BY JOSEPH ODOEKWU
Former Green Eagles midfield maestro, Henry Nwosu has congratulated Umuezuo village for winning the Henry Nwosu Cup after beating Umuosu 5-4 on penalties to win the Naze community Cup.
The final of the Henry Nwosu Cup which was played on Wednesday, January 1st, 2025 at the Naze Secondary School pitch attracted large crowd from Naze and neighboring communities who watched the final of the annual football event which is played in honour of the former Green Eagles player.
“To Umuezuo players I congratulate them for winning the trophy for their village” Nwosu started. “It was a keenly contested final but unfortunately, Umuosu lost and Umezuo won”.
“I also appreciate the two teams for exhibiting high level of discipline in this final and this is good for the tournament”.
Umuezuo who won the final went home with the sum of N200,000, while Umuosu who were second got N150,000. Umuakali, Ezeakiri, Umuorie also got N15,000 each for participating in the tournament.
The award for the best-behaved team went to Ezeakiri who did not receive any caution card in the tournament. Precious Unaegbu of Umuosu got the award for the best player of the tournament while the duo of Harcourt and Chibuzor Ihegbu shared the award for the joint top-scorer of the tournament after scoring two goals each.
On the issue of the 40th anniversary of Henry Nwosu Cup which will be marked this year, Nwosu stated that what is important is a peaceful celebration and wants players participating in this event to move to the national level and NPFL.
“I want us to have a peacefully celebrated 40th anniversary of the Henry Nwosu Cup” Nwosu continued. “I also want to see some of these players playing in the Nigerian Professional football league and national teams. It could be in the senior or junior national teams, that is my aim and I know we can still achieve that” he insisted.
On the appointment at the National Sports Commission, Nwosu described Nigeria as a sport loving country who will not want to make a mistake of appointing persons who are not capable into the National Sports Commission. He appreciated the appointment of Shehu Dikko and Bankole Olopade into the positions of the National Chairman and Director-general respectively and added that Nigerians are looking forward to see what package they will unveil to enable us transform the sports sector.
Nwosu further commented on the Super Falcons and Super Eagles Continental Campaigns which will take place in July and December respectively when both teams will go justle for the most prestigious trophies on the continent.
He charged the two teams to work hard and remain focused. Stating further that with God on our side, the teams will achieve something positive. He however stated that if they do not achieve their desired results in these tournaments, then they must go back and start all over again.
