The football academy is the hotbed of every young footballer who wants to learn the right techniques and tactics that will prepare them for a professional career.
Joining a football club in Nigeria can be a very tasking job, but for those who are consistent about retaining the dream of being a professional footballer finding a proper club should be their major priority.
For every institution, there is a level of minimum requirements that must be followed for accreditation and approval, as such football academies also have their own approach to accepting a player who wants to join and meet their requirements.
Here, we’ll take you through a simple guide on how to join a football club in Nigeria.
How To Join A Football Club In Nigeria
Stay Fit & Keep Playing Football
If you want to make your dreams of becoming a professional footballer come to reality, you need to stay fit, train, look after your body, and also play regularly.
How can you achieve the above routines mentioned as a player who is still finding his feet? It’s quite simple to adhere to a healthy diet even before you join a club and play consistently to keep fit physically.
If you’re yet to join a club or an academy, playing five-a-side which is one of the best routes to learn the techniques of the game will also help you maintain that level of fitness that will prepare you for a future trial.
Look For A Football Club
While it may not be the direct avenue into professional football, however, it is the first step an aspiring footballer must take to learn the rudiments of the game.
Joining a football club has its own added advantage of allowing you to learn the techniques and tactics of the game, along with building you up for a potential future move to Europe.
When you join a club you’re one step into achieving your dream as a footballer because once a scout picked an interest in you, that could be the beginning of your professional career as a player.
There are lots of mushroom football clubs in Nigeria that don’t even meet the normal accreditation to be called a club, however, there are also some fantastic and well-run clubs with capable coaching crews, decent training facilities, and a conducive environment for training.
Once you find the club of your choice, buy the form if there is any to while you meet all their requirements. Having secured the form and all requirements do not waste time in joining the club because it’s certainly going to be the leader to climbing your mountain.
Attend Credible Trial Locally Or Abroad
For every footballer who dreams of playing professionally attending credible trials locally and abroad is one of the tactics you must adopt to achieve your dream. However, before attending a trial you must have uploaded a short video of yourself going through a training routine and displaying your skills.
Adopting that means will enable scouts watching your training videos to conclude on signing you or recommend you for another club interested in you.
One of the major trials to attend is ‘Open Trials’, because the event seeks to help footballers who are in search of a team to use that avenue to showcase their talents and thereby get a club for themselves if the scout finds them worthy of note after accessing them.
If you’re wondering how to achieve that, not to worry, as quite a number of clubs in Nigeria conduct open trials at the end of every campaign in order to recruit a new set of amazing talents for their respective team.
If you’re fortunate enough to have passed the trial you may attract the interest of a scout around who wants to porch good talents after the trial is done and dusted.
However, after all said and done it should be noted that there is a fee required to attend trial while some don’t even require any fee to register. However, the bottom line is as a player who has high hopes of playing professionally going for trials should be a major priority.
Sign Up With A Credible Football Agent
Signing up with a credible football intermediary to represent you and table your case to potential clubs who may have seen your training videos can be a major help in the pursuit of a career in professional football.
Though this approach mainly applies to footballers who already have a club, on the other hand, that doesn’t take away the fact that a player who is still hoping to join a club can sign up with an intermediary.
A good agent will help you with his contacts to find clubs that may be interested in accessing you before going into proper negotiation having seen how talented a player you are.
Keep The Passion Burning
Every successful footballer who is currently plying their trade on the continent of Africa, Europe, and Asia never gives up on the passion and dream at any point. Therefore, if you’re still aspiring to become a footballer you certainly need to keep the passion burning with your regular training sessions and playing consistently.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
