One of the American coaches in the ongoing MTN Football Scholar Season 4, Matthew Kokoszka, has declared that the football scholar initiative is currently providing several Universities and Colleges in America with the best of Nigerian talents. This was at the National Stadium, the venue of the international soccer showcase of the fourth season of the programme.
Matthew Kokoszka, the Head Coach of the Science Faculty of Kiskiminetas Springs School, Saltsburg, US said many American Universities and Colleges are currently enjoying the benefits of the initiative. “At present, many universities and Colleges are really enjoying the services of the products of MTN Football Scholar, for example, in my school, we have a great talent in Tapshak Augustine; he joined us last year and is doing pretty well in both football and academics. We also get the same reports from all other guys who are in various schools across the United States” he said.
MTN Football Scholar, currently in its fourth season is a youth programme aimed at discovering talents who can combine active football and education at the tertiary level within a scholarship scheme.
The project, which is open to students within the age bracket of 15 and 18, is a platform for the discovery, nurturing and exposure of budding soccer talents who will ultimately enjoy access to scholarship opportunities to soccer oriented universities in the United States and linkages with other international soccer academies.
The international coaches are currently in Nigeria to have a first-hand assessment of the youngsters who were picked in a nationwide audition across six cities of Calabar, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Akure, Abuja and Lagos. The potential finalists are currently camping at Teslim Balogun stadium, Surulere Lagos. In the camp, the boys will be groomed in articulation and assessed in Mathematics and English tests. They will also take part in qualifying matches where foreign coaches will have the opportunity to watch them play and select final students who would play against established football academies, thereby giving the coaches a wider pool of students to pull from.
MTN Football Scholar is one of the sporting platforms through which the network is touching lives by meeting its subscribers at their point of need and making their lives better.
