Sudeep Pakrashi:
After a gap of almost 14 years, Okolie Odafa is back in Bengal football! The once heartthrob of Mohun Bagan fans as well as Kolkata’s football fraternity, the lethal Nigerian striker will again be seen in the forthcoming Bengal Super League (BSL) franchise football tournament. The 40-year-old footballer, who last had a brief stint with Gokulam Kerala FC in 2018, has been chosen as the ‘brand ambassador’ of Kopa Tigers Birbhum in the BSL.
The franchise-owner Avijit Roy revealed that Odafa will be present in the official media conference of Kopa Tigers on 8th December he will also be present in the team’s first home match of the League at Dubrajpur Stadium.
Kopa Tigers has already been running a residential football school in Bolpur for the last six months. The academy has 22 students of different age groups from under-13 to under-19 and 15 students in its non-residential coaching program. Interestingly, the academy has two foreign students, one from Tonga and the other from Ghana.
Roy, when asked about plans on developing football in their region, explained, “Our key motive is to produce footballers of international quality. We know that unless a potential youngster gets adequate match time, he cannot gain maturity. So, we already have a tie-up with the Goan premier team, Churchill Brothers. Following the agreement, potential performers from our academy will join Churchill Brothers and take part in the youth-level tournaments for Churchill in Goa and other places. Secondly, we are in the final stage of associating our academy with the famous Spanish club Deportivo Las Palmas. We want our potential boys to get the best of training and match-exposure under the observation of Las Palmas academy coaches and scouts.”
While commenting on the franchise teams’ financial gain from the BSL, Roy explained, “On behalf of our franchise, I can say, we can reach the break-even point in terms of financial gains in the first year. As a popular television channel has been the broadcaster of the league, BSL will be televised across the country and in a few countries of the world. Naturally, the business houses will certainly be interested in joining the League in future.”
Kopa Tigers, which has registered 25 footballers, including their marquee footballer, Tajikistan’s midfielder Komron Tursunov. Plans are there to rope in another foreign footballer. They are apart, the team comprise footballers from the CFL Premier Division and tribal players from Birbhum district.
Roy looked enthusiastic while commenting, “Nearly 20 tribal youngsters are already training at our academy. Some among them are highly potential. We are going to conduct a selection trial only with more young tribal footballers on 27th November. One of our key motives is to is to find out and scout more talented young tribal footballers in future.
They already have two coaches under Ghanaian chief coach Joseph. Bengal’s former coach Ranjan Bhattacharya has joined the franchise as mentor, and now the franchise has decided to rope in a licensed coach from England who will also be looking after the overall training program.
