Naija Ratels FC of Abuja has signed seven young players, including an 11one-year-old player ahead of the 2021/2022 Nigeria Women Football League premiership (NWFL premiership).
Chairman of the newly promoted premiership club, Barr. Paul Edeh, disclosed this in Abuja at the unveiling of the players.
He said the seven new players, were carefully scouted from the grassroots in line with the tradition of the club.
He said with the new signings, a total of 44 players are set to be registered for the new season.
“Our vision is to discover and groom young players, we discovered these players from our grassroots pre-season.
“My vision is to give these young girls opportunity to play football which they have be yearning for,” he said.
The sports administrator said as part of efforts to focus on young talents, an 11- year-old soccer wizard was part of those unveiled for the team.
“We have a very young player here called Mirabel, she is just 11 years old and she has also been placed on scholarship to the University level, this is a record for the league.
“We are not only developing the players for the club but for national teams when the need arises, ” he said.
Edeh said other young players will also be placed on scholarship as part of efforts to ensure the girls combine their fledging football career with sound education.
Earlier, Head coach of the team Bankole Olowookere said the team was fully ready for the season adding that Naija Ratels FC was ready to ruffle the feathers of established teams in the league.
The experienced tactician who is also the coach of the national U-17 women’s team, Flamingos, maintained that football was no longer played by big names but young dynamic players with good team chemistry.
He said most of the new signings were from academies, adding that his priority was to mould them into a formidable team.
“We have been training hard for the new season and I can tell you that we are not scared of any big name, we are a young side ready to take the league by storm,” he said.
The players unveiled include 11 year-old Mirable Amedu from Naija Ratels academy, Fakiyesi Abisola and Mbah Chidinma from New Generation Football Academy, Omede Regina from Adamawa Queens.
Others are Precious Daniel(WACO), Sandra Adugbe(Lakeside Queens Academy) and Adesina Itunuoluwa.
Naija Ratels FC is one of the newly promoted NWFL side and will be participating in the third edition of the Flying Officers Cup billed for October in Abuja.
