Chelsea make plans to establish Academy in Nigeria

Chelsea Football Club is planning to establish a multi-million naira football academy in Lagos. Noah Olivier, the club’s representative in Nigeria and Dominic Egbukwu, the President of Soccer Africa Sports Management revealed this. The academy which will be in the heart of Victoria Island, will help groom young Nigerian talents for the London club.

“Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and South Africa have been picked in Africa by Chelsea FC for its academy camp,” Egbukwu said. “My French partner, Olivier, and I have been mandated by Chelsea to take charge of the camp in Nigeria. Initially, they were scared of including Nigeria because of the Boko Haram issue, but we succeeded in convincing them that there was no cause for alarm in Lagos.”

“We are expecting a 10-man Chelsea delegation from England any moment from now. They want to come and make inspection before giving us the go-ahead to throw the camp open.

He went ahead to disclose details of how the emerging footballers will be selected for the academy.

“It’s going to be a big camp and it will admit about 500 youths between 15 and 18 years old. After screening which will hold at the National Stadium, Lagos, arrangements will be made for the feeder teams of the teams such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United and PSG to come for invitational tournaments. The outstanding players among the the trainees will be given an opportunity to join the Chelsea youth team in England, just like they picked Kenneth Omeruo.”