A co-owner of Moonluck Football Academy of Lagos, Datti Umar Yusuf is relishing the team’s outing at the 2026 IberCup U-16 Elite Youth International Tournament in Caiscai-Lisbon, Portugal and exuded delight over their opportunity to feature in this year’s contest.
Sports247 reports that, after the academy’s under-19 team won a higher level of the competition last year, Yusuf, who is also the CEO of MVP Sports Management, reasoned that being there this year with the U16s is a privilege for the youth project.
He added that qualifying from the group stage into the knock-out rounds, where they faced Werder Bremen of Germany on Saturday, was further confirmation of the quality of young players at Moonluck in particular and Nigeria as a whole.
The leader of delegation went on to state appreciation with the team’s impressive performance, after romping to their third victory, as they qualified for the quarter-final stage of the annual contest with maximum points to top Group B.
Their first game was a 3-2 win over Belenenses of Portugal, followed by a 1-0 spanking of USA’s Phoenix Rising FC and they ended group play with a 3-2 win against Almeria of Spain, which Yusuf said showed progression for the team.
He further described the competition as a significant and critical platform for the enhanced development of Moonluck’s players, who he described as future stars that will bring honour and pride home to Nigeria in years to come.
Yusuf affirmed, “We are always excited to be here and we feel great to have been given this opportunity by the management of the IberCup/Estoril to showcase our talents.
“For we in Africa, what we need is the platform to bring our talented players to come and showcase themselves. Our players’ dream is to play in Europe and in other parts of the world.”
