By Continuation from 2023
Journalism, Ghetto Tigers, and a call to service by Mustapha Azeez Adewale – https://blackboxnigeria.com/journalism-ghetto-tigers-and-a-call-to-service-by-mustapha-azeez-adewale/
Having founded the club on the back of the Coaching assignment with Eko Boys High School and joined the Lagos State Service in the year. 2018 by all standards was a very eventful year.
In the same 2018, Taiwo Quadri, Isiak Dairo, and Babatunde John joined the United Mushin Team to participate in the Late Yemi Tella Cup as the first set of players to be addressed as Ghetto Light/Tigers players.
Ishola Basit, Enogun Solomon, Fayemi John, and Ijidele Monday amongst others were part of the Eko Boys High School influx in the formative stage of the club.
In January 2019, a foundation player Quadri Taiwo came to my Ayantuga residence with two young coaches. They claimed to have heard the gospel of Ghetto Light/Tigers and will be glad to join our ranks.
After considering their proposition and in the interest of taking the football gospel a step further, I agreed and brought them in as assistant coaches of the Female team and Intermediate team respectively.
However, in April 2019 less than 3 months into the alliance, a crisis nearly crashed the club which was at the time a little over one year. A coach in Oshodi has capitalized on certain lacunas in our administration and sold a project to one of my coaches.
To cut the long story short a female team that came back with a silver medal from Ifo summer camp was reduced to just two female players. Misturah “La Nina” Bello and Abosede Osibajo. The club managed these two female players till November 2021 when we had another influx of players.
What made the decision Misturah Bello to stay unbelievable to many was that the club had just relieved her of her responsibility as captain of the team and very close with the sole beneficiary of the crisis. It was suggested in some circles that the only reason the beneficiary who initiated the crisis went through the troubles was to create room for the said player in his team. She will go on to reclaim her band and stay loyal to the team for 5 years and counting uninterrupted.
Without the player, the experiment ended in months, with 90% of the players poached leaving football altogether.
With the influx of 2019, came players like Olajide Daniel, Faruk Jummah, Abolomope Hammed, and a host of others. I remember the first meeting I had and the most vocal on the day was Mr. Ebenezer Olajide who will go on to be named Most Supportive Parent of the Year for 5 years in a row.
In the same year, the El Nino Challenge Cup started with Lyon Blessed, Fortune FA, MS Success, Eko Boys High School, and Ghetto Tigers FC battling it out in the Male category with Lyon Blessed Emerging champions of the inaugural edition. Soccer Stars Queens defeated Ghetto Tigers FC in the final.
If I had judged by first impression I would have sent the two aforementioned players packing as they exhibited an embarrassing attitude after the game was lost. Thank God I restrained myself and gave conflict resolution a chance. Only God knows what would have become of Ghetto Tigers Ladies.
In January 2020 among the players that joined was Ewetade Rofiat who before then only played football on the street of Alasalatu along with some other ladies to form a female team for the second time in the club’s history. This time having learned from the experience of the past, I handled the team differently from the first. It worked for a while till I added another member to the technical crew.
As head coach of Eko Boys, I qualified for the final of the GTB Masters Cup and was to play Anwar Ul Islam(my father’s alma mata) in the final. Then Covid-19 happened and we had to stay at home, training players from home and all.
While on the break, I received advances from the former Principal of Eko Boys who was then the principal of Ilusec to come to the school but I didn’t oblige it was after the covid and several incidents that I was obliged to manage both Eko Boys and Ilupeju Secondary School together.
In service, I also joined the coaches crew of Odi Olowo Ojuwoye LCDA in the same year in preparation for the HOS cup and J- league. A team now exists in Mushin and the foundation of the club are players originally drafted for the J League that year.
After COVID and training resumed in Ilupeju Primary School, Yakub Shamsu, a player who will go on the 2021 and 2022 Player of the Year joined the club. In his first game for the club, a Prince Gas competition in Igando, he scored the solitary goal to hand in our first piece of silverware as a football club.
After the statement of intent in 2020, there came the man who transformed Ghetto Lights into Ghetto Tigers. A man many refer to as HRA
To be continued….
