JURIS FC, Siasia, Houseman Collaborate on Scouting Tournament  

Olawale Ajimotokan  in Abuja

The main organisers of the ongoing football scouting tournament, JURIS FC, is collaborating with former Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, and Argentine licenced football agent, Marcelo Houseman, to discover talents and promote unity in the country.

No fewer than six clubs from across the country are featuring in the scouting tournament. They include; Shooting Stars of Ibadan feeder team, SiaOne Football Academy, Galadima FC, the Guards Brigade team, Phoenix FC and Unique Stats FC.

 Niyi Ayoola-Daniels, who runs JURIS FC, said he aims to nurture, train and develop talents whilst working with powerful personalities like Samson Siasia to help coach these talents and foreign scout and player manager like Marcelo Houseman who will discover these talents and set up a trail brazer future for them.

Ayoola-Daniels said his trajectory was expressing love and passion for youth development and talent hunting in the football constituency.

He said he had organised several talent hunt programmes in the FCT and discovered alot of talents in the past but decided to do something a little bit different to give it a national flavour this time around.

“That’s why we invited different young stars from different parts of the country, in the spirit of national unity and cohesion within the civilian constituency.

“Also, to be able to interact with the Nigerian military, we also invited the young team of the Guards Brigade.

“So, this opportunity is actually multifaceted, in the sense that, apart from developing the football talents that we wanted to come and see, of which fortunately we are already seeing here.

“It is also a way of promoting national unity and creating a breeding ground for social cohesion and harmony within the civilian and military constituency, and that’s the purpose of this whole exercise,” he said.

He said that in order to ensure that he achieved excellence in the whole venture, he also decided to bring on board one of FIFA’s top class football scout / licensed agent, Marcelo Houseman.

“Houseman is an Argentine who has great love for Nigeria as well and also played football at the highest level for Argentina.

“So, we brought him in here because he is an expert with global recognition and demonstrable expertise in scouting talents. 

“We have to give him credit for what he has done in the development of Nigeria’s young talents over the years,” he said.

He explained that the talent hunt/scouting programme was just the first phase of the tournament as he aims to host other grand tournaments starting from the next tournament scheduled to take place in January 2025.

Houseman, who has worked with several African players and discovered amongst others, the likes of Samuel Chukwueze, Obinna Nsofor, Odion Ighalo, Solomon Okoronkwo, Dr Khumalo, Lucas Radebe, Nonda Shabani, John Mosheou, Philemon Masinga

Steve Kompela, Tebogo Moloi, Mauricio Taricco, Esteban Fuertes, ⁠Víctor Ferreyra, Jairo Martinez and currently working with Amara Diouf, currently the best young player in Africa, said a lot of talents abound in Nigeria.

He said he was confident that within the next two to three editions of the world cup, a champion would emerge from Africa.

“I retired from playing football in South Africa after playing there from 1982 to 1994. So, I know alot about African football and as soon as I retired from playing, I started taking all the players abroad,” he said.

Siasia, while commending the efforts of Ayoola- Daniels and JURIS FC said the scouting programme was strictly for Under 18 players, adding that only right players would be selected and well groomed to start their footballing career abroad.