Vanguard
3 December 2008
Lagos — The Pepsi Football Academy initiative, the Festival of Youth has been described as a veritable avenue for discovering budding talents who could be nurtured into outstanding football stars.
Consultant to the Pepsi Football Academy, Mr. Iain Nelson stated this in Abeokuta at the just concluded 2008 edition of the Festival of Youth "For the past 10 years, the Pepsi Football Academy has organised this competition for the age groups of U-14 and U-16 as a way of assessing the youngsters and determining the ones that would develop into extremely good players, especially from the U-14 group" Nelson said.
He also said that the Festival of Youth is like an end of year football celebration as players and students from the 13 centers of the Pepsi Academy from across the country converge on one location to display skills and showcase their talent before an enthusiastic audience of parents, coaches, administrators and football lovers.
He further explained that from the thousands of Pepsi Academy students across the country. 150 are chosen, under the tutelage of 30 of the Academy Coaches, to come and compete in the Festival of Youth.
Nelson disclosed that this year's edition did not have the 'Pepsi chicks' (female) as the past ones, but reiterated the fact that Pepsi is still keen to discover and nurture female football stars for the different national teams as it had done in the past.
"Judging from how the Falcons fared in Equatorial Guinea, in a competition they dominated for 10 years from inception, it is obvious there is still a lot Pepsi can still do to assist." he said.
Nelson cited the Festival of Youth as a veritable avenue of exposing Pepsi Academy students to further opportunities in football and academics, as, many a time, foreign coaches and scouts attend the programme to assess the students.
He informed that it was in a similar competition three years ago that three students of the Academy were picked by two UK schools for scholarships
He therefore advised other students to "work hard, show discipline and commitment as you never know when your own life changing opportunity would come knocking."
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