FIFA agent, Olusegun Aleaxander Falegan is to spearhead a new sponsorship structure for the biggest revelation of the 17th National Sports Festival tagged the Garden City Games of 2011 Iyefu Onoja  who then was a seven-year old girl representing Benue state in Chess.

Onoja, daughter of a driver father stunned the experienced participants at the event to win a bronze medal at the conclusion of the Chess games at the Multi-Purpose hall of the Alfred Spiff Diette Sports Complex, popularly called Civic Centre.

The young girl who incidentally also turned seven a day after winning the bronze then was only excited playing her game as a way of catching her fun and went through the first four games unbeaten until she lost in the semis and finally emerged third in the category that she featured.

Her size and age baffled many who understand the game of Chess and what it takes and that has led to her winning the award of the youngest participant and medallist at the 17th National Sports Festival.

Little Iyefu will be 10 by July this year. Her uncle, Sleames Anderson, taught her how to play Chess in 2008. She likes playing the game.

“She was in Primary three then where she was attending God of Abraham Primary School, behind Modern Market in Makurdi.

Her coach is Andrew Onoja. He revealed to www.gongnews.net that Iyefu at the Benue State Sports Festival won two gold medals. Onoja Andrew is better known as Sleames Anderson.

Asked to comment on the player, he said, “what actually motivated me was that the first time she saw the game, her interest rose and she began to learn it fast. When I introduced her to the first championship, an international Chess tournament in Lagos, she chose to play a lady but she was classified as U-14 category but I knew that she was far above that level and so I had to gamble by introducing her to the 17th National Sports Festival which is an open tournament that has no category involved and my intention was to use this medium to open the eyes of the Nigeria Chess Federation.

“I wanted them to know that it is the spirit and not the body that actually rules a man.  When I picked her up, she was three years old, with mucus in her nose and that is because experience has taught me that it is better to work with little kids than adults. At the Chess event in Lagos she was rated 3/9 but at the Benue State Sports Festival, she had two gold medals, including one from the classic events. And that is what gave her the entry into the 17th National Sports Festival, the Garden City games”.

The coach did not end there, he explained that he intends to help her get to more international competitions and to win laurels for Nigeria as they actually foresaw her performance. That is why I am so enthralled by the new FIFA agent who is brought in to deliver sustainable plans for the kids of Benue state.

Asked what he thinks can be her future in the game, “if the marketers can meet the plans they have outlined, she will be able to get advanced environment to be trained abroad and get exposed to world tournaments to represent her mother land Nigeria at the Olympics, Commonwealth games and other international events and we know that nothing stops the rising sun and what I know is that the manifestation that has taken place in Iyefu will surely also manifest more at those events.”

Asked what was the initial reaction of Iyefu’s parents when she started the game, he said, “Iyefu’s parents did not buy the idea at first until they started seeing her make news in the local tabloids in Benue before they realised their child was a star in the making.