Izuchukwu OkosiBarcelona on Tuesday evening signed off their 2022-23 season with a comfortable 2-0 win over Vissel Kobe in Japan, a post-season friendly that will also earn the club a few million euros.
Former hero, and head coach Xavi named plenty of youngsters and fringe players in his starting XI, handing starts to regular first team players like Robert Lewandowski, Frenkie de Jong, Julian Araujo, Pau Prim and Dani Rodriguez.
The team was captained by Dutch midfielder Frankie de Jong.
Barcelona almost took the lead within the first two minutes in Tokyo.
Pablo Torre twisted, turned and fired a shot across goal that hit the bottom of the post and rebounded to safety.
The Spaniard also came close again in the 12th minute after receiving the ball on the edge of the area.
A neat touch saw him slide past former Barcelona superstar Andreas Iniesta and fired a low shot at goal that was blocked by the goalkeeper.
The youngster was at the heart of everything for Barca and teed up the opening goal minutes later.
A neat pass picked out Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessie who made a brilliant run, and the African star pulled out a pretty composed finish to slide the ball home.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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