A Dubai-based football agent, Abdul Kurdieh, on Wednesday said that Nigeria was blessed with outstanding players from the grassroots but needed a platform to export them.
Kurdieh, a football intermediary working with the Variant Sports, Dubai, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that Nigeria had more outstanding players to export.
Variant Sports, a grassroots developmental agency is responsible for training young footballers between ages 15 and 17.
The developmental sports outfit is currently conducting an open trial at the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, with the motive to export those to be selected to Europe.
The football trials have more than 75 players drawn from across the country.
Kurdieh said he was excited about the number of players that came for the trials, adding that the future of football in Nigeria laid with the discovery of young players at the grassroots.
“It is wonderful having the players, ours is to discover the grassroots talents in Nigeria which we believe that they abound here.
“What we have seen so far is amazing, so, we want to discover more and take them to the next level.
“The partnerships that we have with our Nigerian counterpart are based on trust and we want a good transition of the players from
amateurs to professionals.
“We will engage the players in a closed camping for six months to a year where they will be taught,’’ he said.
Kurdieh said that the partnership with the Nigeria’s local grassroots football outfit, Sage Consult, had produced some players now in different clubs in Europe.
“In the past, we have had about eight players from Nigeria, but for this year’s trials we have about 75 and we have already identified about 10 outstanding ones.
“The ones discovered this year will still go through more screening which means that the number of players will still be pruned.
“Our Nigerian partners will take care of the image rights of the players, while Variant Sports will take care of the contractual agreements,’’ he said.
The representative of Sage Consult, Rajih Rahman, said the players in the camp were eager to convince the football agent with superlative performances.
“The players in the camp are exceptional and eager to convince our partners of their pedigree. It is not easy gathering them from all over Nigeria.
“There are some from Kaduna, Kano, Abuja, Calabar and other parts of Nigeria.
“We are happy to be part of this project in exposing the young ones to their dream opportunity and they are also excited about giving their best to it,’’ he said.
