Onitsha Unity Cup: Prize money and pride at stake as Mourinho FC plays Galaxy FC in Sunday’s final

After two months of entertaining football which saw residents of Onitsha and its environs troop to Chuba Ikpeazu Stadium, Awka Road, Onitsha  to watch the best youth players from the commercial nerve centre of South-East compete for cash prizes and medals, the final will take place on Sunday with Mourinho Football Club playing Galaxy Football Club.

Apart from the cash prize of ₦1,000,000 that will go to the winner of today’s encounter, the runners-up will go home with ₦500,000, while the third and fourth-placed teams will go home with ₦300,000 and ₦100,000 respectively.

There will also be the golden ball for the best player, a golden boot for the highest goal scorer and a golden glove for the best goalkeeper.

An initiative of Onitsha Ex-Footballers in the Diaspora, the president of the association Nkemakonam Jideofor Nwonwu popularly known as “Olman " said the Onitsha Unity Cup is their own way of giving back to the society that gave them so much.

“As a child, we started playing football right from our days in elementary school, and from there to participate in various Under-13 competitions in the Onitsha metropolis while also with my secondary school team.

“My parents and some leg injuries made me quit football very early, but I staged a little comeback when I arrived in Europe by joining my school team (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland), and the rest they say is history”

Nwonwu recalled that while growing up,” those of them who would want to make a career with football encountered a lot of difficulties, many were forced to drop the dream, only a few held on to their dreams hence the reason why those that made a career out of the game in our own generation is not as big as we would wish to be.

“Society frowns at those playing football those days, believing that they are all criminals, though a lot of talented players went into crime out of frustration and lost their lives.

“So if few of us could make it to the top with little or no support, now that most of us are successful in the various field we found ourselves in today, we wish to create an enabling environment that will help an average young talent from Onitsha to showcase his talent and probably get to the top.

“The dream is to see as many as possible talented players from Onitsha plying their trade in the big leagues in the near future. “Some of us today are scouts, football agents, UEFA B license coaches etc. personally, i have been into the football business for the past few years as well”

Nwonwu posits that Nigeria football today, “seems as if we are moving backwards, we can't get better if our local league is still very poor in standard, Most Nigerians are strictly interested to watch and follow foreign league than the Nigeria league.

This was not the case many years ago, the stadiums used to be full to capacity those days, Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium, Rojenny stadium and even Power Mike at Ogbaru. 

So we need to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch,  officiating is still very poor as well. 

As for Super Eagles, currently, we have a lot of good players, but we need the right management devoid of any influence from anybody to enable them to work with the best talents”.