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Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen

Armed robbers kill four cops during Nigerian bank heist

AFRICA /  / 
Picture: leo2014/Pixabay
Pretoria - Four Nigerian police officers were killed by armed robbers during a bank robbery on Thursday at Ile-Oluji, in the Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State.
On Friday, the Premium Times Nigeria reported that police spokesman, Femi Joseph, confirmed that two banks were attacked by the robbers, who used dynamite to destroy entrances before gaining access. 
Joseph said the suspects succeeded in robbing one of the banks, but failed in their attempt to rob the other, which he identified as Polaris Bank.
No civilian deaths were recorded and an as yet undisclosed amount of cash was stolen.  
“When they attacked one of the banks, they shot dead one of the policemen on duty,” said Joseph. 
“But while they were trying to escape, they ran into four policemen who were on their own, guarding a VIP, and they killed three of them, making it four policemen who lost their lives in that incident,” he was quoted saying.
The assailants abandoned their getaway car during the chase and escaped on foot.
“We have commenced investigations into the matter, with the involvement of some of the special units of the police such as the explosives ordinance department, and we will surely apprehend the suspects and bring them to justice,” said Joseph.
African News Agency/ANA

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