My priority is to establish stars in FOSLA Football Club – coach Abimbola

My priority is to establish stars in Fosla Football Club – coach Abimbola By Amaechi Agbo Technical adviser of the newly registered Fosla Football Club, FFC, Abimbola Samuel, has disclosed that his priority in joining the club is to establish stars in the club and its academy. The former Under 20 national team coach in an interview at the unveiling of the club in Abuja on Monday stated that being given the chance to coach the new club was an honour, further said that for the few days he had stayed with the team in training, despite their lacking match fitness owing to lack of training and matches, that the players have the urge, passion and commitment to play. This, he said, would make the work a lot easier for him. “Well, it is a great honour for someone to recognise your importance. When I received the call, I took it as a challenge and it is a thing of honour that I am coming to work with the younger ones which I always believe are there for me to make them stars. “Technically speaking, their match fitness is very low going by what I have seen in the training and that is due to the fact that for long after their graduation from school, they have not really been playing competitive game because they have all been going about their academic work. But there is one great thing I saw in them that really gave me enough joy that in a short period of time, they will come back to full fitness – that is their willingness of being motivated. They are full of life and very happy that they are coming back to do what they know how to do best which is to play football. “Apart from making them stars, one other target is to reach greater heights in the Nigeria league. It is not an impossibility to play in the top league in the country in relative time but we have to go it a step by step. FCT League is our take off point and we will see how we will move up the ladder of the leagues in the country. With the players, my colleagues and the technical crew, I believe that it is achievable. With short period of time, we will be seeing ourselves among the elite in the premier league,” the coach said. The former Gateway FC coach who described the club owner, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abudulahi as someone who loves football with passion and with all his being, added that the club would not be recruiting players, stressing that he would also give a helping hand to the Academy team. “Sani Lulu is a man I have known for so long and he has got this concept for many years. It is just a dream come true that today the man is having a football club. He is somebody who loves football with passion. Not just loving football but being able to take it to the grassroots and develop the children. He has been praying for a day like this to have the power and the wherewithal to have a club. “I am so much happy for him that the dream has come to a reality. It is based on these and a lot of other factors that I was glad to accept the appointment given to me as the technical adviser of the club. It is an honour and I believe we will all be part of history in building the club to a greater height which Alhaji Sani Lulu has envisioned. “Right from before like when I am not on assignment, I do stroll in the academy and have one or two sessions with the boys. So now that I am part of the family, all of us are helping each other. The people working in the academy are doing a great job. Sometimes I will take time off to see what is going on there to motivate the younger ones so that they can have that aspiration to join bigger teams. To let them know that their career does not end only in the academy but should have something to look up to that as soon as they are finishing, we are ready to receive them. “This team is very unique in that the players are either undergraduates or they are waiting for admission. We have over 25 players already, so we are not recruiting and we are not screening. We will work with the players we have because we believe in them and we want to take them to a greater height. So we are not recruiting players from outside the academy. The team is one big family, there is no room for any outsider. We have more players that we even require but that is good for us. So no need for an outsider to come in,” the versatile coach concluded. Fosla Football Club, FFC, commenced training on Saturday in preparation for the FCT League due to start on the 10th of next month. The players absorbed into the club are part of the history making Fosla Academy team that has won the FCT Principal Cup for three consecutive times from 2016 till date among other feats they have recorded within a short period of time. Meanwhile, in a warm up match yesterday between Fosla Football Club and Cosmat FC, the Karshi-based boys defeated their opponents 4-3 in a seven goal-thriller. Many dignitaries including Nigeria’s Under 15 Future Eagles assistant Coach, Haruna Ilerika as well as former Nigeria Football Federation President, Alhaji Sani Lulu, among others, watched the friendly match at Area 3 Play Ground, Abuja.