White Tigers Football Club, at the weekend, reaffirmed their status as one of the best street soccer team when they defeated Papa SA Football Club 4-0 to retain Spires Five-A-Side Naija Street Soccer Tournament title.

Forty teams competed in the championship from the divisional level with 16 teams moving to the state competition leading to the final game. The Lagos Island-based club, coached by Emmanuel Olom, were fantastic in their positional play in the final game played at the Stables Sports Centre, Surulere.

For their efforts, White Tigers got the N5 million prize money, while Papa SA got N3 million as runner-up. Greater Tomorrow FC, which defeated Chekas United 3-1 in the third place game, pocketed the N1 million consolation.

Some of the outstanding performers were rewarded for their efforts with top scorer with 14 goals, Ojo Rahman, who also was named the MVP of the tournament, getting N500,000 for both awards.

Coach Olom of white Tigers got N250,000, as the coach of the tournament, while the Golden Glove award went to Papa SA’s Sadiq Ridwan, who was named the goalkeeper of the tournament, Sadiq Ridwan, winning N250, 000 as well.

Speaking at the end of the final, initiator of the tournament, Dr Bankole Allibay, said Spires will continue to sustain the standards and build on the success of this year’s event ahead of future editions.

“We have already commenced our preparations ahead of the next edition, and we are talking to a few brands to see how we can jointly take this to a whole new level.”

“The Spires Five-A-Side tourney is beyond just playing football; it’s a deliberate move to empower the youth, hence we introduce the “Sports Meet Tech” component as part of this year’s programme and footballers were able to learn modern skills like artificial intelligence, machine learning, graphics designs, coding and more. So, the success is there for everyone to see,” Allibay said.