Eden Hazard said he is “100% certain” to stay with Chelsea next season in an interview with Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure published yesterday.
“I am 100% certain to stay at Chelsea. Everyone knew that really,” the 23-year-old attacking midfielder, who was a target of French champions Paris St Germain, told the paper.
The wealthy French club are said to have offered 75 million euros for Hazard, who had been subject to some severe criticism from Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho in the latter part of the season. Hazard is presently with the Belgian squad at the World Cup in Brazil.
“In football, you never know. Bam! Things happen,” he said. “But I am under contract with Chelsea and I want to stay.”
Hazard, whose father is his personal manager and had said last week his son’s future would not be discussed during the finals so he was fully focussed on the tournament, said he had received no offer from Paris and indicated that he wants to extend his deal with Chelsea.

Nigeria call up winger Uzoenyi

Nigeria have called up Ejike Uzoenyi as replacement for injured defender Elderson Echiejile who was forced out of the World Cup after tearing a hamstring last week, the Nigerian Football Federation said yesterday.
The 22-year-old winger was voted best player at January’s African Nations Championship, the bi-annual tournament for home-based players only where Nigeria finished third.
He was among seven players cut from the squad last week when coach Stephen Keshi named his final 23-man list for the tournament in Brazil, where Nigeria play Argentina, Bosnia and Iran in the group stage.
Monaco full back Echiejile limped off before halftime during Nigeria’s warm-up game against Greece in Philadelphia last week.

Brazilian fans queue up to see Argentina in training

Brazilian football fans queued for hours yesterday to get tickets for Argentina’s open training session. The demand to see the workout in the Independencia stadium in Belo Horizonte exceeded all expectations.
Some 4,000 tickets were to be given out to begin with, but the Argentine football federation later said that 10,000 fans would be allowed into the stadium, which belongs to the America de Minas Gerais club.
Some fans were wearing Argentina shirts, others the shirts of Atletico Mineiro, one of America’s main rivals. They were brought to the stadium by the prospect of seeing stars such as Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero and Angel di Maria.
Today’s training session will be the first contact between Alejandro Sabella’s team and the locals since Argentina flew in Monday. Yesterday saw them train behind closed doors at the stadium of Atletico Mineiro.
Argentina will make their debut in Group F on Sunday against Bosnia in Rio’s historic Maracana stadium. On June 21 they will face Iran in Belo Horizonte, then they take on Nigeria in Porto Alegre four days later.