Chairman of OMA Football Academy(OFA), Alhaji Oshunkunle Musa Adeshina has described the inclusion of one of his wards, Shuaib Oyindamola Abdulrasak in the national U-17 national team for the U-17 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Tanzania as a positive omen for the Ibadan-based outfit.
The 16-year-old Abdulrasak is one of the new recruits by coach Manu Garba in the 21-man list that departed on Wednesday for the East African country .
Nigeria kick off their account against hosts Tanzania on April 14th at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam to be followed up with the game against their Angolan and Ugandan counterparts on April 17th and 20th respectively.
“ I’m impressed with the quality of players selected by coach Garba for the Golden and this has nothing to do with the fact that we were lucky to have one of our players , Abdulrasak in the team,” explained Adeshina who launched OFA last December.“ I was in Abuja throughout the screening because we brought a number of players and it was only Abdulrasak that made the team to Tanzania.”
Adeshina maintained that inclusion of Abdulrasak showed the kind of quality coming through from OFA, adding the lad already nicknamed Iniesta would be a good ambassador.
“ I have no doubt that Abdulrasak would give a good account of himself in Tanzania,” he said.
“ He is in a good squad and I believe the Golden Eaglets would go far in the tournament and it is my prayers that they get one of the tickets to the World Cup.
“ Personally, I would be going to Tanzania along with officials of our academy to support the boys and we are just waiting for our travel documents,” he stressed.