Sports

Uduje Excited After Winning Sports Leader Of The Year

A 15- year- old player, Olisa Uduje, who is currently playing for City Sports Academy has won Sports Leader of The year.

The annual City Sports Leadership Award night held recently in Lagos and was put together by the City Sports Academy headed by Shola Opaleye.

The sports leadership award, according to the organisers was packaged to appreciate the outstanding players who displayed exemplary characters in the academy.

Speaking with our correspondent, Uduje expressed gratitude to God for giving him the opportunity to win the sports leader of the year and thanked his parents and coaches for their support towards him.

“I’d like to thank God Almighty first of all for giving me the opportunity to stand here in front of all of you. I’d like to thank City Sports for giving us all the platform to express ourselves.

“I’d like to thank the coach and my teammates for also being by my side on the football pitch, helping me to continue to push myself. I want to thank my parents once again because without them, I’ll not be here today, they’re my real inspiration.”he said.

Other awards were given on the night to excellent youngsters across multiple age grades in different sports but medals were presented to every single City Sports School student to promote inclusivity and appreciate their participation throughout the outgoing year.

Opaleye in his message, shared his delight at the success of the event and promised that the next edition would be better off.

“It turned out better than we planned it, we are all very excited, the room is buzzing,” Shola Opaleye said beaming with excitement.

He continued, “Every child has a dream, our job is just to ensure we create a platform for them to meet their dreams, no matter the dream, they don’t have to be sports stars, they can be anything but the truth is that whatever you want to do in life, you must be able to develop the character that will take you there and we’re only using sports to help that development.

“Every year things get better, we’re very excited about 2023, it’s going to be better and we have so many things that are going to happen going forward, he concluded.

Meanwhile the outstanding players who won Most Valuable Player,MVP awards in their various sports are as follows:

Under 7 (active start level) – Toluwani Akinniyi

Under 11 (foundation level) – Adam Alwan

U15 (advanced level) – Kanyine Uduje

SWIMMING

Under 7 (active start level) – Haliyat Balogun

Under 11 (foundation level) – Winifred Asuquo

Under 15 (advanced level) – Albert Akintokun

FOOTBALL

Under 7 (active start level) – Mustafa El-Sankari

Under 9 (foundation level) – Irewamiri Adelanwa

Under 11 (foundation level 2) – Jonathan Adetoro