Greensprings School partners Southampton on football academy

As part of its continuous contribution towards football development in Nigeria, Greensprings School, Lekki campus, has established a relationship with Southampton Football Club in England to run a football academy in the country.

The academy is aimed at complementing the school’s yearly football camp, which recently produced two players that featured in the Golden Eaglets squad that won the 2022 WAFU B U-17 Championship.

According to the principal, Wider Curriculum of the school, Mrs. Jennifer Sunkanmi-Qazzeem, the introduction of the football academy is in line with the school’s theme and objectives for the 2022/2023 academic year.

She remarked, “our Lekki campus has always been known for sports because of our numerous sports facilities, and at the beginning of this school year, the campus was designated as the Centre of Excellence in Sports. In line with that, we collaborated with Team Nigeria International, which is the international academy partner for Southampton FC. This gave birth to the Greensprings/Southampton FC Football Academy (GSSFA), which officially kicked off November 7.”

On the modality of the academy, Sunkanmi-Qazzeem said students attend three training sessions per week after school hours and also participate in FUTSTAR League, which allows them to be scouted by football clubs abroad.

“Coaches at GSSFA are groomed the ‘Southampton Way’ and they provide top-class training that helps our students to improve their technical and tactical skills. In addition to that, they will carry out customised player evaluations aimed at helping our students identify career pathways in sports and allied industries.

“The academy three training sessions per week is on a coach-to-student ratio of 1:10 and participation in the FUTSTAR League, which gives them opportunity to be scouted abroad.

“More importantly, the football academy provides a sports education curriculum, which supports students’ academic pursuits and excellence, and for this reason, training takes place after school hours,” she said.

She disclosed that GSSFA is currently only open to students of Greensprings School.