• Dembele

Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele was on Monday included in Paris Saint-Germain’s squad to face Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League after a six-week injury layoff.

According to AFP, Dembele’s return for Tuesday’s league stage game will come as a welcome boost for coach Luis Enrique, whose side has been struggling with injuries this season.

Dembele, 28, has been out since injuring a hamstring while on international duty with France in early September.

He had been recuperating at a specialist clinic in Qatar and returned to training last week.

He missed out on PSG’s entertaining 3-3 draw against Strasbourg on Friday but could play some role in Germany as the European champions seek to make it three wins out of three in the Champions League so far this season.

Leverkusen centre-back Loic Bade, Dembele’s teammate in the France squad, told reporters Monday there was “no secret recipe” to stopping the PSG forward, calling him “a complete player with several qualities”.

“He won the Ballon d’Or — of course he’s got a lot of quality. He’s good with both feet. I don’t think he’s got a weak side,” Bade said.

Morocco in the early hours of this morning – Monday, defeated Argentina to win this year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Yassir Zabiri gave Morocco the lead after 12 minutes of play.

Famalicão, a 20-year-old winger, extended Morocco’s advantage in the first half.

No goal was scored in the second half as Morocco held on to their lead to emerge winner over Argentina after 90 minutes at Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos.

The North Africans had defeated France in the semi-final encounter, while Argentina defeated Colombia.

Colombia won the third-place final after beating France 1-0 earlier.

Nigeria’s Super Eagles will square off against Gabon in the semi-finals of the African zone play-offs for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, following the conclusion of the group stage on Tuesday.

In football, “play-off” refers to either an extra game played to break a tie at the end of a match or a series of games played after the regular season to determine a champion. These are high-stakes games to decide a winner when teams have the same score, or they are played between the leading teams to determine the ultimate champion.

The mini-tournament will be held in Morocco from November 13 to 16, featuring Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, and DR Congo.

The three-time African champions stormed into the play-offs with an emphatic 4–0 thrashing of the Benin Republic, sealing second place in their qualifying group.

Gabon also booked their spot after a 2–0 win over Burundi, aided by the Ivory Coast’s victory against Kenya, which left the Panthers in second place in Group F.

Elsewhere, DR Congo edged Sudan 1–0 to finish runners-up to Senegal in Group B, while Cameroon clinched second place in Group D behind Cape Verde, rounding out the four best runners-up heading to the play-offs.

The format will see the two semi-final winners face off in a single-leg final for a ticket to the inter-confederation play-offs in March 2026, where one African team will have a final shot at qualifying for the World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.