............Bishop Amakri, Engr Edward praises impact of the football Academy in FCT

Former Nigerian football star, Femi Ajilore, and the proprietor of FAFC, a football academy in the Federal Capital Territory has rolled out progress made by the academy in the outgoing year, 2023.

Speaking with our correspondent during the end of the Year Get-Together and Award Presentation held recently in Abuja, Ajilore highlighted some of the achievements.

"I will start by thanking God for a successful calendar year. When we look from how we started in the early part of this year till now we realized that God has really helped us. We have actually achieved a whole lot. And of course most importantly none of our kids got injured. We thank God for injury free season, we thank God that we did not have any need to rush any of the kids to the hospital while in training or while playing games. So, that alone means a lot for us and for me in particular.

"And, secondly, like I said, we achieved a lot this year. In the Kids soccer league our U-8 were the champions. They played against about eight teams in a home and away format, so you can imagine exposing the kids to other venues. And of course I must commend the efforts of the parents who have been very supportive by bringing the kids to those trainings, and of course the reward of their hard work and their patience is what the kids gave to them by winning kids league especially our U-8. For our U-10 and U-14 they did so well. Of course they were close but that is what the league is all about, to keep fighting to win. Our U-8 did it and we are very proud of them. Our U-13 did well. They were number three on the log. By and large we are very proud of their performances. And again, towards the last part of the year, we had another tournament our U-10 that has been promoted to the U-11, in fact a lot of them played in the U-12. They got to the final of the Paccers Super cup and of course winning the silver medal. It was a quite unfortunate thing for us because we should have actually win the trophy, but we lost on penalty. We have to encourage the boys because they put in a whole lot in to that tournament. You can imagine in the semi final they were a line goal down and coming from behind to equalize and later win the game means a lot for us. So, that was one of our high points, because it was an emotional scene for us. To see that the boys have this never die and never given up attitude was really appealing to us.

Also speaking to our correspondent at the event, Proprietor of Amakson football academy, Bishop Amakri expressed great satisfaction with the Femi Ajilore soccer academy. "I will say kudos to Femi Ajilore. It's not easy for people like him who has devoted their time and have served this country at the hight of the game and coming back home after retiring to come and start giving back to the less privilege, young men who want to see themselves excelling in football. I must say that it is a good success like of Amakson soccer academy. As you know this is an affiliation of Amakson soccer academy ably established by Femi Ajilore. And I will say that the ultimate objective is to begin to nurture young people, young talent, like they say, catch them when they are young.

This is a platform that has been created for them. The good thing about life is that no matter how good you are as a driver if you don't have a vehicle you cannot drive. no matter how good a player is if you don't have a platform you cannot nobody will know you. So, Femi Ajilore has provided this platform for these young lads, and you can see people are gathered here today to come cheer and celebrate with them. And then keep the hope alife. So, I am very impressed frankly speaking, and I just pray that God will continue to provide for him the energy, the resources that will keep the spirit going sot gat this will serve as a thing to emulate by other super stars or legends who have served this country before.

One of the parents who was on ground for the end of year ceremony, Engr Anthony Edward revealed how the academy has greatly impacted his two boys who were barely two months with them. "My name is Engr Anthony Edward. I have two of my kids playing with the FA soccer academy. They just started playing the last two months and I have seen a lot of changes in their games, and they are performing very well and I am so impressed. I was not aware of this academy, it was my son whenever he comes back from school will disturb me that he wants to play with this team. I know googled and checked, and they went in search and finally lactated this place. And I want to tell you that I love it so very much. The way they are training them is totally different from the way they were training them in their previous place. And their skill has greatly improved," he concluded.