The coaches who bemoaned the dearth of capable replacements for aging members of the senior national teams and applauded the Airtel Rising Stars initiative for its focus on developing grassroots football.
Four hundred and eighty young footballers drawn from eight zones gathered in Ibadan Tuesday for the two-day Closed Camp of the Airtel Rising Stars talent hunt. The National Finals come up this weekend at Campos Square, Lagos.
Onyekere Abara Chuka is the chief coach of Owerri zone and a school sports coach in the Imo State Ministry of Education, Owerri.“Thanks to Airtel for this great initiative”, he began. “It’s a good thing happening to youth soccer in the country. The problem of raising standard U-17 is being solved through this project because the prospects for this are in abundance here.”
Chief Coach of Jos Zone, Sani Mohammed, observes that the Airtel Rising Stars tournament has thrown up many budding talents who would be developed to meet the nation’s need for quality players. He said, “We are very happy. This will give a chance to the players to further their career in football. Most of them have never experienced this.”
Coach Bode Awakan of FC Dender, Lagos, while lauding Airtel for the initiative to invest in the young talents, expressed optimism over the future of Nigerian football.
“When you look at the calibre of players so far assembled from across the country, you know Nigeria has a future as far as age-grade football is concerned because the players are talented, very good tactically, technically, mentally and conditionally and they are at the right age,” he said
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