Scramble for European Trials Heighten as Onazi Football Scouting Clinic Kicks off

The four-day Ogenyi Onazi Football Coaching Clinic began yesterday at the Stable, Union Bank Sports Club, Surulere, Lagos, with over 1,600 players from 47 clubs participating.

The participants, with ages ranging between 17 to 20 years slugged it out in an attempt to be in prime position to be picked for the European trials at the end of the clinic.

According to the initiator of the clinic, former Nigeria International, Ogenyi Onazi, he said the aim of the clinic is to give back to the society and create opportunities for the young players to make a living from playing football.

"It’s very important for me to initiate this scouting clinic because I believe in the young ones and believe in building the youths with the hope that they would end up achieving what some of us were not able to achieve.

"It is also an opportunity for these players to start early and be exposed and also create a platform for them to play football at an early age.

"We have a lot of talented players in this country, so I decided to take them off the streets and expose them at very young age,” Onazi said.

On how the players were selected, the 2013 AFCON gold medallist said players that showed interest were registered for the clinic from clubs and individually.

"We did not limit it to clubs only so as not to miss out some talented players that are not attached to any club and group them as a team for them to participate.

Asked what would become of the standout talents discovered at the end of the clinic, he said, "I contacted clubs in Europe and they gave me the opportunity to bring some of these players for trials because of the trust they have in me. So, we are trying to look at some of the players that will meet the criteria these clubs needed."

"That is why we have scouts that included Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Deputy Director, Technical and Scouting present to help in selecting some of these talents, "Onazi noted.

He however emphasised that everything he and his team are doing is free. "We didn't ask anybody to pay a dime, but we have sponsors that includes Union Bank, some other cooperate organisations and individuals that are also supporting the project."

In his reaction, Head, Strategic Brand Management team, Union Bank, Alvin Agorome said his bank is very proud to be associated with Ogenyi Onazi Football Scouting Clinic because its something that aligns very much to our strategy as a brand.

“The whole idea of Union Bank Sports Complex is to build sports from grassroots developmental stage, so what we are trying to do now is to sort of backtrack and rebuild the process and find very strategic opportunity like the Onazi Football Scouting Clinic to amplify the opportunity we give to talents,” Agorome said.

He indeed expressed that Onazi being a customer of the bank, it was not too difficult to build a relationship.