Among LaLiga’s most exciting defensive rising
stars is Real Valladolid centre-back Mohammed Salisu, whose solid and
composed displays in his debut season suggest a long and highly
successful career is ahead of him.

Valladolid’s 20-year-old
Ghanaian centre-back has been one of the most impressive defenders at
any La Liga Santander club in 2019-20, getting the better of personal
duels with forwards as experienced and talented as Atletico de Madrid’s
Alvaro Morata, Real Sociedad’s Willian Jose and Real Betis’ Borja
Iglesias.

Having only made his La Liga Santander debut last
August, Salisu has started 26 of Valladolid’s first 27 games, as part of
a solid defence which has been key to Sergio Fernandez’s team spending
most of the campaign well clear of the drop zone.

Born in Accra in 1999, Salisu was signed by
Valladolid in autumn 2017, having been scouted from the ‘African Talent
Football Academy’ in his home country. By the following January, the
17-year-old had broken into Valladolid’s B team in the third tier,
impressing enough to become a regular for the remainder of the campaign.

Fifa and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have teamed up to combat the coronavirus (Covid-19) by launching a new awareness campaign led by world-renowned footballers, who are calling on all people around the world to follow five key steps to stop the spread of the disease.

The ‘Pass the message to kick out coronavirus’ campaign promotes five key steps for people to follow to protect their health in line with WHO guidance, focused on hand washing, coughing etiquette, not touching your face, physical distance and staying home if feeling unwell.

“Fifa and its President Gianni Infantino have been actively involved in passing the message against this pandemic since the very beginning,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the virtual launch of the campaign at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins is on the verge of a return to Shanghai Shenhua, Chinese media have reported, increasing the likelihood Odion Ighalo will make his stay at Manchester United a permanent one this summer.

Ighalo has made an impressive
start to life at United, scoring four times in eight games since signing
on loan until 31 May from the Chinese Super League club.

Martins, who was previously contracted to Shenhua from 2016 until the end of the 2018 season, was reported by Titan Sports to have arrived in China on Tuesday and was being lined up to replace Ighalo ahead of the Chinese Super League season.

China’s domestic league has yet to start the 2020 season after kick-off was delayed indefinitely due to the coronavirus outbreak but speculation is mounting that the campaign will begin in late April or early May.