Premiership giant, Chelsea, is planning to
open a multi-million Naira football academy
in Lagos. The club's Nigerian representative,
Noah Olivier and President Soccer Africa
Sports Management, Dominic Egbukwu,
disclosed to Daily Sunsports that the camp
would be sited on Victoria Island, Lagos, and
would serve as Chelsea's breeding ground
for promising young Nigerian players.
Said he: “Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana,
Cameroon and South Africa have been
picked in Africa by Chelsea FC for its
academy camp. My French partner, Olivier,
and I have been mandated by Chelsea to
take charge of the camp in Nigeria. Initially,
they were scared of including Nigeria
because of the Boko Haram issue, but we
succeeded in convincing them that there
was no cause for alarm in Lagos.
“We are expecting a 10-man Chelsea
delegation from England any moment from
now. They want to come and make
inspection before giving us the go-ahead to
throw the camp open. “It's going to be a big
camp and it will admit about 500 youths
between 15 and 18 years old. After
screening which will hold at the National
Stadium, Lagos, arrangements will be made
for the feeder teams of the teams such as
Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United
and PSG to come for invitational
tournaments. The outstanding players
among the the trainees will be given an
opportunity to join the Chelsea youth team
in England, just like they picked Kenneth
Omeruo.”
Meanwhile, Egbukwu has made a passionate
appeal to the Nigeria Football Federation
(NFF) to flush out the bad eggs involved in
transfer of Nigerian players abroad. “Most of
the so-called FIFA-licenced agents are
responsible for frustrating our players. I'm
not a FIFA agent and I don't want to be
because I discovered that most of them use
their licences to deceive players, promise
them heaven and earth and at the end of
the day, they would tie them down with
contract papers and stay on top of the deal
for their own selfish interest.
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