Sports
Ex-Internationals Inspire NPFL Youth League Players
Some former Super Eagles players are in Benin City, the Edo State capital to encourage and provide mentorship to players of the clubs participating in the maiden NPFL Youth League Championship Finals.
At a brief unveiling ceremony at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, during the opening ceremony of the finals on Sunday, Chairman of the NPFL, Gbenga Elegbeleye, said the idea of the mentorship is to provide professional role models who would deploy their experience to nurture the young talents to stardom.
The mentors, who have been named the NPFL Youth League Ambassadors are ex-Blackb urn Rovers and Middlesbrough star, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, ex-Wolves midfielder Seyi Olofinjana, former Super Eagles captain, Austin Eguavoen and former Super Eagles forward, Patrick Pascal.
Elegbeleye tasked the quartet to use their experience to discover, nurture and mentor the next generation of stars at the youth league.
Eguavoen, who is Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation, commended the NPFL for the Youth League initiative and pledged on behalf of the others to adopt the young players as their personal project.
He said, “All I can say is that there is potential in these kids. The skill and mindset are topnotch, and if they don’t put themselves under any tension, they have a good chance to play international football.”
Emeka Inyama, the Chairman of the league’s Organising Committee, lauded the ex-internationals for accepting to work with the NPFL to raise the next generation of Super Eagles players.
Rivers United defeated Remo Stars 3-1 in the opening game while Plateau United edged Katsina United 2-1 in the second game of the day. Enugu Rangers youth team, the fifth side in the championship, had an off day.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor