Abina Omololu Primary School from Surulere has emerged champions of the FAB 5-Aside Football Challenge after the team defeated Saint Stephens Primary School, Lagos Island in the final at the Campos Stadium, Ajele, Lagos Island. The 5- Side football competition, which has been expanded to attract secondary schools and football academies, attracted participants from the six education districts of Lagos state.
In the newly introduced Junior secondary category, Epetedo junior high school defeated Boys Junior Academy by two – nil to win the event while Isale Eko Girls Junior Schools defeated Girls Junior Academy 3-1 on penalties after the match edned barren draw in regulation time.
In the academy category, Soccer City pipped Young Strikers by a lone a goal while FAB 5 All Stars record the same scoreline against FC Barcelona Academy to win the Under 15 novelty match. FC Barcelona Academy Under 13 avenged the defeat suffered by their seniors as they recorded 2-0 win FAB 5 All Star.
The competition which was used to celebrate the children and their teachers gave participants opportunity to exhibit their talents and be discovered as the event was encouraged participants to combine academics with sports while the sponsor, Rite Foods gave outstanding individual players with cash to support the tuition.
Ikotun Kehinde of Abina Omololu Primary School, retained the most valuable player MVP award while the captain of Epetedo Junior High School, Alli Abubakar, won the Bigi MVP award to make history as the first winners of the new category.
Mary Odunuga of Marketing Communications, Rite Foods said the FAB 5 provided a great avenue for the company to encourage kids to live their dreams and be the best they can be.
“Its all about the kids and Rite Foods is pasionate about investing in the future of Nigeria and that’s the children. Anything that the children are passionate about, we are also passionate about and that why this edition of FAB 5-Aside, it was a non issue for us, we knew that we needed to be a part of it. It was a wonderful event and the children had a lot of fun and that we are all about, making sure that while they learn and exercise their muscles, doing what they love, playing football, we are there to give necessary support for their growth and their success too” Odunuga said.
Project Director, Dare Amokeodo expressed optimism that the FAB 5-Aside Challenge would continue to grow with the support of corporate organizations. He added that this year’s tournament tagged the ‘Evolution Series’ was a huge success.
Amokeodo said “we are very happy with this year’s edition and thanked all our partners, financial supporters, the media and participants including students and teachers. We are grateful to everyone for making this tournament a success. What we are trying to do is that we are expanding, creating many categories instead of restricting the tournament to just primary schools; like the female category, junior secondary category and are already planning to go for the senior category, who knows we might even go for higher institutions level. We are expanding the scope to the FAB 5 making it something that everybody looks forward to”.
Kehinde Ikotun was named the best player in the primary school category. Alli Abubakar and Kabirat Bawa won the best in the Junior boys and girls categories respectively while Adigun Idris was adjudged the best player in the academy category.
The competition, was proudly supported by Indomie Noodles and Rite Foods Limited, Access Bank, Fryda Nigeria, WEO Sports & Pan African Sports.
