The Nationwide League One has over the years provided an important platform for the best young footballers, offering more competitive games against top-quality opposition, giving players essential experience of international competition and reducing the gap between youth and first-team football.
The 2024 New Year Mega Lottery/NLO didn’t end without new feats and records broken by a few special talents, from the over 10,000 players that took part in the season.
Academy football in the world has a complex relationship with winning, it is rarely seen as a condition for player development but for 14-year-old Patrick Adeoluwanimi Akhidenor-Solanke, his celebration after becoming the youngest player to score a goal this season, demonstrates how much the feat meant to him.
Immensely gifted Nimi is a product of Provazios Sports Academy, owned by his father Segun Solanke. Regardless of his age, the boy wonder captained his team- Olumo United Football Club at the NLO Sagamu Centre and scored against Lasegski FC at the FC Ebedei Stadium.
Segun Solanke talked about how he enrolled Nimi into the academy at the age of four years, and since then, Nimi’s young career has been enjoying tremendous growth and progress.
In 2023, Nimi told The Nation in an interview: “I want to win the Balon d’Or. My dad told me George Weah of Liberia is the only African footballer to have won the Ballon d’Or.”
“Like my idols Messi and Ronaldo, I believe that with more hard work, discipline, perseverance, dedication and focus, I can bring home the honour in the near future,”
The youngster has matched his words with action with the wonder strike against Lasegski FC.
For Nimi’s father, Segun, he’s full of optimism about his prodigy. “In the next five years, we believe he would have become the youngest Nigerian to play for the Super Eagles and also, be playing in one of the top-flight leagues around the world. And particularly, playing for Real Madrid, as the wonder boy from Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, the management of the third-tier domestic football league has expressed their happiness at Nimi’s remarkable achievement. They believe it is a testament to their plans to develop Nigerian football by encouraging younger footballers to grow their careers and in the end, earn a good living from it.
