The names of three global football stars – Lionel Messi of Argentina as well as Ngolo Kante and Ousmane Dembele of France – have been cited as aliases of three kids who will feature in the final of God Did Foundation Holiday Football Competition at Anglican Primary School, Akesan, Lagos.
Sports247 gathered that the trio of youngsters who are fondly identified with the three top stars’ names are Taiwo Abdullahi (Messi), Adedeji Kehinde (Kante) and Ayoola Waris (Dembele), who all play for Young Tigers Football Academy of Lanre Community.
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They are all expected to be in action for the team of Coach Taiwo Abiodun (aka Santos) in the competition’s under-13 category final this Sunday, with high hopes of overcoming the hosts’ team, God Did Foundation Football Academy, who defeated Blessed FC 2-1 in the first semi-final.
Incidentally, Young Tigers defeated competition favourites, Super Accurate Football Academy by the same scoreline in the second semi-final to book their spot in Sunday’s grand finale, which is expected to draw a huge crowd to the vastly popular venue in Akesan.
The day’s main encounter will be preceded by the under-10 final, which will see Coach Adewale Oseni’s Super Accurate FA tango United Tao Football Academy, after they both scaled through their very tough respective semi-final encounters on Thursday at the same venue, where ‘Coach Super’ needed penalties to scale through.
While looking ahead to Sunday’s under-13 final, Young Tigers’ coach (Santos) told Sports247 that, considering how his team defeated Super Accurate in the semi-finals, he has enough confidence in the ability of his boys to also defeat the hosts and emerge champions at the end of the day.
Santos recalled, “The semi-final result was a wonderful one, because we were able to beat a very strong rival team. Adedeji Kehinde scored first with a long distance free kick during the first eight minutes of the game.
“Super Accurate’s captain equalised, also with a gree kick from 12 metres, to make it 1-1 during the second half, but Young Tigers did not give up, as Taiwo Abdullahi pushed the attack with Mogaji Salam.
“A long pass by Adedeji Kehinde (Kante) got to Adeniyi Isiah, wgo hit a wonderful scissors kick that hit the post. Ayoola Waris (Dembele) reacted fast to put the ball into the net and made it 2-1 for Young Tigers. The game ended with that scoreline.
“Ayoola Waris again proved his quality as a wonderful attacker. He now has six goals in five matches during this competition, while Adedeji Kehinde (Kante) has scored three with wonderful long-distance free-kicks.
“In fact, all the players of Young Tigers are doing a great job. Kudos to the team and our fans. We are now looking forward to Sunday’s final, and I believe we will win it, then celebrate back to our base with the cup.”
