The Federal Government has expressed its willingness to partner the Republic of Hungary on grassroots football development by ensuring a successful hosting of the Dreamland Embassy of Hungary Football Tournament scheduled to take place in Abuja between November 14 and 20, 2022.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare, gave the assurance on Friday in his Office in Abuja, when he received the Hungarian Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb. Sandor Beer, who came to brief him on the preparedness of the tournament as well as solicit the Ministry’s support towards the success of the competition.
According to him, the game was an opportunity for Nigeria to showcase its budding football talents at the grassroots with a view to harvesting them for international competitions.
Dare therefore, assured of the Ministry’s readiness to collaborate with Republic of Hungary in ensuring the success of the game.
He explained that Nigeria, being a football loving nation, has a lot of football talents at the grassroots who can be trained into developing the game as a career.
The Minister therefore urged the Hungarian government to furnish the Ministry with the database of her citizens who are already playing football at the grassroot level in their country for the purposes of documentation and statistics.
“We need the contact information of these young ones so that we can stay in touch with them, celebrate them as ambassadors on our website, in our speeches, in the media; they can become role models for our teeming youth. We will bring our Coaches to share ideas and rub minds with the Coaches from your clubs with a view to developing a robust domestic grassroot football league in Nigeria,” he said.
Earlier, the Hungarian Ambassador to Nigeria, Sandor Beer, stated that he was in the Ministry to update the Minister on the level of preparedness for the competition and to further solicit its support for the success of the tournament
He informed that Scouts from Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Romania will be visiting the country during the event, to see prospective Nigerian footballers who can be recruited into their various clubs.
Amb. Beer added that the seven-day tournament is expected to feature 16 Nigerian teams from Lagos, Abia and Northern Nigeria.
