Youth soccer development in Nigeria is set to rise as the stage is all set for the most anticipated finals of the 2015 Principals Cup billed for this Wednesday, May 20 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
GTBank has also restated its commitment to investing in grassroots and youth soccer development, as a vital step in helping Nigeria emerge a global power house in soccer.
Speaking in the run up to the finals, Lola Odedina, the GTBank Communications General Manager noted that Nigeria cannot emerge a global soccer giant by wishful thinking. “It requires concerted efforts, long range planning, continuous investment
and most importantly talent identification and development at the youth level. The need to catch them young and train them well has never been greater.
“It has been a wonderful season this year. Every year we try to build on the success of the previous year. We are pleased with the outcome of the tournament so far and we are optimistic that the talents that will emerge from the Principals Cup will enlarge the pool of potential of players that will not only emerge national players but global and disciplined soccer stars. ”
The 6th season of the prestigious secondary school tournament is an annual football competition geared towards the development of grass roots football, the discovery of young football talents and fostering camaraderie amongst secondary students. It also provides a platform for identifying, nurturing, grooming young and talented players as well as helping students actualize their dream of becoming professional footballers.
The road to the finals was filled with thrills and challenges. In the female category, Ikotun Senior College girls overpowered the Government Senior College by 3-1. The super captain Salisu Anu single handedly did all the damage with superb hat trick that led the whole stadium shouting her name. She also emerged the as Most Valuable Player of the match.
In the male fixture between: Keke High School, Ijaye vs. Ifako comprehensive high school, Keke boys ran away with lone goal that saw them through to the final. Now Teslim Balogun, Surulere awaits the final in both Male and Female category of this year GTBank Principal Cup as: (Birrel Avenue face Keke Senior School( Boys) while in the female category, Ikotun Senior Sec School will challenge Oriwu Senior Model to a thrilling final.
In supporting and appreciating their task at the finals, the winning male and female teams will go home with N1,000,000 each while the 1st, 2nd, 3rd runners up will receive, N750,000, N500,000 and N250,000 respectively. As a tradition, GTBank will also upgrade the existing sports infrastructure in all participant school which will help further promote overall sports development. .
This grass root development career development in the country shows GTBank PLC is one of the few Nigerian financial institutions that that have maintained a defined corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy since its inception in 1990. The bank actively supports numerous programmes across Africa that positively affects child health-care, education, the Art, community development and environment sustainability.
