BY RAYMOND NWADUBA
After an impressive runners- up finish at the just concluded 2025/2026 Nigeria Youth League Cup (N-YLC), Grassrunners Football Club has shown that their dream of having thirty (30) players in the top five leagues in Europe by the year 2030 is just within touching distance, faster than they may have ever imagined or envisaged.
With the plethora of talents within their ranks, the Ogun State based outfit is gradually cementing its place as one of the hot birds for top class youth players in sub -Sahara Africa. A typical example is how their players dominated the individual awards category at the N-YLC despite losing gallantly 2-0 to Sporting Supreme in the final of the Super 8 competition held in Uyo.
Their protege, striker Abdoulaye Agbejoye carted away both the Best Player of the Tournament and the Highest Goalscorer awards after netting an impressive 19 goals during the campaign.
The most incredible thing about the club is that they’re not noisy about their achievements in such a short period of time. They are focused, dedicated, passionate and result -oriented about their set target. The intelligent young man at the centre of it all, driving this larger than life project is, Olugbenga Victor Agbejoye, Chief Executive Officer of the club.
The “World Best” as he’s fondly called insists it’s all about hard work and aligning with God’s vision and purpose for them in life, while also acknowledging that having the right team makes the job easier and seamless.
“I must confess to you that I have the best team in the world. The whole staff of this club are simply amazing. They are the reason for the success. From the highest which is our workaholic President/Founder Sascha Empacher and his amiable wife, Adrienne Eigemann, in charge of legal responsibilities to the least staff, we are a team -a family”, he said.
“Many times I marvel at the speed with which we are going, it’s simply phenomenal. With the pace we’re going, 30 by 2030 is not just a dream or vision but a reality”.
You wouldn’t agree less with the Grassrunners helmsman when you consider that the teams has produced the likes of Precious Benjamin and Emmanuel Chukwu who were both part of the Nigeria U20 national team, Flying Eagles squad that featured at the U20 African Youth Championship held in Egypt last year. Some others have also been planted in different clubs in Europe and the Americas. There’s Taofeek Abdullah with Hartford Athletic Club, USA, Bolu Adesanya in the colours of FC Polissya, Ukraine, mercurial Angelo Agbejoye and now Abdoulaye Agbejoye and Musa Lasisi currently with the Flying Eagles.
Many clubs in the country really need to learn from clubs like Grassrunners how things are done if they are really serious about succeeding.
The future is definitely bright and project 30 by 2030 here we come.
