Sports

NPFL Youth League Players who enjoyed Breakout Season

Published

11 months ago

July 10, 2024

A major standout achievement in less than one year of the inauguration of the Board of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has been in organising of the NPFL Youth League.

Beyond successfully setting up the league in conjunction with the 20 member clubs, some products of the league have gone ahead to join the senior teams of their clubs while four were picked to represent Nigeria in the WAFU U-17 tournament held in Ghana The trio of Remo Stars U-17 team, Oreoluwa Agbenia, Muiz Oladimeji and Daniel Arierhi were invited alongside Rangers goalkeeper, Chinedu Chike by Coach Manu Garba to the team that failed to pick one of the zonal tickets for the 2024 AFCON U-17.

At the end of the NPFL U-17 Youth League which held from February 24 to March 3 this year in Benin City after the zonal qualifiers in Port Harcourt, Ado Ekiti, Enugu, Lafia and Kaduna, Rivers United Youth team emerged the champions. Some of the players who participated in the tournament went ahead to star for their senior teams in the 2023/24 NPFL season which ended on June 23. This report by the NPFL Media takes a look at some of those players.

In Akure, teenage sensation, Chinedu Nwosu, popularly called Nedu made waves with Sunshine Stars after Coach Kennedy Boboye gave him his first runout for the senior team on Matchday 35. The 17 year old pacey forward provided two assists in the defeat of Kano Pillars and Remo Stars would be holding him responsible for blunting their title push when on Matchday 37, he came in again as a substitute to net twice in Sunshine Stars triumph in the Southwest Derby. Nedu is a star on the rise.

The league’s runner-up, Remo Stars had three of their Youth League players moved up to the senior team. Centre back, Ahmed Akinyele made 28 appearances and netted five goals. Stanley Joseph, a right wing back played in 31 of Remo Stars games and had two goals to his name while Olisa Emmanuel sat out all the season as a senior team player.

There was little or no surprises when Rivers United Coach, Evans Ogenyi named the competitions lead scorer, Seiyefa Jackson in the senior team’s matchday squad against Sporting Lagos on May 26 and scoring seven minutes after his introduction as a substitute. Seiyefa would go on to play four more games for the former Nigerian champions.

Ogenyi demonstrated more faith in the youth players as four others who played alongside Seiyefa in the NPFL U-17 Youth League were also drafted into the senior squad.

In Rivers United match against Gombe United, U-17 Youth League Champions who made the cut included Kingdom Confidence, Ochobi Elias, Paul Junior, Oscar Ozornwanfor James and Seiyefa.
Nnamdi Igwillo, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) at the Enugu zonal qualifiers on Monday, July 1 put pen to paper for a professional contract with Rangers International, the NPFL champions. Before him, another graduate of the club’s youth team, Kenneth Igboke not only made it to the squad that clinched Rangers 8th NPFL title, he got called up for the Super Eagles World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin Republic.

At Akwa United, two members of the Youth team, Nsikak Alloysius, a left back and offensive midfielder, Itoro Bassey were promoted to the senior team and made a number of appearances for the club in their successful fight to avoid relegation.

Taking stock of the accomplishment of the maiden edition of the Youth League, the NPFL Chairman, Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye could not conceal his elation at how fast dividends accrued from what initially could have been considered an experiment.

“We have obviously met one of the cardinal objectives for initiating the Youth League for our Clubs in the NPFL, which is to assist the Football Federation and their Coaches scout for talents”, the NPFL Chairman told www.npfl.com.ng

This is verifiable as the national U-17 team selected four players from the league and there are a number of upgrades to senior club squads across the NPFL.

Still speaking on the idea behind the Youth League, Elegbeleye submitted, “the Youth League is a requirement of the NFF Club Licensing Regulations and the benefits are many, including providing the clubs a steady and ready replacement of ageing players and those who move away to ther clubs”.

Plans are afoot to organise camping for select members of the Youth League who would take part in some international youth tournaments in Africa and Europe.

Elegbeleye explained that the camping and tournament participation is to further improve the players for their clubs career development.

Share on Facebook

Sports

A Triumphant Close to the 22nd National Sports Festival

Published

3 days ago

May 29, 2025

The Gleamer

…As organisers promise another spectacle at closing ceremony on Thursday

Joel Ajayi

After 11 days of a true showcase of sporting competition in multiple Sports by some of the country’s top and even promising athletes, the curtain will finally be drawn on what many have described as one of the best ever organised National Sports festivals, when the closing ceremony is held on Thursday at the MKO Sports Arena in Abeokuta.

Whilst the quality of the Games’ opening ceremony is still getting tongues wagging, the entire sporting family and beyond is now anxiously looking forward to what the closing ceremony will look like.

The last 11 days have showcased Ogun state as a true Sporting hub with potential to even do more, with the quality of the facilities built for the games and the enthusiasm of the people who made the various venues their second home in the last few days.

A big testament to this was the history-making crowd that attended the male football final between Ogun state and Kwara State, which the host won by 4-1.

The MKO stadium was filled to full capacity while the crowd outside watching from the big screen reminds one of how much Sports is truly the soul of our togetherness as a country.

From the Alake Sports centre in Ijeja and the Baptist boys high school, to the Obafemi Awolowo square and the Remo stadium both in Ikenne, to the NYSC orientation camp in Shagamu, and the Ilisan town hall in Ilisan, the festival never lacked spectatorship throughout the games.

The Games actually lived up to the pre-tournament hype as both the National Sports Commission, NSC and the Ogun state Government pulled out every administrative capacity to ensure both athletes, officials and the media have an unforgettable experience.

The Gateway Games 2024 had been full of exciting drama and intrigues amongst the states and athletes which led to different new records being set and some old records being shattered.

The festival has also produced for the country some new exciting young talents especially with the shocking performance of the 38th state, the Invited Junior Athletes ( IJA), where they ended up winning some surprised medals to justify the Commission’s establishment of the initiative.

As the Closing ceremony holds on Thursday, the leadership of the National Sports commission, NSC, expresses its profound gratitude to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Ogun State Government for making sure millions of Nigerian youths see a renewed brighter future in the country through the National Sports Festival.
The NSC Chairman Mallam Shehu Dilko said ” our overwhelming gratitude goes to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,GCFR, for his personal commitment to the development of Nigerian Sports by giving us every support financially and otherwise for the success of this festival”.

” And the Ogun state Governor, Dapo Abiodun also deserves a huge praise for the feat we all recorded with these games. I can’t thank him enough and posterity will surely remember him for good “.

The NSC Director General who is also the Chairman of the Main organising committee of the games, Hon Bukola Olopade also extended his gratitude to all the technocrats behind the scene that are responsible for the successful organisation of the games.

” From all the members of the Main organising committee to the various sub committees, to members of the local organising committees and all our technical officials in the various sports to the media and our athletes, every success that everyone is talking about concerning these Games belongs to you all”.

” Yes it was not a perfect festival because we acknowledged we had also some challenges but let me assure everyone that some of the challenges are already being worked upon ahead of the next Games holding in Enugu state next year”, he concluded.

The Closing ceremony is expected to bring together top Government functionaries to captain of industries while there will also be the rich cultural display of the state as Ogun state will officially pass the barton of hosting to Enugu state for the 23rd edition of the Games come September 2026.

Share on Facebook