Oluwaseun Adeola… A ‘new Messi’ is born in Nigerian football

For some young people around the world, finding natural talents can be quite difficult, just as jumping into a new career path could be terrifying for fear of the unknown.But for Nigerian teenage sensation, Oluwaseun Sean Adeola, a final year student at Greensprings School, Lekki, Lagos, venturing into the exciting world of football is a risk worth taking.

In the good old days of Nigeria sports, a majority of players selected for the various national teams were products of schools sports. Those were the days when sports administrators in the country paid attention to the Principal Cup and inter-school competitions.

But like other sectors of the nation’s economy, school sports competitions have since been neglected, leading to a situation whereby handlers of the various national teams now scramble for ‘over-aged’ players to feature in competitions meant for juveniles.

To fill the yearning gap, Adeola, born in Republic of Ireland on January 19, 2001, has decided to embrace football at his early age, not minding the stress he will go through in combining it with his academic career.

He was born to Barrister and Mrs. Oladipo and Adidi Adeola, thus having a dual nationality as an Irish and a Nigerian.Though, the young lad will graduate from secondary school next June, Adeola says his ambition is to become one of the most influential soccer players to come from Nigeria and the continent of Africa.

His dream is to rule the world of soccer in the nearest future like Argentina and Barcelona star, Lionei Messi.Like Messi who became a star in his early age, Adeola has played football all his life and has participated and excelled right from his primary school days.

He participated in the inaugural Kanu Soccer camp at Greensprings School, Lekki, Lagos, and has also taken his football trade to various soccer academies both in Nigeria and abroad. Adeola already a known face in various soccer events organised around football turfs in Lagos. He is the vice captain of Greensprings School football team.

Adeola was the commander-in-chief for Greensprings School Soccer team, leading the institution to victory in the just concluded annual GTbank Masters Cup in Lagos State.It was a keenly contested tournament among secondary schools in the state, and on their way to victory, Greensprings brushed aside established soccer schools like Kings College, St. Finbars and St. Gregory.

Outside the soccer pitch, Adeola has proven to be a master of the track as well. He won gold medal in 100m, 200m and 4x100m in their last school inter-house sports festival, returning very interesting times in these events.

For his efforts, he received a special gold trophy and electronic communication tablet. He is a respected member of the school athletic team.Adeola is the current Most Valuable athlete in Greensprings School, Lagos. He is an awardee of the Duke of Edinburgh, following his success in the various leadership training programmes he attended in his school.
He is an advocate of fair play and believes in the unifying element of sport as opportunity to get the youths engaged positively.

After watching Adeola display of raw skills at the annual GTbank Masters Cup in Lagos, Frank Momoh, a promoter of grassroots football in the country said: “This is another Messi in the making.
In the past three years, Momoh, who is the owner of FROT Group, an energy and construction company based in Lekki, Lagos, has been in the forefront of campaign for the revival of Principal Cup competition in Nigeria.

He sponsored the maiden South-South Champion of Champions football competition last year and is currently putting resources ahead the 2016/2017 South-south Principal Cup competition. Momoh told The Guardian during the week in Lagos that Adeola would realize his dream of becoming a great footballer in nearest future saying: “He has the quality to be a great footballer. He is so focused and disciplined, and that is the quality a young soccer player needs to excel.” Like the Argentine soccer star, Messi who is naturally gifted, Adeola has the ability to control the midfield, but is more comfortable in the right wing position because of his great speed.