By John Egbokhan
American football star, Amobi Okoye has unveiled plans to popularize the sport in Nigeria, by embarking on a coaching clinic for new coaches and youths with interest in the game.

Okoye

Okoye, who plays as a defensive tackle for the Houston Texas is the youngest player ever to feature in the NFL since 1967. The great achiever who arrived in the US aged 12 and earned a first degree in psychology, said he learned to play the game by playing a video game called NFL Madden and in no time could play the game and was a big hit with his college team.

To realise his dream of making Nigerians embrace the game, he set up the Amobi Okoye Foundation, which has Theodore Omalu as the Chief Executive Officer.

Speaking on the project at hand, Omalu said that the foundation, has in four years invested $1million, through the establishment of medical facilities in various hospitals and communities while also spreading its activities to five states, through the award of scholarships and donation of books to various deserving students.

“But is has become necessary for us to reach out to new coaches and youths willing to embrace the game and to do this, we have concluded plans to launch te train the trainers programme, which starts in less than two weeks. Some selected schools have been penciled down for the project and we enjoin all youths to take advantage of this initiative”, added Okoye

He said that goal of the Foundation is to offer greater opportunities to young Nigerians through sports, create more jobs through the coaching and broadcast channels and ultimately foster a stronger team oriented nation fed from the foundation of team work and a stronger work ethic, will be embarking on a fourth trip to Nigeria in March 2011.

The visiting teams that will include 20 doctors, who will give free medical assistance and treatment to Nigerians. Three containers containing books and medical supplies are expected to be in the country at the time of the visit for distribution.