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Nigerian emerges Ireland best undiscovered football talentAbdeen Abdul, 19, who recently won ‘The Dream’ reality show, a nationwide search for the best-undiscovered football talent in Ireland, Dublin, has been described as the future star of Irish football. His prize is a spot at the prestigious Nike Academy in London
Abdul, an attacker, was born in Lagos but has been playing football in Navan since the age of 10, and he currently plays for Parkvilla FC. ‘The Dream’ asked footballers without pro clubs to send in their soccer CVs, and 60 players between the ages of 16 and 19 were selected and invited to Carton House in Maynooth on Thursday, August 21 to slug it out for a shot at the Nike Academy trials in October, where the world final will take place at the Nike Academy HQ in London.
The Irish final consisted of a number of professional style training drills, where Nike Academy coaches as well as Irish football legend and top pundit, Kenny Cunningham judged the players on every aspect of their game, before a series of 11-a-side games gave the players the opportunity to really show what they can do. The standards expected were very high indeed. The players were tested across a range of speed, technique, pitch intelligence and conditioning challenges by the coaching team. The competition was intense and the standard of football was excellent but in the end, there could only be one winner.
Abdul will now travel to London, to the prestigious St George’s Park, where he will hope to win the chance to spend a year at the Nike Academy under the tutelage of their fully qualified coaches. He also picked up tons of Nike training gear and a brand new pair of football boots of his choice from Life Style Sports.
“I was thrilled and over the moon. I was nervous when we started as I saw a lot of good players there, but when I got into it a bit more, I knew I had a chance. My parents are very supportive of me and they know that it has always been my dream to become a professional footballer. My mother always told me to have patience, to work hard and to believe in my ability. I’m grateful,” he enthused.
Abdul also recently signed a deal with Connaisancelegal to manage his football career in Africa.
The post Nigerian emerges Ireland best undiscovered football talent appeared first on The Sun News.
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