Buruj Sports Academy will unveil ex-international and former Super Eagles player, Friday Ekpo as the new Head Coach on Thursday 9th January, 2020.
This is a good Start for the Academy as 2020 is said to be a busy year for the boys with series of International Tournaments in Spain, Holland and England are line up, National League (NL).
The new Head Coach evolvement with the team is expected to foster more strength for the team.
FRIDAY EKPO bestrode the Nigerian football scene of the 1980s like a collosus and was arguably one of the most talented midfelders to play the round leather game.
His size belied his talent and he played for some of the country’s biggest clubsides and holds the record as one of the select few midfielders to win the highest goalscorer award in the domestic league.
Big things, they say, come in small packages. And this truism rings truer for Friday Ekpo more than most. Pint-sized, diminutive, dynamo, one-man battalion, solo riot-squad etc are some of the adjectives commentators used to describe him during the heydays of his reign as the most influential playmaker in the Nigerian league of the late 1980s and into the early 90s.
The good thing about the story of Ekpo’s road to the top is the fact that you can easily relate with it. He was your typical boy-next-door, kicking balls made of stuffed nylons as a toddler and playing set football with his mates inside his father’s compound in Surulere, Lagos where he grew up. Next was primary school and he was a member of the school’s football team. Same for secondary school. Sound familiar? It should, it is everybody’s story.
However, it was at the Premier Grammar School, Abeokuta that Ekpo’s career path took an upward trajectory. He led the team to many famous victories in the then Principal Cup competition and became an household name in Ogun State.
So, naturally, when the late billionaire Bashorun MKO Abiola was putting together a football team in his hometown, the popular and talented Ekpo was drafted into the team from National Sports Commission FC.
He had previously starred for Savannah Bank Football Club of Lagos. Ekpo remains grateful to the late philanthropist for his large heart.
That year, 1986, Ekpo was at the peak of his career as a goal-scoring midfielder. He was eventually crowned the highest goalscorer at season’s end, the first and only midfielder to win such an honour. He also won the League, Challenge Cup and Unity Cup for Leventis that season.
In between his forays at all these clubs, Ekpo also caught the eye of national team selectors and was invited to both the U-20 team and the Green Eagles in 1983. The junior team was preparing for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Mexico while the senior team was preparing for the 1984 Nations Cup in Cote d’Ivoire.
He turned the offer to join the junior team down even though he knew there was little or no chance of making the team to the Nations Cup given the calibre of players there. Nevertheless he opted to train with the big boys than play for the juniors and the experience helped lift his game.
However, strangely, it wasn’t until six years later, despite his unrivalled skills in midfield, before he became a regular feature in the senior national team under Paul Hamilton. This lacuna is still one of the unsolved mysteries of the game in Nigeria.
