FCT FA Secretary Bags Sports Administrator Of The Year Award

FCT FA Secretary Bags Sports Administrator Of The Year Award

By Our Reporter

The Secretary of FCT Football Association Haruna Usman Ilerika has been decorated with the Sports Administrator of the year award by My Media Africa.

The award ceremony which was held at the Oriental Hotel Lagos, was in recognition of Ilerika’s impact as a football coach and Secretary of a football association, positions which he has handled professionally.

Born as Haruna Usman in Osi,Ekiti local government, Kwara State, but the world renamed him Usman Haruna Ilerika after the Lagos-born iconic footballer because of his exploits as a footballer.

He attended NEPA Primary school, Kainji and Osi Secondary school before proceeding to Kwara State Polytechnic Ilorin and eventually finished at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU) in the year 1994 with a degree in political Science.

He played for Kainji NEPA, ABU Workers FC, Zaria and was playing for the team even as an undergraduate. During his NYSC period in Abuja, he played for NYSC Strikers FC.

Ilerika is on the Services of

the Federal Capital Territory Administration as the Secretary of the FCT Football Association and at the same time, a professional coach.

He had his professional coaching training at the National Institute for Sports, and the KNVB Training school in Zeist, Netherlands. He is a CAF C and CAF B Licensed coach and a CAF/Nff football instructor and also has a masters degree in public administration.

Even after leaving service, he played for NYSC Strikers and also coached the FCT Corpers Team for 10 years and won the NYSC Director General’s with NYSC FCT on 4

He later coached FCDA FC, FC Abuja owned by EFCC. He established his Academy, as a way of giving back to the youth, and was instrumental to the establishment of Fosla Football Academy owned and financed by Sani Lulu Abdullahi. He tutored the boys before the institution was set up.

It was the same love for youth development that took him to the U-15 national team. He started with the U-13 boys in 2008 with likes of Kelechi Iheanacho, Chidera Ejuke, Chidera Eze, Saliu Ibrahim, Lazarus John among others.

As a player, Ilerika won the FCT Challenge Cup on four occasions. Twice with NEPA FC and once with NYSC FC and once with FCDA FC.

As a coach, he won the FCT Federations Cup with EFCC, and played as the runners up on two occasions. He was adjudged SWAN coach of the year in 2016 after winning Nff/zenith bank U13 competition for FCT back to back competition ..

At the national level, he won gold medal at the African Youth Games in Botswana 2014 and a silver medalist in 2018 in Algiers.

As Secretary, he has organised seminars, workshops for match commissioners, coaches, referees and other football stakeholders in and around FCT

Ilerika’s philosophy as a coach is to be able to produce world-class players that can represent Nigeria at the world stage, a player that can be appreciated for his, composure, spoken English and be able to maintain a responsible future for himself by combining education and football effectively.