The Ikeja All-Stars Football Club on Saturday, 17th of November, won the maiden edition of the Betway 5s National Football League. The Tayo Aderinola tutored side defeated G-12 Football Club from Lagos Island in a penalty shootout to decide the winner of the first 5-a-side football league in Nigeria after 1-1 pulsating full time of play.
Both sides displayed beautiful football artistry to the admiration of football fans who stormed the Landmark Beachfront Football pitch in Victoria-Island, Lagos.
G-12 Football Club captain Omotosho opened scoring for his side from a free-kick 5 minutes into the second half but the Ikeja All-Stars team captain, Chidi Nwankwo stepped up from his defensive role, made a dribbling run after receiving a pass from Christian Nwoke in the midfield and took a canon shot to beat the G-12 goalkeeper to slot in a well-deserved equalizer for his side and the spectators erupted in jubilation for the Ikeja All-Stars Football Club comeback with less a minute to the end of regulation time.
In the final penalty decider, Demola Adelani in goal for Ikeja All-Stars made brilliant saves as he stopped 2 of the 3 penalties from the opponents while Chidi Nwankwo led his team mates to convert 2 of their 3 penalties to emerge champions of the Betway 5s Football League, the first in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ikeja All-Stars captain, Chidi Nwankwo went home with the most valuable player award while the team’s second choice goalkeeper Demola Adelani who replaced Stanley Shekube who got injured in the semi-final against Alaba FC was adjudged best goalkeeper of the tournament after stopping a record 5 penalties in both the semi-final and final matches. The Betway 5s National League champions Ikeja All-Stars went home with the tournament’s trophy and the prize money of one million naira while the second placed team G12 Football Club earned five-hundred thousand naira for their effort. Emeka Asogwa of VIC FC went home highest goal scorer award who had 12 goals to beat Christian Nwoke of Ikeja All-Stars with 9 goals to the title.
The Team Manager of the Ikeja All-Stars, Tayo Aderinola expressed his gratitude to God for his team’s victory and noted that hard-work, determination of his players and most especially grace of God gave his boys the victory.
Aderinola who spoke with media after the final match also noted that “We came, we saw and we conquered. In recent past, we had reached 4 finals of major tournaments but my boys’ complacency and the ‘Nigeria-factor’ had deprived us of winning the finals but today we were determined, we trained hard and we committed our game to God and we achieved the required result” the Lagos Panorama publisher noted.
Aderinola also said that “Ikeja All-Stars is part of the social corporate responsibility of Adsense Media Services, publishers of Lagos Panorama Magazine, to our community. The boys were selected from our annual Ikeja Soccer Challenge that discovered the likes of Dele Alampaso in 2011 who later became world under-17 champion and best goalkeeper of the tournament in the United Arab Emirates in 2013. So I want to appreciate Betway for providing the platform for these young raw talents to exhibit their God given talent. I believe grassroots football is the only way for Nigeria to win the World Cup but our football officials need to do the right thing to help the game grow and develop faster than the pace it is now” he concluded.
The tournament MVP Chidi Nwankwo also added “This is the best grassroots football tournament considering the organization of the tournament but they need to improve on the officiating. We thank Betway and the organizers of the 5s League for the opportunity offered us young budding players and I hope more organizations will also support grassroots football because it is the only way to help budding talents get their footballing career on track. Thank you Betway. I also thank our chairman and team manager Comrade Tayo Aderinola for believing in us and Hon Adedamola Richard Kasunmu Member Lagos State House of Assembly representing Ikeja constituency 2 and the chairman House Committee on Youths and Sports for his morale boosting visit to our training last week Saturday. And a big thank you to our fans for their supports” an elated Chidi concluded as he joined his team mates to celebrate their well-deserved victory.
Mr Lere Awokoya, Country Manager of Betway Nigeria stated before the commencement of 12 week long league that the essence is to boost community relations, grassroots football, and fitness in Nigeria. He explained that Betway 5s League is organised primarily to further encourage the growing culture of 5-a-side football in Nigeria by creating a competitive annual league.
