A youth football tactician in Ijeshatedo area of Lagos, Lateef Abdulgafar (aka Tunde) has revealed how he became a grassroots coach through what he called ‘The Grace of God,’ Sports247 reports.
The youthful tactician, who is the founder and head coach of Miracle Football Academy, whose training ground is at a spot called Fashola Ground in Powerline community, near Ijesha Market, disclosed that he did not even play football as a kid.
Rather than evolve into a football tactician after an active playing career, ‘Coach Tunde’ disclosed further in an exclusive interview with Sports247 that he only used to analyse games and run mock commentaries while kids played on the street in his neighbourhood.
“It’s God’s grace that made me a coach,” Abdulgafar recalled, “I did not play active football, but I just knew how to analyse matches and I could also do mock commentaries when kids were playing set on the street.
“It so happened one day that some of the boys were losing their game until I got there. I just started giving them instructions about what to do and they suddenly started scoring.
“It was after those boys won the game that all of them started calling me coach, coach. So, I just decided one day to start training them as a team and that’s how Miracle Football Academy started in 2011.”
Although ‘Coach Tunde’ disclosed that a major challenge facing the team is that the pitch where they train at Ijesha Market is only good enough for five-a-side games, he is grateful that his players do not allow it to limit their physical fitness.
“The place that we are using for our training is not really big, but my players are wonderful. They always perform well when we go out to play on big fields for eleven-eleven matches. That’s because they have a lot of determination,” Abdulgafar pointed out.
One of his colleagues, Jamiu Toheb, who runs a team called Great FC at the same playground, also told Sports247 that they are only ‘managing’ the spot because there is no bigger space nearby.
 has revealed how he became a grassroots coach through what he called 'The Grace of God,' Sports247 reports.){kind=link}