When Stephen Odey scored in his UEFA Champions League debut with Genk against Liverpool, he was hugely hailed by many soccer-loving Nigerians. Beyond that, however, the former Dairy Farm Senior Secondary School Captain was also fulfilling one of GTBank Principals’ Cup vision-building future stars, Kunle Adewale writes.
One of the principal objectives of the GTBank Principals Cup is to pave way for youths to cultivate their sporting talents, whilst fostering and building a healthier lifestyle at a critical stage in their lives and this objective was not lost in Stephen Odey, as he has continued to be on the rise since taking his football trade to Europe after successful exploit in the local league.
Odey was the star player in the second edition of GTBank-Lagos State Principals Cup where he led Dairy Farms Senior Secondary School, Agege, to winning the completion. He also topped the list of the GTBank 13-man All Star Team of the Year. And since then there was no turning back for the attacker.
His exploits in the Principals Cup was not lost as Nigerian Professional Football League side MFM FC and it did not take him long to get off the block.
In January 2017, he received the NPFL Bloggers’ Award as the Most Valuable Player of the Month. And he was the first player to score a hat trick among over 200 players in the league in the 2017 season.
His exploits in the NPFL led to his invitation to the Super Eagles CHAN Team double header qualifiers against Benin Republic in August 2017.
His the impressive performance led to his signing a four-year contract with Swiss club-FC Zurich, thereby becoming the third Nigerian player to represent the club after the late Rashidi Yekini and Ike Shorunmu.
Last summer, Odey joined Belgian First Division A champions Genk on a five-year deal on the back of an impressive campaign in Switzerland where he scored 14 goals in 44 outings for FC Zurich across all competitions.
Odey marked his UEFA Champions League debut with a goal in Genk’s 4-1 loss to Liverpool in the final Group E match.
Aside Odey, Esther Adeboye, one of the Most Valuable Players in the 2014 competition from State High School, Alimosho was part of the National Female U-17 Team – The Flamingoes, that represented Nigeria at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
However, it is not only school children that are benefitting from the GTBank Principals Cup.
In its resolve at ensuring that the standard of the game of football in Lagos State is raised, GTBank partnered Lagos State Football Association (LSFA) in the training of 300 coaches in the state. A 3-day training programme was organised for coaches involved in the GTBank Principals Cup tournaments and other grassroots football tournaments in Lagos State with the theme ‘Raising the Beautiful Game’.
The MD/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank, Segun Agbaje, has over the years hailed players that had participated at the GTBank-Lagos State Principals Cup for putting up excellent performances, while he urged the pupils to imbibe the spirit of fair play, hard work and discipline, the core values of the bank.
“The competition paves the way for youths to cultivate their sporting talents, whilst fostering and building a healthier lifestyle at a critical stage in their lives,” Agbaje stated.
In 2009, the management of GTBank decided to revive to Principals Cup as a way of catching young talents by investing in the discovery of soccer talents in Nigerian youth and since then-budding talents had been churned out, hence the birth of GTBank-Lagos State Principals Cup.
