Winners Emerge At FAB 5-A-Side Football Challenge

The 5-A-Side football competition, which has been expanded to attract secondary schools and football academies, attracted participants from the the six education districts of Lagos state.

In the newly introduced Junior secondary category, Epetedo junior high school defeated Boys Junior Academy 2-0 to win the event, while Isale Eko Girls Junior Schools defeated Girls Junior Academy 3-1 on penalties after the match ended in barren draw in regulation time.

In the academy category, Soccer City pipped Young Strikers by a lone a goal, while FAB 5 All Stars record the same scoreline against FC Barcelona Academy to win the Under 15 novelty match. FC Barcelona Academy Under 13 avenged the defeat suffered by their seniors as they recorded 2-0 win over FAB 5 All Star.

The competition, which was organised to celebrate the children and their teachers, gave participants opportunity to exhibit their talents, as the event also  encouraged participants to combine academics with sports while the sponsor, Rite Foods gave outstanding individual players with cash to support their tuitions.

Ikotun Kehinde of Abina Omololu Primary School retained the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, while the captain of Epetedo Junior High School, Alli Abubakar, won the Bigi MVP award to make history as the first winner of the new category.

Mary Odunuga of Marketing Communications, Rite Foods said the FAB 5 provided a great avenue for the company to encourage kids to live their dreams and be the best they can be.

“It’s all about the kids and Rite Foods is passionate about investing in the future of Nigeria and the children. Anything that the children are passionate about, we are also passionate about it, that was the reason we were in FAB 5-A- Side this year, we knew that we needed to be a part of it. It was a wonderful event and the children had a lot of fun. We are all about making sure that while they learn and exercise their muscles, doing what they love, playing football, we are there to give necessary support for their growth and their success too,” Odunuga said.

Project Director, Dare Amokeodo expressed optimism that the FAB 5-A-Side Challenge would continue to grow with the support of corporate organizations. He added that this year’s tournament tagged the ‘Evolution Series’ was a huge success.

Amokeodo said: “We are very happy with this year’s edition and thanked all our partners, financial supporters, the media and participants including students and teachers. We are grateful to everyone for making this tournament a success. What we are trying to do is that we are expanding, creating many categories instead of restricting the tournament to just primary schools; like the female category, junior secondary category and we are already planning to go for the senior category, who knows we might even go for higher institutions level. We are expanding the scope where FAB 5 will be an event that everybody looks forward to”.

Kehinde Ikotun was named the best player in the primary school category. Alli Abubakar and Kabirat Bawa won the best in the Junior boys and girls categories respectively, while Adigun Idris was adjudged the best player in the academy category.

Dignitaries at the final included former Commissioner of Sports Lagos State, Hon. Wahab Enitan Oshodi, Director of Governor Sanwo Olu’s Sports Directorate, Hon. Toyin-Gafar Bolowotan, Barcelona Academy Technical Director, Bernat Villa, photographer and technical enthusiast, Emmanuel Oyeleke.