Former International Mutiu Adepoju has thrown his weight behind the ongoing National Principal’s cup competition, saying he is a product of such competitions.
Mutiu who is the Laliga Ambassador in Nigeria made the revelation while appearing as a GUEST of the monthly virtual Ex-University of Ibadan Footballers Association interactive program, said he started his football career right from primary school.
Quoting his words, the man popular called the “Headmaster” by his admirers said ” I started playing football right from my primary school at CRIN staff school Idiayure, Ibadan. Then, I played alongside Dimeji Lawal, everyone within that area knew us then.
I represented CRIN staff school effectively, and we were champions of the primary school’s tournament than in Oluyole LGA. We also got to the state finals played at the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan and that was my first time playing at the great Liberty stadium. When I got to the secondary school at Prospect High school, Abanla in Ibadan, I started playing for the school from form 3.
I represented them at the Principal’s cup. It was from there that I had the opportunity of representing Oyo state at the 1985 National Sports Festival in Ilorin, Kwara State. I also played for the University of Ibadan team at the 1986 NUGA games hosted by the institution before I moved to Spain after the Saudi 1989 World Youth Championship “.
Mutiu further advocated for a shift from the approach to grassroots football development saying that that remains the only way for sustainable football development in the country “grassroots football is the way to go. If we really do it properly, we are going to have so many great players and football will surely thrive on it. The problem is that we don’t have structures in the ways we do things.
We are busy establishing Academies without putting solid structures for them to survive. Those Academies are supposed to be competing week in, week out from U. 13 to the Youth teams, and clubs will also have theirs, and this will bring the best out of the players and their development will be faster. But here in Nigeria, we do not have such, and that’s the problem we are having with our youth levels. For us to move forward, we must change the ways we do things so that we can get good results ” he concluded.
