Whether
Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Ahmed Musa or Mikel Obi, all football
superstars come from grass root clubs. There are hundreds of thousands of grass
root clubs around the world. Many of them, however, remain unheard of as long
as they have not been able to produce a star.
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| Weyi (left) and Kwa (right). Picture source: Yiro Abari |
In the
mid-seventies, a club by the name of Volcano Babes emerged from the town of
Miango in Plateau State, Nigeria. It was named after the volcanic hills that greet
one arriving the town. Later, younger members of the club pulled out and formed
another club by the name of Forest. The name, Forest, came from the forest just
after the volcanic hills. Since the formation of Forest in the 1980s it was
unable to produce a star beyond the boundaries of the town until David Solomon Abwo
emerged from it in 1999. To become fully known, David went through JC Raiders
of Jos, Niger Tornadoes of Minna, and Enyimba of Aba. Currently, he plays for
Giresunspor of Turkey. While at Niger Tornadoes he was invited to the Nigerian
Under-20 squad. The team went to as far as the runners-up in the FIFA Under-20
football tournament, Holland 2005.
It is the
rise of Abwo that called the attention of Forest handlers to the reality that
the club, as indistinct as it is, has the capacity to produce a star of Abwo’s caliber.
Knowing this, the club started keeping an eye on its players with the hope of
producing others like Abwo. Right now,
the coaches at Forest feel that they now have not just a player but two that
can rise to the height to which Abwo has risen. John Weyi and Rozhi Kwa are two
players the coaches strongly feel have the quality.
“Isn’t it
possible that a good player would always find a club?” I asked coach Sunday
Witeh, who also mentored Abwo.
“In a place
like Nigeria, the prospect may not always there,” Witeh told me.
Witeh went
on to tell me that even Abwo needed some kind of bridge to walk to where he now
finds himself. This he found in the former member of the Nigerian House of
Representatives, Lumumba Dah Adeh. Adeh on becoming a member of the National Assembly
founded JC Raiders with the primary aim of helping boys from Miango town where
he also hails. JC Raiders played at a
lower rung of the Nigerian Football League but was able to bring Abwo to the
noticed of Nigerian football administrators, finding his way to Niger Tornadoes.
Right now, with
JC Raiders defunct, Witeh strongly feels that all that his two boys need is another
ladder on which to climb to the sky. At the moment, he says, he is looking up
to Abwo himself. He has been trying to reach him but it is just that when one
rises to that height there are always a lot of issues in his mind. For now, he
is the only hope they have, and pray he would find time to look in their direction,
while they also seek help from anywhere they can find.
