A battle for shirts to play
the prestigious Victor Ezeji Testimonial, VET Match delayed the release of the final shortlist of players for the event.
However, late on Monday, the final shortlist of players to feature in the game was made available to Victor Ezeji Testimonial, VET Media.
On the Team Ezeji side, top names like Makpor Dibofun who was top scorer at Sharks in the 90s, Imama Amapakabor, who captained Sharks in Victor Ezeji’s debut season and Ahmed Abdulrahaman will feature.
Abdulrahman played for Dolphins for 14 years from 1991 to 2005 and is now secretary of Rivers United.
Former Flying Eagles captain, Abubakar Musa, Mbwas Mangut who played for Sharks and Heartland as well as Iyenemi Furo who played for Sharks in the 90s and the Super Eagles at the AFCON 2000 are in the list for the Team Ezeji side.
Member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Kelechi Nwogu and camp commandant at the Rivers State Government House, London Owen Irifeke will also feature for Team Ezeji.
For the Team NPFL, there are no star names because they are all star players.
Mobi Oparaku of the Atlanta 96 fame, Sam Ledor who played for Sharks and Enugu Rangers, Dondo Avaa who was at Jasper United in the 90s as well as Kennedy Okogba who was with Sharks and Iwuanyanwu Nationale will feature on the Team NPFL side.
Others in the Team NPFL are Shehu Dikko, Albert Chinwo, Alari George (elder brother of Finidi George) who played at Sharks in the 90s.
Joseph Cole, Sam Sodje and Bode Babington are also in line to play for Team NPFL.
Chairman of the Main Organising Committee, China Acheru revealed to VET media that it took some time to get this list together as a lot of players wanted to be involved.
“When you play in the League for twenty seasons, you will surely have made lots of friends and that was how difficult it was for Victor (Ezeji) to get his list together.
“It took some chopping and changing also as some other people pulled out when the schedule changed from December ten to seventeen and then January 7 but finally we have a list of people to play the game and we believe they will all be in Port Harcourt for the event,” Acheru said.
“A player like Sudan based Kelechi Osunwa previously signed up to play but the schedule changed he was forced to pull out of the event,” Acheru said.
Former Super Eagles defender and coach, Austin Eguavoen and Stanley Eguma of Rivers United will coach the Team NPFL while Alphonsus Dike and Joseph “Zico” Egbu will coach the Team Ezeji.