Premiership giant, Chelsea, is planning to open a multi-million Naira football academy in Lagos. The club's Nigerian representative, Noah Olivier and President Soccer Africa Sports Management, Dominic Egbukwu, disclosed to Daily Sunsports that the camp would be sited on Victoria Island, Lagos, and would serve as Chelsea's breeding ground for promising young Nigerian players.

Said he: “Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and South Africa have been picked in Africa by Chelsea FC for its academy camp. My French partner, Olivier, and I have been mandated by Chelsea to take charge of the camp in Nigeria. Initially, they were scared of including Nigeria because of the Boko Haram issue, but we succeeded in convincing them that there was no cause for alarm in Lagos.

“We are expecting a 10-man Chelsea delegation from England any moment from now. They want to come and make inspection before giving us the go-ahead to throw the camp open. “It's going to be a big camp and it will admit about 500 youths between 15 and 18 years old. After screening which will hold at the National Stadium, Lagos, arrangements will be made for the feeder teams of the teams such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United and PSG to come for invitational tournaments. The outstanding players among the the trainees will be given an opportunity to join the Chelsea youth team in England, just like they picked Kenneth Omeruo.”

Meanwhile, Egbukwu has made a passionate appeal to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to flush out the bad eggs involved in transfer of Nigerian players abroad. “Most of the so-called FIFA-licenced agents are responsible for frustrating our players. I'm not a FIFA agent and I don't want to be because I discovered that most of them use their licences to deceive players, promise them heaven and earth and at the end of the day, they would tie them down with contract papers and stay on top of the deal for their own selfish interest.

That was how they frustrated Kayode Olanrewaju and Gbenga Orukoyo's move to Dynamo Kiev and SuperSport respectively. This is not good for Nigerian football,” the former Enyimba player lamented.

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