Future African Ballers’ Winners to get overseas trials opportunity, says Vaswani

Organisers of the African Ballers competition, a grassroots skills challenge, which debuted last week at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan, Lagos, have promised overseas trials opportunities for winners of future editions of the competition.

The maiden edition, a one versus one event that tested players’ skills in tight situations, featured 40 players drawn from across Lagos and its environs.
The maiden African Ballers’ champion, Oladimeji Oluwafemi Stephen, got the sum of N500,000 for his efforts, while the other contestants got various gift items.

Speaking at the end of the competition, sponsor/organiser of the event, Gaurav Vaswani, said the turnout and success of the competition has shown that Nigeria is blessed with talented youngsters, who need avenues to exhibit their skills.He promised to make the competition a quarterly event, adding that subsequent editions will be bigger and offer more to the players.He said: “The fact that I can give back to my community and the talent available is awesome. I thank all those that have helped us to accomplish this.

“I knew when we thought of it that it would be a smashing success. I feel happy seeing these aspiring footballers display their skills. African Ballers is my concept, a one-man show. I want to thank all my staff for their efforts and all my sponsors for keying into this event.”

Vaswani said his organisation would take the champion around media houses to promote him, adding, “we are looking at taking some of the talents for overseas trials and also bringing scouts to watch them play here and possibly take some of them to clubs abroad.”

Also speaking at the end of the competition, Guarav’s father, Keshab, said he feels happy that the hardwork his son put into organising