A team of coaches and officials of Feyenoord Rotherdam Football Club of Holland, who arrived in Nigeria early in the week, will this morning at the National Stadium, Lagos, begin a three-day training session with the coaches and players of the four teams in the 2014 All Nigeria Secondary Schools Football Championship, also known as NNPC/Shell Cup.

The four semifinalists are St. Thomas Basic Secondary School, Benin, Brightville College, Ibadan, Government Model Secondary School, Kotangora, Niger State and Government Day Secondary School, Bangudu, Zamfara State.

According to the Feyenoord coaches’ itinerary, the training session will begin this morning with the students of the four schools, while the coaches will have their turn in the evening.

After tomorrow’s semifinals of the NNPC/Shell Cup, the team will return to training pitch on Friday first with the players in the morning and their trainers in the evening.

Speaking during an interactive session with journalists yesterday, Feyenoord’s International Relations Manager, Gido Vader, said he was excited to be in Nigeria to help develop players of the future, adding, “Feyenoord Youth Football Academy has a big bank of professional skills to impart to the teams.”

He added: “We aspire to develop great human beings, who grow to become great football players.

“We focus on developing good players, as against buying stars, which is why for four years, Feyenoord Academy has been rated by the Dutch Federation (KNVB) as the best in Holland.

“One week is too short to change the players’ orientation, but we want to point the way forward to their coaches.”

Former Nigerian international, Mike Obiku, who played for Feyenoord for four years, is in the coaching team in Nigeria for the programme.

Obiku is the head coach of the Feyenoord Academy.

Earlier, Shell’s Regional Communication Manager, Philip Mshelbila, had explained that the Feyenoord team was invited to Nigeria because “we want to see players and coaches from all the schools that qualified for the semi-finals of the championship leave with life changing experiences from this interaction with Feyenoord Rotterdam FC.

“We are partnering with an organisation that has built capacity development strategies in manpower development. So, we have partnered with Feyenoord to help us primarily in capacity building.

“They will spend time with the coaches of the four schools remaining in the competition. This is a partnership we truly believe will help in taking the NNPC/Shell Cup to a higher level.”