George Aluo
Nigeria would soon have a top notch soccer academy if negotiations between a team of foreign investors and the nation’s leading stadium facilities expert, Ebi Egbe (Monimichelle), are anything to go by.
The Nigerian Xpress Sports can confirm that both parties held very fruitful discussions early last week in Lagos, even as they agreed to fine tune partnership strategies in the weeks ahead.
Egbe whose outfit constructed the geotech Enyimba Stadium turf in Aba and the yet to be commissioned Onikan Stadium pitch in Lagos, confirmed that the foreign investors, who run world class soccer academies in Europe and Asia are interested in coming to Nigeria to establish an academy that would raise the bar in the country.
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In Ebi Egbe’s words: “I met with the officials of a well established soccer academy that is doing well in Europe and Asia. They are interested in investing in the Nigerian football market. Should everything go well, they would be changing the face of football Academy in the country. They are coming with a mind set to professionalize that area of our football and take it to a higher level. They ( the foreign investors) have seen what we ( Monimichelle) are doing to change the face of sporting facilities not just in Nigeria but in Africa and we appear to have the same vision moving forward.”
It would be noted that Monimichelle also constructed the Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenagoa as well as the Karkanda and Aper Aku stadium turfs in Katsina and Makurdi respectively.
Meanwhile, football authorities in the neighboring Republic of Benin have contacted Monimichelle to be part of their plans to construct 24 brand new state of the art playing turfs in the country. This is even as a Soccer Academy in Dakar, Senegal, Diambers Football Academy also expressed their desire to partner the fast growing Nigerian sports facilities construction outfit.
“I m happy what we are doing to change the face of playing turfs in Africa is being recognized,” Egbe said.