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Young sports stars were the centre of attention at the 2022 edition of City Sports’ Sports and Leadership awards
Glitz, glamour and excellence was the theme of the night on Saturday, December 3 in Lagos as City Sports School hosted the 2022 edition of its annual Sports and Leadership awards.
Outstanding sports talents were appreciated on a night that was all about the children and 15-year-old Olisa Uduje was the headliner.
The teenage footballer won the City Sports School Leadership Award in recognition of his exemplary character as attested to by his teammates, coaches and parents.
Olisa Uduje named sports leader of the year
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Upon receiving the award, Olisa had this to say, “I'd like to thank God Almighty first of all for giving me the opportunity to stand here in front of all of you. I'd like to thank City Sports for giving us all the platform to express ourselves. I'd like to thank my parents and my brothers for always being by my side. I'd like to thank the coach and my teammates for also being by my side on the football pitch, helping me to continue to push myself. I want to thank my parents once again because without them, I'll not be here today, they're my real inspiration.”
City Sports honours young talents
Other awards were given on the night to excellent youngsters across multiple age grades in different sports but medals were presented to every single City Sports School student to promote inclusivity and appreciate their participation at the very least.
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The outstanding players who won MVP awards in their various sports are as follows:
BASKETBALL
Under 7 (active start level) - Toluwani Akinniyi
Under 11 (foundation level) - Adam Alwan
U15 (advanced level) - Kanyine Uduje
SWIMMING
Under 7 (active start level) - Haliyat Balogun
Under 11 (foundation level) - Winifred Asuquo
Under 15 (advanced level) - Albert Akintokun
FOOTBALL
Under 7 (active start level) - Mustafa El-Sankari
Under 9 (foundation level) - Irewamiri Adelanwa
Under 11 (foundation level 2) - Jonathan Adetoro
Under 13 (pre-academy level 1) - Feyisayo Ogunboyo
Under 15 (pre-academy level 2) - Daniel Aborisade
Shola Opaleye speaks on City Sports
CEO of City Sports Group and Nigerian sports stakeholder, Shola Opaleye shared his delight at the success of the event with Pulse Sports.
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“It turned out better than we planned it, we are all very excited, the room is buzzing,” Shola Opaleye said beaming with excitement.
He continued, “Every child has a dream, our job is just to ensure we create a platform for them to meet their dreams, no matter the dream, they don’t have to be sports stars, they can be anything but the truth is that whatever you want to do in life, you must be able to develop the character that will take you there and we’re only using sports to help that development.”
Opaleye made sure to not rest on his laurels, instantly looked forward to the next year by outlining the goals City Sports have for 2023.
“Every year things get better, we’re very excited about 2023, it’s going to be better and we have so many things that are going to happen going forward.
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First of all, we are going to expand our league, our league has been one single tool that has helped these children develop, it's our competition that tests them so we’re going to expand the league.
We have 10 different sub-leagues this year, we’re going to move to about 15, we want to go out of Lagos, we want interstate competitions. We had three trips this year, next year we want to have five trips abroad.”
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