Archive April 22, 2025

Man Utd interested in Wolves striker Cunha

By in News, Sports News
Getty Images
Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter
Sami Mokbel
Senior football correspondent
  • 1313 Comments

Manchester United are interested in signing Wolves forward Matheus Cunha this summer.

The Brazilian, who has a £62. 5m release clause in his Wolves contract, is expected to leave Molineux at the end of the season.

Multiple club sources have told BBC Sport the 25-year-old is one of a number of attacking options on United’s shortlist, with Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap, 22, also of interest.

Cunha is viewed as an ideal addition to play in one of the two attacking midfield positions in Amorim’s preferred 3-4-2-1 formation.

Cunha – Wolves’ top scorer this season with 16 goals to his name in all competitions – plays in a similar system under current boss Vitor Pereira.

United are set to face competition from a number of Premier League clubs for Cunha, with Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle all known to be looking to sign a forward this summer.

Cunha has scored 32 times in 87 appearances for Wolves but his disciplinary record may be of some concern to suitors.

The former Atletico Madrid striker has been sent off twice this season, missing six games in total through suspension.

The forward said in an interview with the Observer in March that he has told Wolves he needs to “take the next step” and fight for titles.

United’s planning for next season is hindered by uncertainty over their financial situation.

At a conservative estimate, the club stand to gain around £100m in additional funds if they win this season’s Europa League and qualify for the Champions League.

But, with each league position worth £3m in the Premier League, United stand to lose around £24m should they finish in their current position of 14th compared to an eighth-placed finish last season.

United desperate for forwards – analysis

Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter

Cunha would seem to be a very good fit for Manchester United.

An aggressive attacking player, capable of dropping deeper and linking play or threatening the opponents’ goal – and scoring.

He is the kind of player Amorim’s squad has been crying out for all season, with neither Rasmus Hojlund or, before his season-ending injury, Joshua Zirkzee looking like the answer in the most advanced position.

Work is going on behind the scenes at Old Trafford to come up with a summer transfer plan.

However, there is a big but.

It is quite obvious United’s status, in terms of the finances they have to spend, will be shaped by whether they win the Europa League or not.

If they beat Athletic Bilbao in the semi-final, then either Tottenham or Bodo/Glimt in the final, United can count themselves fortunate the damage of this appalling campaign has not been too extensive and can create a more rounded squad in the belief results will be far better in 2025-26.

If they don’t, a decision will have to be made over whether they prioritise a couple of positions, believing all the spare midweek fixture slots will give Amorim a chance to work with his players, or lower their sights and bring in more players with the profile the former Sporting boss wants.

It is clear United are desperate for forwards. But they probably need more than one. They also need wing-backs, central midfield players and central defenders.

Related topics

  • Manchester United
  • Football
  • Wolverhampton Wanderers

Manchester United interested in Wolves’ Cunha

By in News, Sports News
Getty Images
Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter
Sami Mokbel
Senior football correspondent
  • 309 Comments

Manchester United are interested in signing Wolves forward Matheus Cunha this summer.

The Brazilian, who has a £62. 5m release clause in his Wolves contract, is expected to leave Molineux at the end of the season.

Multiple club sources have told BBC Sport the 25-year-old is one of a number of attacking options on United’s shortlist, with Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap, 22, also of interest.

Cunha is viewed as an ideal addition to play in one of the two attacking midfield positions in Amorim’s preferred 3-4-2-1 formation.

Cunha – Wolves’ top scorer this season with 16 goals to his name in all competitions – plays in a similar system under current boss Vitor Pereira.

United are set to face competition from a number of Premier League clubs for Cunha, with Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle all known to be looking to sign a forward this summer.

Cunha has scored 32 times in 87 appearances for Wolves but his disciplinary record may be of some concern to suitors.

The former Atletico Madrid striker has been sent off twice this season, missing six games in total through suspension.

The forward said in an interview with the Observer in March that he has told Wolves he needs to “take the next step” and fight for titles.

United’s planning for next season is hindered by uncertainty over their financial situation.

At a conservative estimate, the club stand to gain around £100m in additional funds if they win this season’s Europa League and qualify for the Champions League.

But, with each league position worth £3m in the Premier League, United stand to lose around £24m should they finish in their current position of 14th compared to an eighth-placed finish last season.

United desperate for forwards – analysis

Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter

Cunha would seem to be a very good fit for Manchester United.

An aggressive attacking player, capable of dropping deeper and linking play or threatening the opponents’ goal – and scoring.

He is the kind of player Amorim’s squad has been crying out for all season, with neither Rasmus Hojlund or, before his season-ending injury, Joshua Zirkzee looking like the answer in the most advanced position.

Work is going on behind the scenes at Old Trafford to come up with a summer transfer plan.

However, there is a big but.

It is quite obvious United’s status, in terms of the finances they have to spend, will be shaped by whether they win the Europa League or not.

If they beat Athletic Bilbao in the semi-final, then either Tottenham or Bodo/Glimt in the final, United can count themselves fortunate the damage of this appalling campaign has not been too extensive and can create a more rounded squad in the belief results will be far better in 2025-26.

If they don’t, a decision will have to be made over whether they prioritise a couple of positions, believing all the spare midweek fixture slots will give Amorim a chance to work with his players, or lower their sights and bring in more players with the profile the former Sporting boss wants.

It is clear United are desperate for forwards. But they probably need more than one. They also need wing-backs, central midfield players and central defenders.

Related topics

  • Manchester United
  • Football
  • Wolverhampton Wanderers

McIlroy will have ‘unfinished business’ at Portrush Open

By in News, Sports News
Getty Images
Matt Gault
BBC Sport NI senior journalist
  • 32 Comments

Newly crowned Masters champion Rory McIlroy will have “unfinished business” when the Open Championship returns to Royal Portrush this summer, says R& A chief executive Mark Darbon.

Northern Irishman McIlroy, who won at Augusta National earlier this month to complete a career Grand Slam, missed the cut when The Open was held at the Dunluce Links for the first time in 68 years in 2019.

On Tuesday, Darbon announced that this year’s championship, which takes place from 17-20 July, will be the biggest sporting event held in Northern Ireland, with 278,000 fans expected on the Antrim coast links.

“I think he’s probably got some unfinished business here,” Darbon told BBC Sport NI of McIlroy’s chances.

Darbon, who was appointed R& A chief last summer, added: “We were excited enough as it was, having the Open Championship back here, but I think that [McIlroy’s Masters win] is the icing on the cake and sets us up for a fantastic summer of golf. “

This year’s Open, which will be the biggest held outside St Andrews in Scotland, is expected to generate £213m of economic impact.

The 2019 tournament proved a memorable occasion as Ireland’s Shane Lowry won his first major title.

When asked how this summer’s Open can top 2019, Darbon said: “I think we can. You look for certain things when staging an Open Championship.

‘Optimistic’ about Portmarnock hosting Open

Darbon also reaffirmed the R& A’s desire to take the Open outside the United Kingdom for the first time, to Portmarnock in Dublin.

“We’re really excited about the investigative work we’re doing at Portmarnock and pleased with the support we’re receiving from local authorities and the government,” he said.

“We have a lot of work to do to bring that project to life but we’re really optimistic that it will happen. “

Darbon is also keen to return the Open to “brilliant” Turnberry on the Ayrshire coast in Scotland and says “feasibility” work is being undertaken.

The resort, which has been given £200m of improvements since being bought by US president Donald Trump in 2014, last held the Championship in 2009.

Despite the facelift, Darbon says there are still “logistical and commercial challenges” around “road, rail and accommodation infrastructure” to overcome.

“In 2009 we had just over 120,000 people at Turnberry, and this summer we’re welcoming nearly 280,000 people to Royal Portrush,” he said.

Related topics

  • Golf
  • Northern Ireland Sport

Away from the global spotlight, Eritreans are trapped in a garrison state

By in News, World News

American writer and security analyst Paul B Henze, who served in the Carter administration as a deputy to National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, once made a very astute observation about Eritrea’s current president, Isaias Afwerki.

In his 2007 book, Ethiopia in Mengistu’s Final Years: Until the Last Bullet, he noted “Isaias impressed me as remarkably similar in temperament and attitudes to Mengistu [Haile Mariam, Eritrea’s former dictator who has overseen the killings of tens of thousands of opposition figures and civilians]. He has many of the same mannerisms, a rather bulldoggish seriousness, a defensiveness behind a facade of feigned reasonableness that is not really convincing. One senses a stubborn, fundamentally authoritarian personality. ”

The similarities Henze saw between Mengistu and Isaias have proven correct and highly consequential over the last three decades.

After declaring victory against the Mengsitu regime in 1991, Isaias was able to oversee the emergence of an independent, sovereign Eritrea. For a brief moment, Eritreans were full of hope. They assumed independence would bring more freedom and better economic prospects. There was talk of turning Eritrea into Africa’s Singapore.

However, the euphoria of independence was short-lived. The dream of transforming Eritrea into a prosperous liberal democracy did not appeal to Isaias. He wanted his country to resemble not Singapore, but Sparta. He rejected the democratic constitution drafted by the pre-eminent Eritrean jurist Bereket Habte Selassie and ruled Eritrea with an iron fist.

In no time, he turned Eritrea into a garrison state. He transformed Eritrean institutions and society at large into tools to fulfil his geo-political fantasies. Eritreans became unwilling pawns in the president’s many military schemes, with no space left for their personal dreams and aspirations.

Isaias ruthlessly dealt with even his closest colleagues and allies who dared to suggest that Eritreans enjoy some basic liberties that people elsewhere in the world often take for granted.

In May 2001, 15 senior Eritrean officials, many of whom had been on the president’s side throughout the independence war, issued an open letter urging him to reconsider his autocratic mode of governance and hold free and fair elections. At the time, three of the 15 officials were living abroad, and one eventually changed his position and rejoined the Isaias government. The remaining 11, however, were swiftly arrested on unspecified charges. More than 20 years later, the fates of these 11 men are still unknown. No one knows for sure if they are alive or dead. No legal or religious counsel or family member has been granted access to them. There have been no charges, no trials, no conviction and no sentence.

Though these senior officials are among the most prominent in Eritrea to be meted such treatment, their fate is hardly unique. Anyone in Eritrea who dares to question the great wisdom of the infallible President Isaias meets the same fate.

In the nightmarish gulag state that President Isaias created, no one is free to study, work, worship, run a business or engage in any other normal activities. There is a mandatory and indefinite military service which keeps every Eritrean citizen in servitude to the supreme leader for their entire lives.

While everyone in Eritrea suffers from Isaias’s institutionalised tyranny, religious and ethnic minorities suffer the most. Religious persecution in the country is so extreme that in 2004 the US Department of State designated Eritrea as a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. There is also significant ethnic persecution in Isaias’s Eritrea. In a May 2023 report, for example, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, underlined the harsh conditions faced by the Afar community who inhabit the Dankalia area of the country. Babiker wrote: “The Afar are one of the most disenfranchised communities in Eritrea. For several decades, they have been subjected to discrimination, harassment, arbitrary arrests, disappearance, violence, and widespread persecution. ”

In the end, Paul Henze’s insight about the fundamentally autocratic personality of Isaias proved not only right, but also an understatement. The oppression and violence of Isaias’s rule in the past three decades matched and at times surpassed that of Mengitsu.

Regrettably, the world rarely acknowledges the plight of Eritreans, who are forced to live their lives as unwilling servants and soldiers of their authoritarian president. The toll of Isais’s endless war schemes on Eritreans is still rarely mentioned in discussions about the region.

Eritrea under Isaias is a country always on a war footing. Right now, it is not only agitating against Ethiopia, but also actively involved in the civil war in Sudan. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find a period in Eritrea’s post-independence history that it was not at war with one of its neighbours, or involved in some regional conflict or civil war. War is the modus vivendi of President Isaias.

The world is now paying some attention to Eritrea, because of the looming risk of conflict with Ethiopia. But even if conflict between the two neighbours is somehow prevented, the misery of Eritreans stuck in Isaias’s garrison state will continue. Forgotten and left to their own devices, Eritreans will continue to suffer in a brutal dictatorship where the individual is seen just as fodder for the mighty Eritrean Defence Forces. This must not be allowed to continue. The world must not avert its gaze and forget about the plight of Eritreans once their country is no longer mentioned in the news. The world needs to act before more Eritreans lose their lives and dreams fighting in Isaias’s forever wars.

‘I’m Alive,’ Ebenezer Obey Refutes Death Rumour

By in Entertainment News, News

Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi, a musician from Venezuela, has refuted rumors that he has passed away and that he is still alive, strong, and in good health.

In a video posted on his Instagram page on Tuesday morning, the 83-year-old music icon, known as Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, refuted the false allegations.

The legendary singer addressed the false reports in the spirited clip, which included the legendary singer addressing a defiant song in Yoruba, English, and Pidgin.

Professor Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi is who I am. You don’t lose your pafuka, Satan, you don’t lose your o. You dey talk, you don’t pafuka, he sang, “Na lie lie.”

The singer of “Edumare Soro Mi Dayo” retorted in a clear refutation, saying that “it is fake news that started a few hours ago claiming that I, Evangelist Obey, have passed on to glory. It is false. Jesus did not say that I am alive, but that is what He said.

Fans and followers started sending out condolences and messages of mourning online after the rumor went viral on Easter Monday.

Tope Olukole, Obey’s assistant, addressed the situation quickly on Monday night.

Let’s get this right: Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi is still alive and well! He recently celebrated the spouse of his second child’s 50th birthday.

“His passing rumors are unfounded and completely unsupported. Olukole clarified, “We’re happy to see him active and well.

The Jùj music star expressed gratitude for the well-wishers’ overwhelming concern.

I extend my gratitude to each and every person who is concerned. Since last night, I’ve been receiving so many calls that I slept so late. I appreciate everyone who prayed for and checked on me. I appoint God to keep protecting everyone, he continued.

Obey criticized the misinformation and said the episode was “a reckless mistake.”

I believe the source of the false news made a careless error. What happened to the practice of checking news articles before publishing them. I’m not sure if the newsbreaker ever attended a school of journalism. He said, “It’s a shame and embarrassment for such a person.”

I Made My Talent Imitating Ebenezer Obey, Sunny Ade, Kent Edunjobi, [VIDEO] READ ALSO:

The music legend, along with members of the Ebenezer Obey Dynasty, had actually spent Easter Monday celebrating Pastor (Mrs.) Aduke Rotimi Obey’s 60th birthday with family and friends.

The 83-year-old musician also made a public appearance at the actress’s daughter’s wedding in Lagos a few days earlier, giving a blessing to the couple while playing the grandfather of the bride.

Precedence

Death hoaxes have used Obey before, and this is not the first time.

He was similarly forced to refute reports of his demise during an Instagram Live interview with journalist Dele Momodu in July 2020.

It’s not yet my turn to pass away. What God sent me to do is still unfulfilled. He had previously stated that I had to accomplish my goal and finish my assignment.

Read more about Ebenezer Obey at 81 here.

Unfortunately, the entertainment sector in Nigeria is not the only one to experience this problem.