Greatway football academy opened on the 20th of January 2022 after the Christmas and New Year break while training resumed officially on Monday 22nd January 2022 at our training base Ketu Lusada Agbara Ogun state.
Five new players joined the academy in the month of January after, they have made adequate inquires about our activities and were quite impressed with what they have read and seen about us. The players and their parents showed confidence and believe the academy is out to polish the skills and mental development of their children. They hope through us, the kids can take their carriers to the next level in their chosen profession.
On resumption of training on the 22nd of January, the manager of the academy Shittu Abiodun in formed the players that a new sports kits appeal fund has been donated to the academy.
On the first day of training, the coach took time out too work on the physical condition of the players as well as their mental states as they all need to be brought back to right physical conditioning after about four weeks of in activities due to the festival break that just went by.
The second week of training the coach and his technical crew focused on ball jugging skills and how to make decoy runs to beat the opposing defenders which coach tutored the boys on and he praticalised it with the players. He also showed them some clips about how it is done on the pitch and mentioned some iconic players that have perfected the act while on the football field. Moving forward into the month of February the academy played three different home friendly matches and won 2 draw one.
The academy still hopes on bringing new players on board as we still get calls making inquiries about activities at the academy.
It is also very important to mention that the academy has a lot of plans for the players to travel for one or two or more international tournaments by the summer of 2022.
The month of February started as the coach of the academy tutored the players on zonal marking and how to initiate counter- attacks from their own half of the pitch to opponents half. This was radically expressed by the players.
Also in February, the academy played a friendly game against mighty sparrow at the Ketu Adio Owe pitch which Greatway Academy won by 5-1 while the under 13 drew 2-2 to mighty sparrow of Agege but the team gave a good account of themselves against an established football academy who will be participating in this year’s Ikeja league
The academy also played a friendly game with FC Mulumba Ado Odo at FC Mulumba Complex stadium Ado and draw the game nil-nil (0-0).
The academy will be taking the players through a lot of other locally organized tournaments in the month of march as we make a decision on which the tournament to embark on in the summer of 2022, we have many options available to us and will make sure we take the right steps. Ongoing forward in the month of June, the academy played some grade A friendly games with teams from Lagos called Esteem Badagry. The academy under 15 won Esteem FC Badagry by 5-0 while the academy under 13 drew Esteem under 13 2-2.
The month of July started as the coach of the academy tutored the players on physical stamina, zonal marking and how to initiate counter – attacks from their own half of the pitch to opponents half. This was practically expressed by the players the month of August, the academy was involved in a twelve team under 20 tournament tagged the SGL Cup 2022 in Ketu Ado-Owie Lusada, Ogun State.
The academy was grouped in group B alongside Ketu FC, Idoyin FC and Crawford FC.
The academy won their first match game against Ketu FC 1-0, lost the second game against Idoyin FC 2-0, and lost their last group match to Crawford FC 4-0. Unfortunately, the academy finished third in group B and failed to advance to the quarter stage with only 3 points from the possible 9 points.
In an interview with the media team the manager of the academy. Shittu Abiodun attributed the inability of the Greatway boys to advance from the group to the physical stamina that the competition is far above their age bracket. But there were some positive for the academy as one of our young players got the man of the match award in the game won against Ketu FC 1- 0. Those are some positive about the kids.
Going forward, in the coming months, the academy will be recording a video documentary about the academy and this will give them great opportunity to showcase them to the global world. Hope you have yourself an amazing months ahead and looking forward to bringing you more exciting as the year reports happing in the academy as the year unfold in the mean time you can follow our activities on our social media platforms available.