armed groups fighting in eastern DR Congo. However, former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila, said it was 'nothing more than a trade agreement'. Advertisement Conflict in the mineral-rich region has intensified this year, but the area has endured more than three decades of conflict since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The war is primarily between the Rwandan-backed March 23 Movement (M23) paramilitary group and DR Congo's army. M23 is backed by Rwanda, the DRC's much smaller neighbour whose troops have trained, armed and embedded with the rebels, according to the United Nations. Rwanda has acknowledged that its troops are in the DRC but denied controlling M23. In 2024, a group of UN experts said that up to 4,000 Rwandan troops were fighting alongside the rebels. They also said the Rwandan army was in 'de facto control of M23 operations'. DR Congo, the United States, the United Kingdom and France also say Rwanda is supporting the M23. The UK government suspended aid to Rwanda in February over its support for the M23 rebel group in DR Congo. War in eastern DR Congo has resulted in thousands of deaths and displaced hundreds of thousands of people since fighting surged this year. In February, Amnesty International wrote to the European Union to say that 'urgent action is required' on the 'escalating human rights crisis' in the east of DR Congo. Rwanda's tourist board also holds sponsorship agreements in European football. Arsenal's Visit Rwanda shirt sleeve sponsorship for the men's and women's teams began in 2018, initially on a three-year deal which was extended in 2021. As reported in the club's accounts for 2023-24, the sponsorship deal with Visit Rwanda brought in £10million ($13.4m) as part of an overall commercial income of £218.3m. Visit Rwanda also holds a deal with Bundesliga club Bayern Munich — Rwandan president Paul Kagame attended the Champions League match between the two clubs at the Emirates Stadium in April 2024 — and with Paris Saint-Germain. (Top image: Stuart Franklin – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store