Sports
NPFL: 3SC GM Charges Players On Promotion
The General Manager, Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC), Rasheed Balogun, has charged 3SC players to ensure that the club secured promotion to the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) this season.
Balogun said this in a statement signed by the club’s Media Officer, Tosin Omojola, yesterday, in Ibadan.
Tidesports source reports that Balogun made the appeal ahead of the Nigeria National League (NNL) play-offs holding at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, from September 7 to September 11.
Balogun said that securing a slot in the NPFL was non-negotiable for the club this season.
He charged the players to ensure the realisation of the dream as they battle others for the ticket from the NNL play offs.
“Actualisation of 3SC’s promotion to the Nigerian topflight, NPFL is now or never. I commend you guys for a job well done in the regular season.
“It was a very commendable performance that you put up and I must say a big thank you to all of you for that impressive feat.
“However, I need not tell you that as much as our fans and supporters are happy, we did well in securing the play off ticket, what they are really after is the promotion ticket,” he said.
He added: “I want you, therefore, to brace up for the main challenge and replicate the good performance you put up in the regular season. This is what these people want as anything short of that, will be disappointing.
“Let us go there and prove that we do not belong in the NNL and come back home to deliver the ticket to our ever supportive governor, as well as the good people of Oyo State.
“On our part, we will do everything humanly possible to support you. You should all know it is time to gain promotion to NPFL,” he said.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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