Organisers of the Nigerian Sports Award have announced the first set of nominees shortlisted for the 5th Anniversary Edition of the prestigious sports award ceremony.
Rising from the award panel sitting held in Lagos on Tuesday, October 25, 2016, the Panel announced the shortlists for three awards categories; Coach of the Year, Footballer of the Year (Men) and Team of the Year.
According to the Chairman of the award panel, Mr. Ikeddy Isiguzo, the shortlisted nominees for each of the categories includes: Coach Samson Siasia, Coach Imana Amanpakabo and Coach Are Feyisetan for the ‘Coach of the Year’ category; Kelechi Iheanacho, Godwin Obaje and Chisom Egbuchulam for Footballer of the Year (Men); Dream Team VI and Enugu Rangers for Team of the Year.
Coach Are Feyisetan was the coach of the Nigerian Powerlifting Team at the just concluded Paralympic games in Rio, Brazil, where they won nine medals; Coach Imama Amanpakabo led Enugu Rangers to clinch the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Title, while Coach Samson Siasia led the Dream Team VI to win a bronze medal, Nigeria’s only medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic in the Men’s football games.
For the Footballer of the Year category nominees, Kelechi Iheanacho, the current performing star for both the country and his club, Manchester City; Godwin Obaje, Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) top scorer and Chisom Egbuchulam, a striker of Enugu Ranger, all made it to the shortlist.
To earn the nomination for the Team of the Year, Enugu Rangers broke a 26 year long jinx by winning the 2016 Nigeria Professional Football League Title, while the Dream Team VI made the shortlist by winning the ‘golden’ bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic games, men’s football game.
“The shortlist is purely an outcome of the nominations received from members of the public through the various nomination platforms starting from Tuesday, July 26, 2016 when the nominations opened until midnight, Monday, October 24, 2016,” he said.
Isiguzo also noted that the panel would subsequently release the other nomination shortlists as all is being prepared for the award ceremony which would hold on December 2, 2016 at Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
