Borussia Dortmund star player Karim Adeyemi returned to Nigeria-his fatherland during the Christmas break and made a stop-over in Lagos. His destination was the famous Maracana Sports Complex in Ajegunle (AJ City) reknown for making stars of many Nigerian footballers.
The refurbished Maracana Stadium, which is the brainchild of Nathaniel Idowu Foundation (NIF) headed by business mogul and philanthropist Chief Yemi Idowu, was the breeding ground of the likes of Odion Ighalo, Jonathan Akpoborie, Samson Siasia, Taribo West, Emmanuel Amunike, Ifeanyi Udeze, Monday Odiaka, Brown Ideye, Solomon Okoronko, Anthony Nwakaeme, Junior Lokosa and Sikiru Alimi to mention but few.
These players have grown from the sandy fields of remote Ajegunle to global stardom playing for top clubs in Europe, Africa and Nigeria. They have become household names after winning trophies for country and clubs.
But thanks to NIF, the old Maracana Sports Complex (named after the famous Maracana Stadium in Brazil) is transformed to a modern sporting edifice with multiple standard football pitches able to cater for up and coming star footballers of different ages.
It also has two hostels able to take in 192 players at once-meaning it can cater for multiple catch-em-young tournaments at once. And here is where 21-year-old star Adeyemi had come to as he rounded off his two-day visit to Nigeria from Ibadan to Lagos.
Adeyemi’s pet foundation Karim Adeyemi Foundation (KAF) is the proud sponsor of one of the solar-powered and fully AC hostels, and he had come to see his own eyes the outcome of his collaboration with NIF.
He came at the right time to witness the Children Christmas party put together by KAF and the kids, who had to wait all day to see their idol, were indeed glad and happy.
After walking through the complex and inspecting the hostels, r Adeyemi said he was happy to be part of the project.
“For the first of all, I feel very proud of course to see that something like this is happening here. I am very happy for the kids and I can see their passion. It is the right way to start and I’m glad that I’m part of this story.”
He is equally happy that the edifice is geared towards development of young people of Nigeria and something to build their future.
“I think this is the plan, we get to look for the kids for a better future for football, to get to know each other of course and just to have fun from playing football together, I think this is the most important message. My plan is also to encourage them through things like this, I come and visit, maybe the established players will also come and invest. For sure and I think it’s a very good thing.
“It is not everybody that has the chance to play in a good league or maybe in Europe and that is where things go wrong, so, yes, we try to let children from a young age play football, let them see how this works and if they are really good, anything can happen.”
Adeyemi believes Nigeria has the potential to produce great players and his favourite player among its exports is current Africa Player Victor Osimhen.
“There are many great Nigerian players in the Bundesliga, but Osimhen is the best player from Nigeria today. He plays good football in Serie A league and also in the Champions League. So, I think he’s the best Nigerian player.”
Adeyemi has also added to his list Nigerian foods since his last coming. And this time around it is Amala- the local delicacy enjoyed in Western Nigeria.
“On the way here, I also ate amala with soup and assorted meat. So everything is good, I enjoyed it. Every time I come here, it feels like home. My friends also are not from Nigeria, but they come here because I always tell them there are nice thing to see, so, yes I always enjoy it here.”