Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Over the past week, the coronavirus has proliferated over the globe with new cases in almost all continents, with Antarctica being the only exception. Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its first case in Nigeria, which happens to be the third confirmed case in Africa. The other two coronavirus cases are in Algeria and Egypt. The coronavirus case in Nigeria is an Italian citizen who flew into the commercial city of Lagos from Milan (a city badly hit by the coronavirus outbreak) on February 24, 2020. He was aboard a Turkish Airlines flight. The Italian citizen works in Nigeria. Nigerian authorities report that the Italian stayed in a hotel near the airport on the evening of February 24, 2020 and continued to his place of work in Ogun state. He was first attended to on February 26 at his company's medical facility before being transferred on February 27 to a containment facility in Yaba, Lagos. In a statement, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said: "We have already st...

Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus were stunned by Lyon in their last 16 Champions League tie as they lost 1-0 to Lyon. Cristiano was unable to come to his side's aid, with Juventus having only on shot on target during the game. Note that Cristiano Ronaldo has an incredible Champions League knockout record - a ridiculous 65 goals in 79 matches. Ronaldo took a free-kick from 30 yards in first half injury-time but it was a poor attempt which crashed into the wall. That happened to be his 38th free-kick attempt for Juventus, and his 38th failure. Out of the 38 attempts, he’s hit the wall 24 times, 11 have been saved by the goalkeeper, he’s missed the target twice and hit the crossbar once. He has spent more than two years without scoring from a free-kick. Cristiano last scored a free-kick on December 16, 2017 when he was playing for Real Madrid. The Juve star has however been in formidable form this season, bagging 21 goals in 21 Serie A matches. He will probably be pivotal if ...

Messi may have been involved in 39 goals in his 23 appearances this season, but Spanish football expert Graham Hunter says Messi has been playing 'oddly' this season, when compared to his usual standards. Hunter believes Luis Suarez's injury hence absence has contributed greatly to the decline in Messi's performance and accuracy. "If you look at the data, you look at the assists and the goals you, say 'Yeah, everything is fine.' If you look at the play, it's not. "He's playing oddly. Not shambolically, but lacking precision, doing things that are very un-Messi like." "All the little deft solutions, the cat burglar solutions, that we have seen Messi produce over the last 16 years on top of his goals and his trophies, these things have been going wrong since November. "He's just so good that he has produced a spate of assists, scored four at the weekend," Hunter added. "Therefore, Luis Suarez being abse...

62-year-old George Hood, a former U.S. marine and DEA special agent has achieved an incredible feat. He has set a new male world record for longest time in the abdominal plank position, breaking the pre-existing Guinness World Record of eight hours and 1 minute set by Mao Weidong in China in 2016. Hood held the plank for eight hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds. Hood finished off his record-breaking plank challenge with 75 push-ups. He announced his retirement from plank record attempts after breaking Mao Weidong's record. While holding the abdominal plank, he used his phone, watched multiple presentations and had full conversations. Rock music played while he held the plank. He told the BBC: "When I was growing up, I was fascinated with rock and roll - Van Halen, Motley Crue, Deep Purple. I would watch their videos when MTV came out and it fascinated me. "I always just wished I could be a rock star, just for 24 hours to live that dream - the limo rides, the buzz...

According to athlete marketing platform Opendorse, Cristiano Ronaldo is Twitter's most valuable athlete, meaning his tweets are more valuable than those of any other athlete endorser. Ronaldo has 82.7 million followers on Twitter, and his tweets are valued at $868,606. The second most valuable athlete on Twitter is legendary Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta. A tweet of his is worth $590,825. Coming third is PSG's Neymar, with his tweets valued at $478,138. LeBron James, the NBA icon is the most valuable US athlete on Twitter, and he comes fourth in the ranking of most valuable athletes on Twitter. Ronaldo who is the first individual to hit the 200 million followers milestone on Instagram is also Instagram's top earner, earning $975,000 per sponsored post.

French prodigy Kylian Mbappe has once more reiterated his preference for Cristiano Ronaldo over Lionel Messi. He says he's inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo's career and not Messi's. He however explained his preference for Ronaldo's career. He said he believes it's too late for him to be a one-club man like Lionel Messi. As such, he thinks it's better to copy Cristiano Ronaldo instead. The PSG young star told La Gazzetta dello Sport, "It's already late for me to have a career like Messi. "Otherwise I should have stayed at Monaco. So, logically and without wanting to take anything away from Messi, I have to be inspired by Ronaldo's career." Ronaldo started his career at Sporting Lisbon where he spent just a season before being signed by Manchester United in 2003. He went on to Real Madrid in 2009 at a world record transfer fee of $103 million. In 2018, he made another transfer to Juventus, and is curently in his second season with th...

Lorenzo Insigne, Napoli forward and captain agrees that Lionel Messi is the best player in the world, but refuses to compare him to Diego Maradona, a Napoli legend. Maradona played for both Barcelona and Napoli during his best years. He led Napoli to their last Italian championship.  Napoli face Barcelona in the Champions League tomorrow. "Currently, Messi is the best player in the world, but I can't compare him to Maradona because for us Neapolitans, Diego is sacred," Insigne told the press. "At this moment, Messi is the best of all." He also told the press that Napoli needed to play their best to beat Barcelona. "We must play a perfect game," Insigne stated. "We need to be good in defense and attack, and this is a great challenge. "We'll try to score goals and not concede any. "Most of us know the atmosphere that there will be at the San Paolo," Insigne added. "The way the fan shout when the Champions...

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world today, and boasts of 1 billion monthly active users. It is most likely the most popular photo and video-sharing social networking service. As of February 2020, the most followed individual on Instagram is none other than Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, with over 204 million followers. The most followed brand account on the platform is that of Instagram, with over 334 million followers. The second most-followed brand account is National Geographic, with over 131 million followers. 19 accounts boast of more than 100 million followers on Instagram. The most-followed woman on Instagram is Ariana Grande with over 175 million followers. The following are the top 20 most-followed accounts on Instagram. 1.  Instagram Username:  @instagram Number of followers: 334 million Profession: Social media platform Country: USA Brand Account: Yes 2.  Cristiano Ronaldo Username:...