Taye Taiwo has returned from his post World Cup holidays to tell Olympique Marseille he wishes to leave, French news reports said recently.

The fullback, who competed for Nigeria at the World Cup in South Africa, has told the French champions he wants to take up an offer from UEFA Europa League winners Atletico Madrid.

But Marseille's coach Didier Deschamps says he is not willing to let the Nigerian go because he believes his other left-back, the ageing Argentine international Gabriel Heinze, will not complete an entire season with injury. Marseille not only defend their League title, but also play in the UEFA Champions League in the coming months.

Taiwo has already had discussions with Atletico, who have tabled a 4.5-million Euro offer.
Last season, Deschamps rejected a 12-million Euro offer from England's Manchester City for the Super Eagles' free-kick specialist.

This is the last chance for Marseille to make any money out of Taiwo, because he will be at the end of his contract in June next year and then able to go to any club of his choosing. Marseille's directors might persuade Deschamps that it would be good business to let Taiwo go now, the reports added.

Flying Eagles Step Up Preparation

The national Under-20 men's team, Flying Eagles is stepping up preparation for the twolegged 2011 African Youth Championship qualifying fixture against Guinea which begins next weekend.

Coach Sam John Obuh, who has been in charge of the team since they were U-17s, said on Tuesday that 15 players will be decamped this week ahead of next weekend's home game against the Junior Syli Nationale.

"We have been in camp for sometime now and working very hard. This week, we will send packing a total of 15 players, which will leave 25 players in camp, and this is the list we will send to FIFA as our team for the qualifying competition," said Obuh, who steered the U-17 boys to FIFA World Cup silver in November 2009.

Guinea knocked out Togo over two legs in the preliminary round that did not involve the Flying Eagles, who drew a bye.

Victory over Guinea will leave the Flying Eagles with just one more round to go before qualification for the finals which will take place in Libya early 2011.

Nigeria won the African Youth Championship four times successively in the 1980s, and again in Benin Republic in 2005, and finished runnersup to host Ghana in 1999 and again to host Congo Brazzaville in 2007.

At the last FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt, Nigeria reached the Round of 16 before losing 2-3 to Germany in Suez.

Appiah Refuses To Retire

Despite a huge loss of form and increasing years, Ghana captain Stephen Appiah stressed that he has no plans to retire any time soon.

The statement comes after a large group of fans back in Ghana criticized the midfielder for recent poor performances, and it has even led some people to ask him to retire sooner rather than later.

“There are a lot of wonders in the world,” Appiah told Adom FM. “Ten years back, I thought at age 32 one should retire, but in football nowadays players quit at 36 and 38 years. It all depends on how you manage yourself and when Paolo Maldini was 41, he was playing better than those at 25. People ask me when I will retire but I tell them I will play until I'm 50 years old.”

The midfielder's fall from grace has come very quickly. After raising his stock at Parma he made a big transfer to Italian giants Juventus and later moved to Turkish super-club Fenerbahce. Appiah has since moved on to Bologna.
He's also seen his role with the Black Stars diminished, as he was limited to just 105 minutes of play during the World Cup.

In the past Appiah has been linked with several Premier League clubs, among them Tottenham, where he had a trial in 2009. Injuries scuppered any deals at the time.