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By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
Athletic Football Club Lagos in conjunction with PI Football Club has announced a new scouting tournament project that will see European football investors visit Nigeria.
Basically, the duo avowed commitment to new initiatives on talent discovery and nurturing as a stakeholders designed the scheme to discover football talents from the grassroots, which is truly a key component of their vision to promote social enterprise.
The event which is set to hold between the 4th-5th of March 2024 at the National Stadium Surulere
Chairman and Founder of Athletic Football Club Salvation Alibor said during the official unveiling of 60 grassroots hidden football talent,that the organizers intend to kick off with , them.
Also, that the scouting tournament project aimed is to select players who are fit for further professional contracts in Europe, particularly Brazil, Spain and Finland.
Alibor stated that the he purpose of this tournament is to help further unravel talents due for professional contracts abroad, specifically in Brazil,Spain and Finland. It’s part of our commitment to ensure grassroots development is given the proper attention that it needs,.
“This is a social enterprise and our mission is to develop hidden talents and nurture young aspiring footballers to reach their full potential.
“Our aim is to provide a professional platform for young players to showcase their skills and receive top-notch training from experienced coaches. We believe that every young athlete deserves the opportunity to pursue their dreams and we are dedicated to helping them succeed in the world of football.
Alibor added that some of the players that we have admitted into our teams. We have two teams: the Athletic FC and PI FC. We decided to combine both events because both teams are serving the same purpose.
“PI FC has a background in the church and it is essentially for the development of young people in our church community,that have the skill and the vision to go far, and are seeking for platform to express themselves.
“While Athletic FC was born out of a desire to give our Nigerian youths an opportunity to soar. There are lots of young persons who are talented and are praying to God for the opportunity. They are not members of the church, but members of the community at large and are Nigerians. We go around rural places trying to scout for them and equally give them this opportunity to showcase their talent.
Moreso, when we see that they are talented, we also try to enhance their skills, bring them to train with us in Lagos. We have professional coaches and our head coach was a professional footballer, he played for the Nigerian professional league for 12 years. He played the Nigerian premiere league. We also have our assistant coach who is an European classy licensed coach and he has also worked in India. So for this season they are the ones helping with our players.
The vision we have is to further develop them to bring certain expert from Europe to train for three months to develop both our coaches and the players. And we also will be doing quarterly showcases of this talents. We would be having one on the 4th of March, 2024.
On his part, the Head Coach Joel Agwaife said the club last season played Ikeja division last year, and we got promoted. We became second. The first and second team got promoted. And the point difference wasn’t so much. To get players is not an issue because I have friends as coach that are managers. What I just do is grade A UEFA coaching course. Bringing them together is not a problem. I went in search of them at Akwa Ibom, Imo, Enugu, Ilorin, to get players.
‘In Europe, you don’t just pick players from anywhere. There are certain things we look out for, how a player makes a run with or without the ball. Those are the things that we want to look into so that we have what it takes to sell those players outside the country. We know what we demand and they know as well, that’s why we are working to put them in that shape.
“Through our rigorous training programs, state-of-the-art facilities, and competitive matches, we are committed to guiding and supporting our players to improve their skills, cultivate good sportsmanship, and ultimately achieve success both on and off the field.
“We are excited to make our mark in the Nigerian football scene and look forward to uncovering and developing the next generation of football stars. Join us on this exciting journey as we work together to build a brighter future for Nigerian football.
