Morocco hosted the 2022 edition of the U-19 boys competition in El Jadida with Nigeria emerging champions after defeating Egypt 3-0 in the final while Nigeria hosted the 16th edition of the girls’ volleyball championship in Abuja where Egypt were the champions beating Cameroon 3-1 in the final with Nigeria finishing in third place.
While the details of the hosting are still sketchy, our correspondent learnt that the Nigeria Volleyball Federation is set to hold talks with the African Volleyball Confederation on their plans for the championship.
“Nigeria will be hosting the men and women volleyball Nations Cup and plans are already underway,” Dare Kuti, media assistant to the president of the volleyball federation, told PUNCH Sports Extra.
“We don’t have a date yet but the board will meet soon and get back to CAVB for a possible date. They will communicate with CAVB after their board meeting in Nigeria.”
The 2022 champions were the first editions to adopt the U-19 format instead of the previous U-18, in accordance with the modifications made by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, commonly known by the acronym FIVB, which changed the age category of the Girls’ Youth World Championship from U-18 to U-19.
Dessers Hits Back At Critics
Glasgow Rangers striker, Cyriel Dessers, has hit back at critics following yet another impressive performance against St Mirren on Sunday to keep the Gers Scottish Premiership title hopes alive with a winner in Paisley, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The Nigeria international scored the winning goal 15 minutes before full time to ensure that the Ibrox side are still in the running for two titles having guided them to the Scottish Cup final where they face Celtic United.
Following an initial struggle at the start of the season, the Nigerian striker is beginning to justify the faith the management of the Scottish giants had in him when they signed him from Cremonese in Italy last summer.
After scoring his 20th goal of the season on Sunday, Dessers during a press conference talked about how he’s perceived and how he sees his game.
“Throughout my career, I know that if I play games, I’m always gonna score goals. For the eyes, I may not be the most beautiful striker or the most clean striker but I think it’s easy for me to see what’s not there,” Dessers said, per Joshua Barrie.
“But as I am in life, I think it’s a good lesson for everybody, I love to look at what’s there and what you get out of me and what I can do for the team.
“If you look only at the goals, the numbers speak for themselves. Aside from the goals, winning the battles with the defenders. About running, last week, I broke my record for sprints. To do all of these for a team, I think it’s the same importance as scoring goals. These are the things that people in the stands or on social media don’t see, but they benefit the team. But I want more goals.”
Despite a poor 2022/23 season with the Italian club, where he scored a miserly 10 goals in 32 games across all competitions, the Gers paid £4.5m to relegated Cremonese to part ways with the striker.
