Princess Elegbede host Ikeja Allstars

Princess Adesola Areago Elegbede with the Betway 5s National League and MVP plaque trophy won by the Ikeja Allstars
Group photograph Ikeja Allstars and their host Princess Adesola Areago Elegbede with (Left) Mr. Gbenga Esho Ogunbiyi Personal Assistant to the Chairman APC Lagos State chapter Chief Lanre Balogun.
Comrade Tayo Aderinola Team Manager/Executive Director Ikeja Allstars and (L) Goalkeeper Stanley Shekube and assistant captain Emmanuel Jacob
Cross section of the team at the reception put together by Princess Adesola Areago Elegbede APC chieftain
Time for wine and dine

On Sunday, the All Progressives Congress Lagos West senatorial aspirant, Princess Adesola Areago Elegbede hosted the Betway 5s National League Champion, Ikeja Allstars Football Club to a reception at The Place, Ikeja GRA, in the Lagos State capital.

Princess Elegbede urged the young lads to remain focused with their chosen career and ensure they complement football with sound education. She said “I am actually thinking of having a football team. My children are football addicts like their dad, my husband was an all-rounder sports addict with many awards through sports” she stated.

“The whole world now knows Nigeria for playing good soccer so we have to help promote and propagate it so our youths can channel their energy in a positive endeavour rather than the world seeing us being fraudulent. I pray that our youths are engaged in more positive endeavours like sports. Right now we know we have a lot of our people excelling in different sports all over the world I think we should takeover completely. It’s not usually done by government but propelled by individual’s passion” she opined.

“I know soccer is the most popular sport in the world and I doubt in the next 100 or more years if any other sport can match soccer.

May God continue to bless your parents for guiding you, assisting you, for giving you that freedom to participate in soccer. Some years back, say about 30 years ago, children playing soccer will be scolded for not serious children but today success from football is quite immeasurable” she concluded.

The Team Manager and Chief Executive Director of the Ikeja Allstars Football Club ‘Tayo Aderinola expressed his gratitude to the APC chieftain for the reception and support. He used the occasion to give a brief history of the team formed in 2009. He said that “We had to key into the Babatunde Raji Fashola grassroots developmental football project of the then Lagos streets soccer. As a politician, then I was a ward chairman of my party working with several youths so I had to device ways of engaging them positively. Our youths have lots of energy and if not well channeled, the tendency of using it for antisocial activities become high. So we channel their zeal and strength into positive activities of which football is a veritable vehicle and we started the Ikeja Allstars Soccer Academy with players selected from ADSENSE Media Services sponsored Ikeja Soccer Challenge. They featured in grassroots developmental projects such as the Lagos Street Soccer and as God would have it, the team qualified for the Gulder 5-A-Side National final 2010; a year after the formation of the Ikeja Allstars. We lost at the semifinal to the eventual winners of the tournament.

Since then, we had featured in 5 national finals of major grassroots developmental tournaments before winning the Betway 5s National League, a feat I see as a result of hardwork and prayers, perseverance, enthusiasm and passion to ones belief. we thank God for the journey so far and we will continue to pray and work harder for the for the successful journey ahead” the publisher of Lagos Panorama affirmed.

Aderinola further stated that “We hope to formerly launch the Ikeja Allstars team next year to coincide with the 10 years anniversary of the club. We hope to invite various interests and stakeholders to help build a great community team like we have in developed climes” he concluded.

Captain of the side, Chidi Nwankwo on behalf of other team members expressed appreciation to the APC Senatorial aspirant for hosting the team to a reception. He also said “with this reception and your advice you have really spurred us to do greater achievements and that we will take very seriously” the 2018 Most Valuable Player Betway 5s National League assured.

 

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