MTN, which launched the initiative at White House Ikeja, wants youths to seize the opportunity. Its External Communication Manager, Mr Andrew Okeleke, said the initiative will help in discovering intelligent youths who can combine football and education at the tertiary level on scholarship.
Okeleke said the aim of the initiative is to help youths realise their dream of furthering their studies via scholarships while also playing professional football in universities in the United States of America.
He said MTN is already partnering with some universities in the US – with some of the institutions planning to send scout coaches to Nigeria to identify such talents.
To participate, potential contestants aged between 16 and 20 only need to send an SMS, stating their name age and location to 4000
Kelvin Orifa, MTN Youth Segment Manager, said the idea was to rekindle the hopes of many indigent youths, who thirst for a sound education and a worthy football career.
He said: “The project is for that young man who lives in Warri who plays football but does not also have access to get into the university because his parents don’t have the means. The programme is here to balance the Millennium Development Goals towards education and also foster the skills in our youths for football.
This scholarship exists, but a lot of people are not aware of that, and so with the MTN programme, you can access international scholarships.
You will agree with me that the best of talents in terms of soccer do not usually have education background. But with education, you can manage your business and life after a fulfilling football career.
Fola Fowose, Harvard Business School undergraduate and project consultant, said the intending talents will go through various stages before 30 of them are shortlisted for the scholarships. He said the auditions will kick off in eight cities with a knock out series leading to quarter finals stages.
Participants who, survive up to the knock out stages, will the write a mock exam while successful ones among them proceed to the academy where they will get intensive academic training for a month.
Ex-football International, Segun Odegbami, a role model for the initiative, lauded the programme and said it would boost sport.
“We are also using sports as in business to sustain sports economy; and its contributions to the country. Sports economy is very bad in this country, and our youths should be informed about the opportunities that exist within sports so that they won’t all be engineers, doctors, lawyers,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer, PPM outfit, Ghandi Olaoye, said as a pilot project the initiative would take off in the Southwest with focus on males. He, however, assured females of participation in subsequent editions.
Joe Erico, ex-Nigerian Coach, who represented the coaching crew, pledged that the coaches will live up to expectations in choosing those that will make Nigeria proud.
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