By Our Correspondent

A total of 21 tale ed players have been shortlisted for scholarships as Dreamland Football Academy ends a six-day scouting programme in Jos, Plateau state capital, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report

It was a grueling six-day of intense activities, anxieties and expectations as over three thousand footballers drawn from the 17 local government areas of the state covered at the ancient city of Jos to seek for a defining moment in their careers.

The Scouting programme organised by Sammy Sports International and tagged “Fiesta of U-18 Football Festival” had the best of clubs and academies paraded and the best talents showcased.

Dreamland Football Academy which is a household name in grassroots footballI programme in the country was on hand in His to see to the success of the scouting programme under the invitation of Sammy Adesoji, CEO Jazzy Stars FC of Jos.

The CEO Dreamland Football Academy was there from day one to the last day of the programme and he did not mince words when he described the process as challenging but the outcome, awesome.

The six-day scouting programme saw about three thousand players representing various youth football clubs and academies in Plateau State. The invited teams were top youth football clubs/academies in Jos town and champions of the “Fiesta of U-18 Football Festival” from the 17 Local Government Areas in Plateau State.

The group and knock out stages of the scouting competition took place at St. John’s College Field and Naraguta Grammar School playground respectively for a period of four days, thereafter a total of 71 talented young stars were shortlisted.

The project was moved to Jos New Township Stadium, Zaria road to enable the young talents express themselves more on the astro turf pitch used by the top Nigeria Premiership clubside, Plateau United FC.

After the fifth day, the list was reduced to thirty-eight and finally to 21 players on the sixth day. Those in the final list will join Dreamlamd Football Academy on scholarship for further assessment and development programme.

Speaking after the exercise, Mr Ndudi Edede, Founder/CEO of Dreamlamd Football Academy expressed satisfaction with the out come of the programme and called on well meaning people of plateau state to come out and sponsor the programme

Mr Ndudi expressed the Dreamland Football Academy’s readiness to partner with any club/academy in organising such programmes anywhere in the county.

“I very delighted to be in Jos for the first time. I am satisfied with talents identified here. I am convienced with hard work and positive attitude, God willing, they will develop into top quality players in the future. For me it was a trial project but it passed my assessment criteria thus Dreamland will partner with the organisers, Sammy Sports International to make it an annual event.

“They were quite passionate and committed professionals. They have demonstrated huge capacity to organise football events and team mobilization. Although there are so many areas of improvement of which i will do my best to help them out in subsequent editions.

“I therefore call on the sports loving people of Plateau and sponsors to support this grassroots football development initiative by Mr Samuel Adesoji”

“Dreamland is open to partner with any organisation with such capacity in other States that would want to take their football development to the next level.”