Organizers of the annual Ignite Megastars football players audition have expressed confidence that the program will bring visibility to grassroot sports talents and European football clubs will jostle for stars from the program in the near future. The audition, which kicks off Saturday, April 5 , and known for its unique selection process, saw hundreds of youngsters trooping into the Legacy Pitch of the national stadium, Lagos. The starlets under the watch of ex-internationals and spectators were pitched against each other to showcase their talent at the preliminary stage.
With lots of display, the players were able to dazzle before cheer leaders who believed in their goals and prospects.
Speaking on the importance of the scouting program, founder Ignite Megastar, Ozavize Daniyan stated the event will help expose, nurture, and promote promising stars for international football clubs to scout easily. Daniyan, whose initiative is supported by the Lagos State Football Association (LSFA), also disclosed that the program will bring visibility to grassroots sports talent.
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In her words: “I’ve been pondering this initiative during the days of my MBA program, and I’m glad it’s yielding purpose.
“The Ignite vision is to change lives by discovering and promoting sports talent. We are also creating a platform for recognizing and developing grassroots sports, with the goal of cultivating a vast pool of world-class athletes in the country, while maintaining integrity and transparency in sports talent identification and selection process for youths between ages 16 to 19.
“ Beginning with football- Ignite Soccer Stars, will provide the opportunity to both male and female athletes to showcase their talent and rise to stardom, by partaking in the Ignite competitions and undergoing assessment through a transparent system of voting by judges, coaches and fans,” she stated.
Meanwhile, Co-promoter, Ignite Megastars, Engineer Oloyede Robert, also spoke about the success of the maiden edition; season 1 of the initiative. Oloyede stated that season 1 talents were supported with scholarship from Juventus Academy Nigeria to develop their talents further.
“Our first edition was good as Juventus Nigeria was able to give scholarship to our top talents. We hope to forge even more partnerships with different organizations capable of bringing the best out of the boys. These players are the future, and if we want our football to grow, I believe we need to come to the grassroots level,” he emphasized.
