13th February, 2013
To Coach Tunde Oyebande Adeshina, the dream of any football coach in Nigeria today is to get the opportunity to handle one of the country’s national football teams someday.
To make sure that this dream comes to past, Coach Adeshina, who is the Team Manager of Wusu Football Academy of Idiroko, Ogun State (a grassroots club), has been working very hard with the aim that God would crown his effort very soon.
Only last year, Wusu Football Academy under his tutelage, won about five tournaments, came second in three competitions and were third place winners in two championships.
“I think my team were able to record these feats through hardwork and determination. We won the Arugbo Golden Cup in Oke Odan in Ogun State, Vanguard Cup, which was held at Old Army Barracks, Owode, Ogun State, Akinlade Cup in Abeokuta, Obama Cup at Iyana Iresi, Ota and Ado Odo Ota Chairman Cup, a football competition organised by Felix Okugbe’s Mundial Sports.
“We are also a semi finalist at last year’s Federation Cup. We were a gallant loser in the semi final match we played against Ebeide FC where we lost through penalty shootout. We had earlier defeated clubs such as Handsworth FC in the Ogun State FC Cup and Remo Stars, a pro League clubside,” said Adeshina, who holds a coaching certificate from Nigeria Institute for Sports, NIS in Lagos.
Adeshina, who attended a CAF organised professional coaching course in Cairo in 1992, said that Nigeria has a good ground for a serious minded coach to succeed.
“A serious coach has chance to excel in this country if we look at the abound of talents Nigeria parades, that is why I have the confidence in Stephen Keshi, a senior colleague, to take the Super Eagles to glory.
“I also want to appreciate the approach taking by Keshi to build a future for the Eagles especially with his determination to give the home based players chances to prove themselves at the Nations Cup in South Africa. This is a good development which every Nigerian must support.
“Keshi is a good coach that some of us who are upcoming look forward to. It is my dream to handle any of our national teams. This is a dream I pray would come to past someday,” he said.
Speaking about his expectations from Wusu Football Academy in 2013, Coach Adeshina said that they are looking forward to surpassing last year’s record of five trophies. “We have set a record for ourselves and we must ensure we break this record this year. I know that we can achieve this target. We are aiming for good things this year among which is our plan to buy a slot in the Amateur League or the Professional League 1. We also want to take part in the Ogun FA Cup, the Federation Cup and many other high profile championships with the expectation of winning laurels in these competitions,” he said.
According to him, the academy can boast of credible personalities in Nigerian football who are advisers.
“We are having people like Chief Adegboye Onigbinde, who is not only an adviser but a role model to me. We also have former Nigerian international like Oladimeji Lawal, Salisu Yusuf and Mr. Felix Okugbe, who have been of good service to the academy.”
He said Wusu Academy, with the help of contacts across the world, have been able to send five players abroad. “We have our players playing in Chile, South Africa, Portugal, Yemen and Cameroon and we are expecting to expand our coast this year.
Coach Adeshina began his coaching career with Adeshina Football Club of Lagos before he moved to TheNEWS FC, Jokas FC, Pepsi Football Academy of Lagos, Abavo FC, FC Ebeide, JSP of Benin Republic and Grays FC of Ede, Osun State.
—Taiwo Adelu