FOSLA Football Academy Abuja, owned by the former president of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Abdullahi Sani-Lulu, has shortlisted no fewer than 26 players for scholarship awards.
The players, who were selected at the end of the 2023 edition of FOSLA Academy screening programme held in the ancient town of Idah, Kogi State, comprising 22 boys and four girls.
The thrilling tournament which featured 10 local governments from Kogi State was won by the Lokoja local government team after a 4-0 thrashing of host, Idah LGA in the final.
Winners, Lokoja LGA produced four players, namely; Abdulmuminu Musa, Yusuf Suleiman, Abdullahi Usman and Elijah Sunday.
Losing finalists,Idah LGA had three of their players listed. They include Salami Solomon Ibrahim, Hamza Joseph and Abdulamid Muhammed, while Dekina lGA produced six players – three boys and three girls. The boys are Abdulfatahi Isah, Mustapha Umar and Mikailu Abdullahi and the girls are Favour Momoh, Fatima Akpa and Danladi Isah.
While Omala LGA and Ankpa LGA produced four and three players respectively, Ibaji LGA, Ofu LGA and Igalamela Odolu LGA had two players each.
The selected players would join those to be picked from the FCT version of the competition to vie for final placing in the ten available scholarship slots in the Academy from JSS 1 to the University.
The Ata Igala and chairman, Kogi State Council of Chief, HRM Mathew Alaji Opaluwa, represented at the event by Inalogu Ata Igala, Ajofe Ibrahim Atadoga, called on well meaning Nigerians to support Sani Lulu Abdullahi by adopting more students through sponsorship, saying what the former NFF boss is doing for Igala nation is unique and novel, thus; there is need to support him to expand the project to accommodate the entire nation.