Ex La Liga star arrive Nigeria for Super Stars Tourney preparations
Former Spanish footballer Inigo Idiakez has arrived the Nigerian city of Uyo as Super Stars Football Academy intensify preparations ahead of their annual scouting tournament which holds this November at the Godswill Akpabia Stadium in Uyo.
In his active days, Idiakez played as a midfielder or forward. Beginning his career at Real Sociedad, he appeared in 254 official matches during his tenure while competing in ten La Liga seasons and also had stints in England with Derby County, Southampton and Queens Park Rangers, retiring in 2008.
Now a manager, the former Spanish youth international is in Nigeria alongside top British scout Simon Hunt to help prepare hosts Super Stars Academy as the much anticipated Super Stars Annual Scouting Tournament draws near. The tournament will see top Academies from across Nigeria compete in the presence of a host of scouts from top European clubs who will be looking to unearth the next big stars to emerge from Nigeria.
Speaking after their first training session on Thursday with their foreign imports, the President of Super Stars Academy Hon. Victor Apugo expressed his delight with the level and standard of their training facilities while revealing his motive for bringing the Spaniard, even though they have some highly trained Nigerian coaches in their ranks.
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He said: “Bringing Inigo(Idiakez) doesn’t in any way mean we don’t have capable hands here, in fact I dare say we have the best coaching crew of any grassroot club in Nigeria. However, we wanted to take things to another level as we prepare for this tournament and what better way to do that than having someone like Inigo who has played at the highest level exchange ideas with our coaches.
“We already run European curriculum for our trainings here, but we don’t relent, so once in a while we bring in top managers or ex players to come and see what we’re doing and also show us ways to improve our training regime.”
The annual Super Stars Tournament returns for its third Edition after a Covid-19 enforced hiatus and will take place from the 28th of November to 1st of December 2021. Some of the participating teams include; Elite Space Academy(Enugu), Glorious Day Academy(Lagos), Hope of Glory(Calabar), New Generation Academy(Umuahia), Family Love Academy(PH), Melvin FC(Benin), Yoka Stars(Kaduna), Elkanemi Juniors, TBC Abuja, B Angel FC(Abuja), Markan FC(Owerri), TBC Jos, Diamond Stars Academy(Calabar).
Some of the top talents discovered from the 2019 edition of the tournament have already seen their fortunes change for good after securing moves to Europe. Recently, Ukrainian Premier League side FC Rukh Lviv announced the signing of six Nigerians who were products of the Super Stars Scouting Tournament.