The round-of-16 of the inaugural edition of the President’s Cup commenced yesterday in Abuja, with Kano State U-18 football team beating their Kaduna State counterparts 2-1 in the opening match of the competition.
After a scoreless first half in the entertaining game, Jersecy Francis gave Kaduna an early lead in the second half with fantastic volley, but the team could hardly hold on to its lead. In no time, Halifa Lawal equalised to level up for Kano. Some constant posession and good foot work yielded a second goal through the efforts of Joshua Dua, doubling the lead for Kano.
In other matches played yesterday, Taraba walked over Enugu, Akwa Ibom defeated Rivers 2-0, while FCT and Imo settled for a 3-3 draw.
Meanwhile, chairman of the board of the tournament and former Super Eagles, Kanu Nwankwo, expressed concern over the poor show of support for the tournament, both from corporate organisations and individuals, inspite of the tournament’s goal to fish out talents for the development of the game in Nigeria.
“We, the ex-internationals, feel we need to do something and give back to the society by going to the grassroots to help discover talents. It is not only the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that will do everything. For us, this another way to give back to the society.
“As chairman, I have to make sure that we reach all the rural areas where the talents are and catch them young. Though, we are not there yet, if you ask me, it is a gradual process and we would learn from it.
“Right now we are struggling and we struggled to reach this stage,” Kanu said.
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