Nigerian budding footballers, who want to combine their sport career with education, now have the opportunity as English Championship side, Coventry City Football Club, has provided that chance for the skilful lads.
Coventry City FC will meet Manchester United in the semifinals of the English FA Cup this weekend, but beyond that, the team is in partnership with some universities in the United Kingdom to get young talents and put them on the right track for a football career growth.
Brooke House College, Loughborough College and Coventry FC are the partners on this project.
UK-based Sports Lawyer and Educational Agent, Johnny Ogbah, said yesterday in Lagos that many Nigerians are currently in the United Kingdom studying and also getting practical knowledge of football.
Ogbah said that the project was a direct attempt to balance football and academics for interested parents and youths, adding the partnership between Brooke House College with some of the established varsities and Coventry offers the best opportunity for any parent desirous of ensuring that his children combine sports and education successfully.
“Many Nigerians are lovers of football and some of them also have talented children good enough to take the game as a profession in nearest future and this new project by Brooke House College in conjunction with Loughborough College, which is the number one sports’ degree awarding university in the world and Coventry FC provide the opportunity.
“There are full degree programmes with academic sessions, which usually start in September, while we have flexible three months, six months, and nine months calendar for some other students.
“Our coaches come to Nigeria regularly to pick talented youths on scholarships to the UK. Some of our students have grown to play for Nigeria’s age grade teams in the past, while some are now in the youth teams of Manchester City, Leicester and other top teams.”
Ogbah said that some former junior internationals including the duo of Success Makanjuola and Habib Makanjuola had at one time or the other benefited from this educational and sports project by Brooke House College.
He added that Coventry University is also working with many private universities in Nigeria to get talented players abroad to continue their education.
“Because of the exchange rate, the fees could be high for some people but payment has been broken into stages to make it easy,” he explained.
“The beauty of it all is that the talented players can even be offered scholarship, which is indeed a solid pathway to the future.”
