Ultimate Football League, a grassroots football competition that has discovered a number of stars, some of whom are plying their trades in both the NPFL and abroad, thrilled football loving public in the northern and eastern Nigeria at the fourth edition of the league.
After successful editions in Lagos, the Ultimate Football League took the football fiesta to the South East and the northern part of the country where youngsters competed for the grand prize while scouts were on ground to discover budding talents.
The decision to rotate the grassroots football tournament involving many teams was as a result of a promise made by the Chief Coordinator of the league, Uchechukwu Chukwukeluba, from the first edition of the competition, to use it to groom youths with strong work ethics and principles, combining this with unrivalled football playing skills that would make it possible for them to compete favorably on any local and international platforms.
The fourth edition took place in Anambra State, involving teams from parts of the South East, and Niger State, which also featured teams from parts of North Central.
Chukwukeluba explained that during the league, the Ultimate Football League management, in collaboration with owners of the participating teams in the league invited some local and foreign scouts from clubs with agents at every game to monitor the best among them and that this process went on with different scouts in different games as lots of young and talented players were discovered from Niger State and enrolled into some local football teams within the state and beyond.
“The same process continued till the last game of the league and all the selected players during the league have proceeded to some local and foreign scouting programs that has been also organised by the Ultimate Football League,” he said.
He continued; “Players’ progress has been discussed with both local and foreign clubs that have been in contact with the organising committee and a professional training camp was organised for two weeks.”
Chukwukeluba also harped on the important roles the league had been playing in the lives of millions of youths across the country, having successfully hosted standard football tournaments in twelve different states of the federation between 2010 and November 2018, also revealed that, “During the tournaments, scouts from different clubs in the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) will always come around to scout for some raw talents and proceed to mould them into champions.
“That has been ongoing since we started the tournament and it is to our pleasure that a number of players from this league are playing in the Nigerian topflight,” he said.
Chukwukeluba also informed the media that the league is working on a partnership with some NPFL teams in the country. While discussing the partnership, he hinted that three players discovered during the just-concluded Ultimate Football League had been invited by European football teams for trials, even as discussions, he said, are ongoing between the foreign teams and the owners of the players here in Nigeria, he said.
Meanwhile, in the just concluded league in Niger State, Mohammed Jubril, Abdullahi Abba and Aji Aliko were unanimously voted the players of the season. Abdullahi topped the scorers’ chart with 14 goals in 28 matches.
In the Anambra State Ultimate Football League, Ezenwa Cyprain Onyebuchi was voted player of the season after scoring a whopping 22 goals from 20 games. Onyebuchi was among the three players invited for trials in Europe, alongside Ifejiofor Emmanuel Uzochukwu and Uchenna Christian Junior.
There were cash prizes for the league winners, even as individual awards had monetary prizes attached to them. The winners in both tournaments went home with cash prizes of N500,000 each, as well as cups and medals. The best player and highest scorer received individual cash prizes.
Meanwhile, some of the players, coaches and other football stakeholders praised