Coventry City Extend Opportunities to Young Nigerian Footballers

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Nigerian youths keen for brighter future in football have been offered the chance to balance their football and  educational pursuits by Coventry City Football Club.

The English Championship side are in partnership with some universities in the United Kingdom to get young talents and put them on the path to football career growth.

Coventry City FC who have Manchester United to contend with in the semifinals of the English FA Cup this weekend, are in league with Brooke House College, England, Loughborough College and University and Coventry City University on this project

Speaking yesterday in Lagos, UK-based Sports Lawyer  and Educational  Agent , Johnny Ogbah, said that many Nigerians are currently in the UK studying and also getting practical knowledge of football.

Ogbah,  explained 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 their wards combine sports and education successfully  .

 “Many Nigerian 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  being undertaken  by Brooke House College in conjunction with Loughborough College which is  number one sports’ degree awarding  university in the world  and Coventry FC

 “There are full degree programmes  with  academic session which usually starts in September while we have flexible three months, six months, 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 the Nigeria age grade teams in the past while some are now in the youth teams of Manchester City, Leicester and other top teams,” stressed the sports lawyer.

According to Ogbah, some former  Nigeria’s  junior internationals including  the duo of  Success 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 City University are also working with many private universities in Nigeria in the area of sports 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 made flexible 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,” concludes Ogbah.