City Sports to represent Nigeria in German football tournament

City Sports ramp up preparation to represent Nigeria at the European Football Cup in Stuttgart, Germany.

Over 40 players across four different teams and age groups will be on the City Sports contingent to participate in the European Football Cup in Stuttgart, Germany.

The annual age-grade tournament will hold from May 26 to 29 and will feature over 100 teams from football academies around the world.

City Sports who are big stakeholders in grassroots sports will be the only Nigerian team at the tournament tagged ‘Germany 2023’, following their success in the last edition, Netherlands 2022.

City Sports reveal plans ahead of Germany 2023

“We are here because we in City Sports School which is one of the subsidiaries of City Sports Group are going to a tournament in Stuttgart, Germany this month, May,” Shola Opaleye said in a press conference.

The CEO of City Sports Group was in attendance along with four captains of the under-9s, under-11s, under-13s and under-16s teams where they all spoke on the upcoming tournament, outlining their plans and preparations for the showpiece.

“We are going with a team of 78, 41 players, four coaches then you have staff, medical people as well and then the rest of them are parents so we have about 78 people going on this trip altogether,” Opaleye said, giving a detailed breakdown ahead of the tournament.

“The tournament is coming up in May, end of this month, it’s a football tournament and we are going with four teams, under-9s, under-11s, under-13s, and under-16s, altogether, about 41 players are going with us across the four teams with four coaches, Opaleye said.

“The idea of the tournament as I’ve already mentioned is to help develop their adaptive skills because they’re going to meet about 118 other teams from Europe and sometimes South America that will be there.

We went to a similar tournament last year. In this trip, we are the only team representing Africa and that is why you see Nigerian flags and our jerseys have been changed to green just for this because we are proudly representing Nigeria and all the players will have Nigerian flags on their shoulders.”

Training and preparation ahead of Germany 2023

Shola Opaleye said, “We are going there to showcase what we’ve been doing, it's been eight weeks of very serious preparation that each of these children have gone through.”

“They train four times a week, they run between five and seven kilometres, three times a week every morning, some of them have ran about 100 kilometres in the last six weeks now depending on their age group, they’ve been through a very intense program with their coaches and we’re here two weeks to the tournament and raring to go,” the CEO detailed their preparation.

“The organisers of this tournament are people we know very well now because we have been to their tournament more than once now, the last one we went to was in the Netherlands in May last year, we had over 100 teams come to that tournament as well.”

“There was Bayern Munich Academy, Dortmund Academy, there was a team from Belgium as well, I think it was Standard Liege and there was a team from Argentina as well last year. We’re the only team from Nigeria and we will be representing Nigeria going very well-prepared with our flags and jerseys.”

“The goal is experience, the goal is development, the goal is not to win the trophy, winning the trophy would only come when you have done everything you need to do in development.

It's a good thing to win the trophy and we want to but realistically as well, it's an icing on the cake but the first thing for us is that these boys have gone through eight weeks of serious training.”

“Like what we tell them, it's not the three days of the German tournament that is most important, its the eight weeks of hard work that matters, what that has taught them as human beings is not for the trip alone but for life as human beings.”

City Sports’ captains speak

Opaleye introduced the captains, “I’m sitting with the four captains here and this is part of their leadership exercise, they need to learn confidence and communication, building them up for these kinds of platforms that they will face in future.”

“They’ve prepared me by giving me the correct diet to eat, when I should do my training and when I should do my individual runs,” said eight-year-old Eyinnaya Umeh, captain of the under-9s team.

Toluwanimi Okunowo, captain of the under-11s spoke on the strengths of his team, “I think we all possess great ball control and passing and we know when to press and fall back. I feel over-pressured and joyful at the same time.”

Temilorun Opaleye the under-13s captain is the only one of the captains who featured in last year’s trip to the Netherlands and was eager to share that experience with Pulse Sports, “In the last trip, I gained experience from going out of the country and playing football so I’m a bit more used to this than the rest of the other captains.”

“With discipline, you can do everything, a technically gifted player without discipline won’t really go far which is why I believe discipline is the most important trait,” Temilorun said on his qualities.

Olisa Uduje, the captain of the under-16 team spoke on his hopes for the tournament, “I think this trip will give me the exposure to know what playing internationally is about. Playing in Europe will give me the experience to know what playing in other parts of the world and playing with other players of my age group. And considering scouts, I know that I will be able to impress and prove myself.”

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