Wednesday brought about a carnival of faces and talents at Abalti Barracks near Ojuelegba, Lagos, as the 3rd Addbrand Youth Cup took place with a total of 14 matches, keeping the arena alive from 11am till 4pm.
Sports247 was on hand to witness the thrills live, as the competition owners, MSports Links unfolded eight under-13 boys’ teams and another eight for senior females in this year’s edition of their double-contests sponsored by a Sweden-based company known as Addbrand.
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The female contest was won by CATS Ladies FC, who defeated Phoenix Queens 3-1 via penalties, while Strong Dove Football Academy won the boys’ category 4-3, also via the lottery of a shoot-out after a barren draw at the end of regulation time with Phoenix Boys.
After the carnival of action, which had games of both gender played simultaneously on each half of the field for 20 minutes each, Godswill Isaac of 12 Angels FA emerged top scorer in the boys’ class, while Joseph Favour of Phoenix Ladies got it in the female cadre.
Best goalkeeper for the boys was Saheed Kalid of Strong Dove, while for the females was Ayomiposi Shabba of CATS Ladies, who also got the award for most valuable player, of which the boys’ category went to Sulaiman Ismaila of Phoenix Boys.
While airing his views on this year’s competition and the other two before it, MSports Links’ chief executive officer, Moses Martin Ebuka said in a chat with Sports247 that he was inspired to put something back into the system that produced him and thanked his ‘godfather’ at Addbrand for making it possible.
“I see myself in these kids when I see them play. I remember how I came up through systems that are similar to this, and I am happy when they are happy,” said the former player of British Council’s project, Community Action Through Sport (CATS).
Ebuka, who is now based in Sweden, also thanked all participating teams, their players, coaches, officials and everyone that contributed to making this year’s competition a huge success, after which he enthused that it will be even better in 2026.
