...It’s a generational club – Enakhena

By John Egbokhan

They came into the tournament as the unheralded underdogs but after nine days of thrilling football moments at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan, Sporting Lagos emerged champions of the Naija Super 8, organised by Flykite Productions.

The story of Sporting Lagos is one that the romantics will savour for long given that they were only formed last year and in a short space of time, the club which competed in the Nigerian Nationwide League in the just concluded football season, have not only qualified for the Nigeria Premier League, but have now won the biggest off-season football tournament in the county.

Sporting Lagos victory at the Naija Super 8 final was not a fluke. It was a deserved reward for hard work, careful planning and a well-laid structure of excellence by the founder Shola Akinlade, a 38-year old software engineer and entrepreneur, who is co-founder and CEO of Paystack, Nigeria’s leading online payment platform.

Those who saw the Naija Super 8 final between Remo Stars and Sporting Lagos at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena would readily testify that it was a great show of football artistry by both teams and how the fans who packed the stadium to its rafters, with thousands more loafing outside the stadium loved the festival of football.

Most of the fans rooted for Sporting Lagos to win because of the attractive style of play by the Coach Paul Offor-tutored team. That culture of excellence is what the founder Shola Akinlade had in mind when he started the team, with the quest to create a successful football entity that will last for generations. To say that the club have attracted the fans back to watch Nigerian football in the stadium is to overstate the matter.

Interestingly, Shola Akinlade, in March added a new football team to his rising list of assets, when he bought into Danish side Aarhus Fremad, The Sporting Lagos owner bought a 55% stake to take control of the second division Danish club, which those conversant with football business say will help in the foreign exposure and development of the Sporting Lagos project

The team is draped in quality from goalkeeper Christian Nwoke to Patrick Egeonu, most valuable player of the Naija Super 8 Aliu Salawudeen, captain Balogun Abiodun Ozaveche, defender Chiemeka Nwokeji, Henry Ndidi, Rivio Anyemwenre, Emmanuel Odafi, striker Saturday Okon, Silas Nenrot and Jonathan Alukwu.

Also in the team are the likes of Agbor Ekoi, Clement Naantuam, Vincent Akpikpi, Chisom Ngomere, former NPL top scorer Junior Lokosa, Isaac Annor and Simon Segun.

Speaking on the Sporting Lagos project, club chairman, Godwin Enaknena said, ”Sporting Lagos is a generational football club that will outlive even the founders of the club. It is a football club that has been founded, not to change the narrative of Nigerian football, we know what we are supposed to do but we are just not doing it for obvious reasons. It is a project that has come to stay. It is giving youths an opportunity to showcase their God-given talents.”

On how his experience in MFM impacted Sporting Lagos, Enakhena said, ”my experience did not start with MFM. I did a lot of grassroots football. I organised so many competitions at the grassroots level before I joined MFM. MFM was just a template that I had to build on based on the experience that I have gathered. But you cannot deny the fact that none had been as MFM playing in the league”

On what makes Sporting Lagos different, he said, ”When we were starting this club, we said it would be a people-centred club, that will belong to the community. When we say community, there are the people around you, where you operate. It was about the people and to get them to come and watch you, you must first play good football. You also give them reasons to come to the stadium the second time, some call match-day hospitality. It is not a football club that was founded for one set of people. When we started, we said it was for the people, that they can buy into the club and become founding members. So it means that the club belong to the fans.

”Suddenly, the ajebutters on the Island, would come and watch our matches, at times paying as match as N50, 000. On match-days, those who came to watch our matches, were not molested by area boys. In our stadium, you can’t just move from point A to point B. When you are in the VIP, you are there, nobody who is not supposed to be there comes there. Your tickets alone cannot get you into our stadium. You must have a wrist band that identifies where you can be. Beyond all of that, on match days, it can be a Davido or Teni that will perform at halftime. Anybody in the stadium can win N100k by simply kicking the ball and finding the back of the net. We also gave out vuvuzellas and Sporting Lagos to fans”.

Ahead of the new Premier League season, Enakhena said, ”the Naija Super 8 agave us an opportunity to play Enyimba and Remo Stars. That was all we wanted and we had to give all we had. It has given us a taste of what to expect in the Premier League. First target is to sustain our stay in the Premier League. We have big dreams. Nothing says we cannot win the league.

”We are building a stadium in Landmark. If the season starts in August as we were told, we will play a few games in our present ground but if it does not start until September, then we will play all our matches at a stadium in Landmark”