IGSDA U-17 Team Ends Tour Of Abuja …Screens Players Tomorrow

The Independent
Grassroots Development Association, IGSDA’s Under-17 football team at the weekend rounded off its national tour of Abuja, where it played eight friendly matches.
At the end of the tour, the IGSDA team scored a total of five goals while conceding 10 against some professional league sides and top academics. Some of the clubes they encountered include FC Abuja, who handed them their biggest defeat, Jayi Academy, Destiny Academy, FCT Boys Academy, Abuja Green Horse FC, Abuja Police Machine, Vetran Boys and Kubura United FC.
According to the founder and national president of IGSDA, Prince Mebi Ogunu, the essence of the tour was to expose the players to top competitions and the nitty-gritty of the game, towards participating in an international tourney in Benin Republic. He now believes that the players now know that football is not a village play thing but big business and career opportunity.
The president said that technical department of the team will now go back to the drawing board to correct all the identified flows noticed in the team. He further disclosed that in effort to fortify the team, the technical committee of the association will tomorrow hold a screening exercise at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt.
The exercise, he said, would be for Under-17 player from the 23 local government areas of Rivers State and that interested individuals within  he age bracket should be at the venue in the morning with red jersey and black shorts. Successful players, he added, would be part of the team that will ravel to Benin Republic for the tournament scheduled between 28th-30th of this month in Porto Novo.
Meanwhile, members of the IGSDA Under 19 team that won the maiden United Nations International Day of Friendship football competition in Ghana, recently have called for recognition and encouragement from the state government, especially, the caretaker committee chairmen of the local government councils in the state which would go a long way to encourage the youth and motivate them towards sports.