By CHRIS WRIGHT sport@algarveresident.com
Manager Sérgio Conceição, wanted by AEK Athens, remains with the Algarve’s only Premier Liga side after the Greek club failed to agree a compensation package with Olhanense President Isidoro Sousa.
Olhanense were looking for €250,000 but AEK were only prepared to go to €100,000. Sérgio Conceição said: “I told the President that if it was something exceptional for the club and good for me then it would be worth considering. I’m glad to continue with Olhanense as we endeavour to reach a top half finish as we did last campaign.”
The Portuguese football media is still eulogising about Olhanense’s recent 4-4 draw at SC Braga.
The newspaper A Bola featured three Olhanense players – Babanco, Abdi and Ivanildo – in their Team-of-the-Week; a team which is usually dominated by Porto, Benfica and Braga players.
Romania’s Vaslui, who in the summer signed Olhanense’s Cauê for €200,000, are rumoured to be interested in signing the Algarve side’s young starlet Libdan Abdi who has scored three goals in five outings. The release clause is reported to be €1.5 million.
|| Portugal Cup starts in earnest
Tomorrow (Saturday) Olhanense entertain Non-League 1º de Dezembro in the third round of the Cup at the Algarve Stadium, Faro kick-off 4pm. Tickets can be purchased at the Stadium, prior to the game, for €8. The team from Sintra has battled through earlier rounds and will be looking to add a Premier Liga scalp to their list of conquests.
|| Cape Verde shock the football world
Last weekend three Olhanense players – Babanco, Djaniny and David Silva – helped create history for the tiny Cape Verde Islands.
The archipelago, situated off the coast of Senegal and which gained its independence from Portugal in 1975, eliminated firm favourites Cameroon from the Africa Cup of Nations.
Cameroon, World Cup quarter-finalists in 1990, fell to one of the biggest shocks in the competition’s history. Cape Verde had won the first tie 2-0 and although they lost the second leg 2-1, their 3-2 aggregate win saw the island’s biggest celebrations for many years as Cape Verde qualified for the finals for the first time. The finals take place in South Africa in January.
The small nation of just over 500,000 can claim to have links with a number of famous players including Cristiano Ronaldo, whose grandmother was Cape Verdean.
Former Barcelona and Manchester United player Henrick Larsson’s father Francisco Rocha was Cape Verdean whilst Carlos Almeida da Cunha, best known as Nani, who plays for Manchester United was born in Cape Verde, but his family moved to Portugal when he was a child.
Another Cape Verdean-born star is Gelson Fernandes, who was born in the capital Praia but moved to Switzerland when young where he represented his new country in the 2010 World Cup. Gelson, who currently plays for Udinese (Italy) also played for Manchester City and St. Etienne (France).
