Racing Genk of Belgium striker, Paul Ebere Onuachu’s club during his growing up days, Young Stars FC of Satellite Town, Lagos have been added to the roll call of participating teams at the forthcoming FRITISH Football Championship in Lagos.
This much was disclosed by the chairman of the organizing committee, Omoette Athan (aka Coach Lapa), who explained that the competition’s organizers had to include the team that produced Onuachu because of two of the FRITISH Cup sponsors once played alongside him at Young Stars.
This means the roll call of participating clubs at the already highly-promising competition, which is billed to hold at Olympic Ground, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos from April 4 to 25, will now be ten, as against the initial list of eight that was made public on Thursday.
Teams that were earlier confirmed for the competition are Mighty Starlet of Amuwo Odofin, SC Heritage of Ojo, Golden Potters of Amuwo Odofin, Super Angels of Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Ade FC of Mushin, Young Starlet of Amuwo Odofin, Nollywood FC of Surulere and Samba Boys FC of Iba.
The competition is the brainchild of two brothers, Friday and Timothy Ebeye alongside their long-standing childhood friend, David Opeyemi, who all played under ‘Coach Lapa’ at Mighty Starlet FC of Ijeshatedo, Lagos and feel duty-bound to put something back into the community that produced them, hence their decision to come up with the forthcoming event.
The older Ebeye, who is fondly called ‘King’ by his pals, revealed that FRITISH is an abbreviation for ‘Fascinated, Respect, Intelligence, Truth, Inventive, Spirited, Honour,’ then added firmly that he and his younger brother, Timothy, as well as Opeyemi are excited with the opportunity they have of putting something back to the fast-developing community that produced them.
While ‘Coach Athan’ will serve as chairman of the competition’s organizing committee, the ever-smiling youth developer, who handled the Ebeye brothers alongside Opeyemi during their days together at Mighty Starlet, will work together with the able trio of Emeka Uzegbu (secretary), Rasheed Tella and Chinedu Edum towards a successful event.
Incidentally, the Ebeye brothers had also lined out along the line with Young Stars, who have a close affinity with Ijegun, Trade Fair and Ojo areas of Lagos, hence the reminder that quickly went out to the FRITISH Cup organising committee to include the club that transferred Onuachu to FC Ebedie of Sagamu, from where he gained his breakthrough at FC Midtjylland of Denmark.
Onuachu’s heroics at Midtjylland, in which his biggest day in the spotlight came when he scored against Manchester United of England in the UEFA Europa League, led to the deal that has seen him pop into the brightest spotlight of his career at Genk and he soon got the quickest goal ever by any player in action for the Super Eagles, when he struck on his debut against Egypt.
The towering attacker, who scored his 24th goal of the season on Friday, has since enacted the greatest impact of his professional career with Genk, where he is currently the leading scorer in Belgium’s top flight and Nigeria’s highest goals netter of the moment, such that grassroots football followers back home keep celebrating his heroics, while not forgetting to mention his little beginnings at Young Stars FC.
Consequently, FRITISH Cup 2021 is bound to get additional recognition and followership from the presence of Young Stars in the upcoming competition on the dusty pitch that stands pretty close to the headquarters of The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Church, in the Amuwo Odofin axis, off Ijesha Bus Stop along Oshodi-Mile 2 Expressway.
‘Coach Lapa’ admitted it was an oversight leaving Young Stars out of the picture in the first place, such that the organizing committee quickly made amends when the team’s handler, Coach Osahon Emokpae called to raise an objection.
Incidentally, Coach Osahon’s reminder ultimately paved the way for another team that the Ebeye brothers had links with to also get a lift into the upcoming competition, as Pison Divine Royals FC, run by Mr Oscar Ezinwa Emmanuel, are the tenth team added to the participants’ list.
The youth developer, fondly called ‘Mr Oscar,’ was a strong force behind National Grassroots Dream Team during the time of the Ebeye brothers in Nigeria, and they went on to play under coach Osahon’ in the junior, intermediate and senior squads of the now defunct centre of excellence that was at that time run by Nigerian Grassroots Football Federation (NGFF).
‘Mr Oscar’ is still the secretary-general of NGFF and, considering that he has a new pet project under the banner of Pison Divine Royals International Promotions, ‘Coach Lapa’ admitted that it was only fitting to also have the club on the roll call, especially as they used to train at the venue of the upcoming competition.
That would mean a symbolic return to Olympic Ground for ‘TM’ and his wards, ahead of which the erudite youth promoter, competition’s organizer and motivational speaker, who was also team manager of British Council-sponged Community Action Through Sport (CATS), is already talking about winning the trophy at stake.
That would surely turn out to be a huge irony, as Pison Divine Royals may not have got into the picture of FRITISH Cup 2021 had Young Stars not been included, which then meant the roll call had to be beefed up with another team in order to bring the list to an even number.
With that done, FRITISH Cup 2021 has now been expended to 10 teams divided into two groups of five each, from which the top two finishers will qualify straight for the semi-finals, where the losing sides will drop out to tango in a third place match on April 24.
Coach Lapa affirmed that the final will hold on April 25th at the venue that was originally meant to be the site of a mini-sports complex planned by Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), but has over the years been busy as the homestead of youth football clubs, among which happened to be Pison Divine Royals, during a period when ‘Mr Oscar’ was based in the Ijeshatedo locality.
It was at the same ground that the Ebeye brothers were discovered in the year 2000 by the crew of National Grassroots Dream Team junior squad during a friendly against Mighty Sparrow FC, at a point the siblings and some of their pals temporarily moved from playing under ‘Coach Lapa’ to join ‘Coach Yellow’ in what used to be a rival team.
What appeared at that point as a period of discord soon turned into a blessing, as fortunes of the Ebeye brothers and their developmental strides blossomed ever after, with various leaps and bounds coming to their ways, ultimately leading to separate trips out to Europe, but they have now confirmed that they will never forget where they emerged from.
Dramatically, their first match with the grassroots selected squad was inside the main bowl of Lagos National Stadium, Surulere, with both brothers making their mark alongside fellow-Mighty Sparrow products, Ifeanyi Amadi (Sample) and David Opeyemi (aka Shola Garber).
Interestingly too, they all arrived at the then boisterous centre of excellence that used to train at White Sand Field, Orile-Iganmu and Government College Lagos, Eric Moore Road, Surulere at a point another product of Mighty Sparrow, Ebenezer Oluwafemi Ajilore (aka Mayor) was moving on from the project squad that also honed Stephen Ayodele Makinwa (The Tiger of Lagos).
They were motivated to learn that the ‘Grassroots All Stars’ outfit also had the privilege of lining out Kelvin Onyekachi Amuneke, Kazeem Ayila, Ifeanyi Emeghara, Seyi Adeleke, Sunday Stephen Uwafili (Onyah), Benjamin Chukwuka Onwuachi and Nnamdi Oduamadi.
Ajilore, who was part of Nigeria’s silver-winning squad at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in China and played a number of full senior matches with the Super Eagles, moved on to join FC Ebedie, after a spell as captain of Taribo West’s former pet club, Tamuno Inaemi Nationale FC of Ikeja, Lagos, and subsequently also found his way to FC Midtjylland and then Groningen of Holland.
He is now expected to be among the special guests at the FRITISH Cup final on April 25, with expectations also high that the Ebeye brothers would fly in from their current base in Italy to be part of the thrills, while Oyeyemi should be present if his club in Northern Cyprus allow him time off to make the trip back home to grace the event at his former childhood base.
