The Ultimate Football Blog
Premier League Player Of The Week
We continue our quest with Arnold Furious of 411 Mania to identify the best players from each Premier League game week. Here's how the voting went after week four.
Arnold
1.

Unsurprisingly, Ghana lead the list of nominees for the African Footballer of the Year

The short list of nominees up for the African Footballer of the Year have been making their way into the press this morning. Not surprising that Ghana lead the list along with some other predictable nominations .

Wizards forward, Kei Kamara and the Sierra Leone national team pulled off a big result today in their African Cup of Nations qualifier. The Leone Stars pulled out a 1-1 draw in Cairo against group favorites Egypt today. Kamara got the start for his country and had a good chance early from around the penalty area but couldn't finish it.

Eto'o has always been known as one of the world's deadliest forwards, a player with speed, intelligence, and pinpoint finishing. His statistics are incredible, with great goalscoring records at club and international level. But this past season where he won the treble with Inter Milan was a severe drop for him in goalscoring terms.

Tickets for the Bafana Bafana vs Niger match at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Saturday 4 September 2010 are selling fast, in spite of being more expensive that previous tickets.

R50 Tickets are Sold Out

According to information gathered by KickOff.

The Wizards continue their current push to get back into the playoff race this weekend against expansion side Philadelphia. This is a game that the Wizards would have expected to hopefully get something out of in their hopes of making the playoffs. Last week's result against LA helps ease this from a must win this week.

There have been quotes from coaches around the league that MLS should not be playing on a FIFA international date. Teams are losing quality talent to Euro 2012 qualifiers, to African Cup of Nations, to friendlies in CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, and yet with a third of the season left the MLS sides still need to gather points.

The Revolution continue their playoff chase tonight against Chivas USA with New England eight points out of the final playoff spot. With just seven games remaining after tonight's duel in Los Angeles, this is another must win for the Revolution.

Similarly, Chivas USA will have the like-minded motivations, as they also face an uphill battle for the final playoff spot.

Despite making it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup this summer in South Africa, the man that took them there has declined to extend his contract with the Black Stars. Milovan Rajevac, rejected the four-year extension offered by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for a more lucrative financial deal with Saudi Arabian club, Al-Ahli.

This is a 2010 update of ITS' first ever top 10 of the week. Click here to see the original. Anyway here to Premiership Imports!

10. Claude Makélélé

Claude may only have been at Chelsea for three years, but his legacy in the Premiership still lives on.

Rumor has it Marcel Desailly has put his hat in the ring to succeed Milovan Rajevac as the Black Stars coach. If you remember, Rajevac left the Ghana post to coach Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia after leading them to the quarters of the World Cup this summer in South Africa. The Ghana Association has reported receiving 50 CVs for the position and Desailly's lack of experience has raised some eyebrows.

AstonVilla midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker has apparently rejected an offer to play international football for Sierra Leone. At 26 it looked like his ambitions to play internationally for England have passed.

After representing England at the under-21-level and captaining them, along with club teams Wimbledon and West Ham United, a bright and long international career was expected.

Blackburn return to Villa Park in the Carling Cup tonight, but if it's to be a repeat of the 6-4 thriller back in January, it will likely be for different reasons. Sam Allardyce has stated explicitly that the Premier League is their priority at all costs and after a bruising encounter with Fulham last weekend, on top of a Lancashire derby against Blackpool next weekend, Sam's unlikely to field his strongest possible XI.

Blackburn return to Villa Park in the Carling Cup tonight, but if it's to be a repeat of the 6-4 thriller back in January, it will likely be for different reasons. Sam Allardyce has stated explicitly that the Premier League is their priority at all costs and after a bruising encounter with Fulham last weekend, on top of a Lancashire derby against Blackpool next weekend, Sam's unlikely to field his strongest possible XI.

When West Brom signed Peter Odemwingie from Locomotiv Moscow before the transfer window closed, not many would have been overly excited. Those with a keen eye will have seen Odemwingie represent Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations as well as this summer's World Cup but not a great deal more. The Uzbekistan born forward who has earned over 47 caps for Nigeria, the nation of his father's birth, had been in Moscow for three years after a big money move from Lille.

By Chris Wright

The Togolese 'keeper that was shot twice in the back during an armed raid on the Togo team bus during the African Cup of Nations in Angola earlier this year has been handed a donation of $25,000 by FIFA a fairly paltry sum considering that Kodjovi Obilale now owes over $140,000 in medical bills after a seven month hospital stay.

In the darkest hour of the sport of soccer this calender year, Togo national team keeper Kodjovi Obilale lay face down on the floor of his team's travel coach bleeding from multiple gun shot wounds to his back as bullets continued to whiz through the windows of the team's bus.

The Togo national team was on a trip to the African Cup of Nations and we all have heard of the tragedy those players faced.