From Ohanze to the World: The Inspiring Story of Jewels Football Academy

Every day, talents spring up in Africa and from other parts of the world. In Africa, there are abundant talents who need to be spotted and when they are seen, they are exceptional. This can be demonstrated with the sterling performances of two young African talents at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Moussa Wague (Senegal) and Francis Uzoho (Nigeria), both players were shaped by a Football Academy in Qatar.

In 2018, Mr Ikechukwu Bestman Aaron, an ardent football lover unveiled a pragmatic platform to unearth obscure talents, on a solitary and dusty field in ohanze, obingwa LGA, Abia state.

Jewels Football Academy is a highly detribalized football academy with unparalled opportunities and fierce competition amongst growing talents. The academy’s programme demands intelligence and exceptional footballing ability geared towards preparing young talents to be showcased in pro clubs and enter professional football. With its intensive programme managed by Mr Chinedu Obakezie-led academy coaches, Jewels football academy offers a limited number of spots in order to ensure a very personal approach to players’ development and follow-up.

At the recently concluded Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu preseason tournament in Aba where the academy shone with couple of impressive displays, squaring up against top NPFL side, Enyimba FC, Umuahia based NNL outfit Abia Comets, and Cynosure Football Academy from Abakaliki, Jewel Football Academy gallantly gave a good account of themselves. In an exclusive chat with football flakes.net, the Director of the academy Mr Ikechukwu Bestman Aaron had this to say

“Nigeria as a country is home to abundant talents, and football nowadays is a goldmine, out there on the streets we’ve got a couple of kids that have what it takes to rise to stardom, talking about natural talent, but the platform to have it harnessed seems to be the achilles heel, that’s why we’ve come to give to them at Ohanze the opportunity to make definitions to their lives, a measure to curtailing some social vices bedeviling the average nigerian youth, no thanks to the menace of unemployment. And giving constant concentration to the project in Ohanze by these young lads equally serves as a deterrence to indulging in crimes.”

Key to the academy’s philosophy is their vision to integrate mental and physical strength in players with an emphasis on young talents understanding the academy’s identity. Presently, the approach is working perfectly as shown in the just concluded preseason tournament in Aba where no fewer than 2 of the academy’s players joined an NNL side, alongside influential 17-yr-old left back Ifeanyichukwu Eze bagging a playing/studying scholarship to Brookehouse College London, thanks to the respective series of impressive displays.

Jewels football Academy remains resolute in making sure that they get players who are truly young and that has contributed to the success of the Academy. In a recent visit to Ohanze, Football Flakes spoke with the Technical Adviser, Mr Chinedu Obakezie and he spoke thus as regards the age the academy’s dream of getting young players into the team

“Here at Jewels Football Academy, we have a standard, there’s a criteria for recruitment, we talk about height(5.10ft, 6ft), real age, (15yr to 17yr) prior to harnessing talent and building character, and in line with the new season’s target, a couple of young lads are being integrated into the team to participate in the upcoming international and local scouting programmes respectively billed for the month of February/March, not just participating, but to make a strong impact in response to the demands of the ongoing project here in Ohanze.”

One of the problems of African football has been the absence of significant resources at either the public or private level dedicated to developing young players to represent their countries, although that is slowly changing with the proliferation of private academies as exemplified by Mr Ikechukwu Bestman Aaron at Jewels Football Academy in Nigeria.

Thanks to Jewels Football Academy Ohanze, young footballers can live their dreams and become who they want to be, and also have an impact in society.