An exciting day it turned out as the grand finale of the three-day maiden Dallaji /Oshoala girls and para-soccer championship held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
Amid pomp and pageantry, a large turn out of screaming students, sports fans among others, watched as the unannounced Mr. P of PSquare fame gave a rare superlative performance.
He bared his bulky physique performing without a shirt out of excitement as he thrilled the audience with hit after hit of the songs that made him and his twin worldwide superstars.
It was one of the exciting side attractions of the finals which saw the winners smiling home with huge cash prizes and donations of brand new wheelchairs to the participating para-athletes.
The Para-soccer championship – a three-day event – saw four teams compete for laurels, while the girls’ tourney featured eight teams vying for honours.
Winners of both competitions received cash prizes of one million naira each and medals from the ACTDF president Engineer Noah Dallaji.
Tens of brand new wheelchairs were also donated by Engr. Dallaji to the overjoyed para-athletes who’ve been out of active sports for many years, until Dallaji offered them the opportunity.
Reigning African Women’s Footballer of The Year and Barcelona Femeni star Oshoala partnered with Dallaji, founder of African Children Talent Discovery Foundation ACTDF, to help the less-privileged through education and sports.
The twin events are the initiative of the African Children Talents Discovery Foundation in collaboration with the Asisat Oshoala Foundation.
Asisat Oshoala said the girls’ soccer tourney became necessary after her foundation realized that women footballers were denied of football competition.
Oshoala disclosed that her meeting with the Chairman of the African Children Talents Discovery Foundation, Engineer Noah Dallaji, made her realize that charity work should not be gender-based, hence the inclusion of the para-soccer championship.
An excited Asisat Oshoala noted that she was inspired to partner with Dallaji because of his passion to help the needy.
For Engr Dallaji it was a continuation of a lifelong passion for charitable causes.
Engineer Dallaji said his foundation had been in existence for a long time and it had been preoccupied with how to improve the wellbeing of a lot of the teeming youth in the country.
“No nation can exist without the youth,” he stated, adding, “every individual has something in him to be discovered, to be honed and nurtured to stardom.”
It may interest you to know that the Noah Dallaji Legacy Project alongside the Africa Children Talent Discovery Foundation recently discovered 37 soccer talents that would soon be sent to both local and international soccer academies.
Dallaji is also lending his weight to many other ongoing and future local and international sporting events.
He said: “Ours is to provide the platform for them to take advantage of. We are all born in different ways for different purposes.”
Plans are already underway to make next years tournament bigger and better.
He, therefore, called on well-meaning individuals and corporate bodies to lend their support to the Dallaji/Oshoala tournament for the less privileged in the society.
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