Ike Okechukwu, 16, wonder kid of the Kwara Football Academy, KFA, emerged the best player of the Giant Brillers/Kwara FA scouting tournament that ended on Saturday.
He and six of others were picked as raw talents to be exposed to foreign clubs in Lagos, according to detail made available to journalists on Sunday morning.
Speaking on the exercise, Mustapha Salisu, scouting agent and manager with Giant Brillers, said that his firm will now expose these talents to foreign technical directors and scouts.
“It was regorous exercise.
“But I can say with fair certainty that we accomplished what we set out to do here, which is to discover talents, encourage grassroots football and I can assure you that Kwara would be hearing from these boys soon,” he said.
Speaking on the quality of players discovered, Coach Asafa Sulyman, overall head of the talent haunt and Nigerian Premier Football League, NPFL, legend, stated that the quality of talents at the tourney was impressive.
“Picking those seven was difficult even though Okechukwu was shoulder above and quite outstanding,” he said.
Alh Idris Abdullahi Musa, aka Thuraya, the chairman, Kwara Football Association, FA, said that More of such talent haunts would be coming to Kwara.
“We have enough talents in Kwara State to do scouting tournament everyday. That is just how blessed we are in Kwara State,” he said.Giant Brillers, Kwara FA Holds Scouting Tournament With Seven Soccer Academy In Ilorin
Soccer promotion giant, Giant Brillers, and Kwara Football Association, FA, have collaborated on a far reaching scouting program to have young football talents exposed to foreign scouts and onward transfer to big clubs in Europe.
The program is organized in form of a football tournament among seven football clubs and academies, to begin Thursday.
According to the features seven clubs will be participating in the tournament. These are Foresight FA, Abraysports FC, La Planet SA Sunrise FA, Laycon FC, Oladunni FC and Kwara Football Academy, KFA.
Speaking on this, Mall. Idris Abdullahi Musa, aka Thuraya, the state FA chairman, said that the deal with Giant Brillers is in keeping with the state football House deliberate policy to transit grassroots sports development to elite sports.
“Every body stands to gain here; the players, their development clubs and the state at large,” explained Thuraya.
According to him, the tournament is not a mere fishing expedition without any envisaged outcome.
“It’s a scouting program where we already know where the players are going,” Thuraya explained.
He stated Giant Brillers already has European clubs lined up and ready to have their scouts watch the best of the talents from the tournament.
Sports business experts have established a nexus between soccer talent exports and foreign Direct Investment, FDI.
For instance, Kwara economy enjoyed an injection of at least N50 million from a total N2.5 billion from repatriated.
Explaining Giant Brillers’s involvement, in the scouting tournament, Mustapha Salisu, manager and scouting officer for the sporting firm, said that tournament is big with potential of exposing talents from Kwara to quality technical directors from big clubs from Europe.
“We are not new in this business. Aside playing in NNL, we have contacts in big clubs abroad looking for talents Nigeria is known for,” he said.
