Barcelona invite 5 grassroots players from Benin City to their Academy. News

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Barcelona invite 5 grassroots players from Benin City to their Academy.

By Nelson Dafe on September 18, 2018

Barcelona coaches were in Benin City last friday for a one-day scouting program and, at the end of about 3 hours of watching thousands of young stars strut their footballing sun at the Uhuogba field in the far south West of Benin City, five players were selected for invitation to their Barcelona Lagos Academy where, according to one of the Barca officials, they will undergo further screening to see who can join the Academy.

Players from many grassroots clubs were present, some with their parents, with hope and expectations in their hearts that they would be fancied by one of football's greatest and most admired clubs.

The players were selected by the Benin City coordinator of the program and Barcelona senior scout in the South-South of Nigeria Anthony Jibunoh after intensive analyses of their training sessions and matches for their current parent grassroots clubs.

Jibunoh, as a coach, discovered lots of youth players who play in both local and foreign clubs today. He was also the head coach of AC Football Academy, Benin City owned by ex-Super Eagles coach Austin Eguavoen.

Jibunoh was part of the technical crew of the Nigeria under 23 team from 2010 to 2012.

His penchant for trying to see that talented young players move to the top took him to several grassroots clubs in Benin City to speak of the Barcelona project and the parent clubs, in their willingness to cooperate with the Catalan giants in ensuring their players get the best route to the professional level, facilitated the availability of the players for the scouting programme.

The friday programme kicked off at about 11:30 am in the lush green Uhuogba field, well trimmed and decorated with Barcelona orange colored goal nets, balls and corner flags as well as cones.

The players, mostly between the ages of 12 to 18 were randomly selected according to their playing positions and ages.

The younger players were made to play against each other for a period of about 20 minutes each while the older players slugged it out against each other as well.

In the end 5 players, one each from Ine Stars, Paragon Sports, Benin Warriors, Golden Stars and Dynamo sports, were chosen to the next phase of the screening in Lagos which comes up, according to the Barca officials, in about a month's time.

As stated in their website, the Barcelona Lagos Academy "is focused on developing the skills of the footballers such that after graduation, they can pursue careers as professional footballers with international football clubs."

•Photo shows Anthony Jibunoh and two Barca officials addressing young players at the Uhuogba field after their scouting program on Friday, September 14.

Nigeria foreign players watch: Durugbor Scores in 6-6 thriller for Swedish club

Sweden-based Pascal Durugbor is continuing to knock on the door of the consciousness of world football with his fine performances in Sweden's 3rd Division Club Vaxjo United.

In last weekend's league match against IFK Osby, he notched in a goal in the match that witnessed goals galore.

Final score was 6-6.

Though a big talking point of the match would be the number of goals scored, Durugbors goals scoring form since he arrived in the Scandinavian country is remarkable.

The teenage attacker has scored more than 20 goals for his club since his January arrival from Benin City grassroots side Rock Stars FC, making many believe he's primed for a more elite league club in one of the top leagues in the world.

Although his agent, Ferdinand Oji, the well respected young licensed intermediary and owner of Chinice Sports management company, is keeping information on that issue close to his chest.

Source Daily Sports

Posted September 18, 2018