By EMMA JEMEGAH
Coventry City FC has Manchester United to contend with in the semifinals of the English FA Cup this weekend but beyond that, the team is in partnership with some universities in the United Kingdom to get young talents and put them on the right track for a football career growth.
Brooke House College, England, Loughborough College and Coventry FC are the partners on this project.
UK-based sports lawyer and educational agent, Johnny Ogbah, said 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 children 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 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.”
According to Ogbah, some former Nigeria’s junior internationals including the duo of Isaac 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 University is 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 broken into stages 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.”