Ozalla Football Academy players express appreciation to Raphael Onyedika

By Chiedu Uche Okoye

SOME players of Ozalla Football Academy, which is located at Awada-Obosi, have expressed their appreciation to the Nigerian international and FC Brugge of Belgium mid-fielder, Raphael Onyedika, for his support and encouragement.

The players who are, also, secondary school students spoke glowingly about the Nigerian international after they had played a scintillating friendly match with another football club at the Afor-Adike township stadium, Obosi.

Speaking to this journalist, Chijindu Ahanwa, a student of Campus Secondary School, Awada-Obosi, said that he was nursing the ambition of playing for a European club side while thanking Raphael Onyedika for imparting football skills to them.

“I combine playing football and attending school.I am  in Junior Secondary School. But I registered with the Ozalla Football Academy to hone my football skills so as to attract a foreign football club side.

“And I am grateful and thankful to Raphael Onyedika for coaching us whenever he is holidaying in Nigeria,” Ahanwa said.

Another member of the Ozalla Football Academy, Desmond Maduaburochukwu, who is a student of Awada Secondary School, said that Raphael Onyedika is used to drilling them in the areas of shooting, dribbling, feinting, and passing the ball accurately.

“I am very happy because I am learning  football skills and techniques from a great footballer. I joined the football academy because I want to become a professional footballer.

“The coaching as well as the teaching I have received at the Ozalla Football Academy has transformed me to a good footballer,” Maduaburochukwu said.

The Ozalla Football Academy, which is located at Awada-Obosi, has produced great footballers, among whom is Raphael Onyedika, who is the greatest alumnus of that football academy.

Onyedika, who has not forgotten his roots and early beginnings, is repaying the founders of the Ozalla Football Academy for helping him to achieve football stardom by drilling the players in the football academy in various areas of footballing.

And the Ozalla Football Academy is established to discover football talents and offer them a chance in life through football education.

Football, which is the most popular sports in the world is our country’s unifying factor. And not a few Nigerian born footballers, who ply their football trade in Europe, have achieved stardom. Think about Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman, Chukwueze, and others.

Their footballing prowess has imprinted our country’s name, Nigeria, in the minds of millions of people(s) of the world.

Chiedu Uche Okoye is of the Anambra state ministry of information and value reformation.