Coach of Nigeria’s gold winning Under 17 Golden Eaglets, Fanny Amun says the Amanyanabo Football Tournament is a platform for upcoming footballers to showcase their talents and get exposed to opportunities in the international football space.

Amun said this at a Workshop and Fixtures Draw for the 2022 edition of the competition on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 in Bonny, Rivers State.   

The annual football competition held in honour of the Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom, His Majesty, King Edward Pepple III, CON, JP, Perekule XI, and sponsored by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) brings together football clubs around Bonny LGA.

The former Nigerian national team player was coach of the Nigeria national Under-17 team, Golden Eaglets that won the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Japan, and also coached the Under-20 team at the 1995 African Youth Championship, hosted by Nigeria.

He was appointed Assistant Coach of the Nigeria national team for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, served as Secretary General for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), and retired as an Assistant Director in the Federal Ministry of Sports in 2007.

“I will always say that they (talents) exist everywhere, city, the villages and towns. I won’t be surprised to see some here. There is one who has left for Portugal. Many are still here.”

“So, you have to be very honest to yourself, what do you want? That is the issue about it. The tournament is a platform for you to exhibit your talent.”

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Grafton Entertainment, organizers of the tournament, Tonye Ibiama stated that the competition was aimed at entrenching peace in Bonny Island and also discovering new talents who would be exposed to the international soccer environment.

He stated that achieving a peaceful island where aspirations can be pursued and development take place was the core focus of the tournament, stressing that it was imperative for the players, referees, coaches, and other stakeholders to understand this fundamental principle.

He expressed optimism that new talents would be discovered in this year’s edition just as Wisdom Kariso Tobin, who has already played 19 games and scored 13 goals, so far, for GD Mangualde, a 4th Division Portuguese League Club, asserting that this was in line with the Amanyanabo’s love for sports and vision to deploy football as a tool for peace building and talent exports.  

He praised NLNG for the initiative, noting that it was a way of supporting youths to aspire in sports, informing that 16 teams would be competing in the tournament, which began in 2019 and basically a knockout game, calling on the players to remain peaceful and enjoy the game while competing for the grand prize and aspire to make the 20-man all-star team.

Speaking, Chairman of Bonny Football Association (BFA), Bobo Pepple commended the Nigeria LNG for aligning with the Amanyanabo of Bonny’s vision of ensuring Bonny Island remains a peaceful community, emphasizing that a peaceful disposition throughout the competition by the players was key to achieving success in the tournament, calling lovers of football to come and enjoy ‘good football’.

“We are expecting good football, we are expecting a successful tournament; we thank God for His Majesty that we have peace in the kingdom. We thank NLNG too, we have a very good corporate entity that can ensure that there is peace in this community, which is Bonny.”

“This is what they preached and what they told the players. The competition will bring so many players, so many talents. You hear they said the last tournament that they discovered a boy, Tobin, who is in Portugal playing in a division 3 club. So, we believe that we will fish out more talents that will represent this community.”   

In his remarks, former Coach of Nigeria’s Flying Eagles, Ifeanyi Umeh urged the players to prepare to not just participate in the annual football tournament but to win laurels and to catch the attention of football scouts who will be attending to scout for talents, reiterating that character, self-discipline, sportsmanship and fair play should be the watchword of all participating players.

After the draws, which had in attendance Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), Amaopusenibo Diepirinye Allison, Treasurer of Bonny All-Stars FC, Olalekan Pepple, and NLNG’s Community Engagement Officer, Nelson Braide, amongst others, the fixtures had the 16 teams shuffled as follows: Group A: Beautiful Strikers FC, Flash Flamingos FC, Divine FC and Atlantic FC; Group B: Adventure FC, Genuine FC, Bright Stars FC, and Genuine FC; Group C: GodBless United FC, Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas FC, Base City FC and Young FC; and Group D: Young Talents, Unique FC, Ibani United FC and Bonny FC.