Best Talent Football Academy’s Coach Oyeyiola Ishola Urges NFF, LSFA To Support Grassroots Clubs With Grants

The founder and head coach of Best Talent Football Academy of Lagos Island, Oyeyiola David Ishola has sent a clarion call to governing bodies of the round leather game to support grassroots teams with monthly grants.

Ishola pointed out in an exclusive chat with Sports247 that the biggest challenge facing most youth development teams in Nigeria is lack of adequate funds.

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He then called on Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to come up with a financial aid scheme aimed at boosting the efforts of grassroots coaches and players.

Ishola added that Lagos State Football Association (LSFA) should also set a good example for similar bodies across the country, in order to ensure that Nigeria benefits from true values of talent development at the grassroots.

The youthful coach started by revealing the giant strides he has achieved with Best Talent FA and thanked his captain, Adebisi Shuiab, for leading by example.

Ishola stated, “We have been able to achieve a lot, though we don’t have a chairman or sponsor. We even recently won the 2025 Bamofi ladino Johnson U15 Cup.

“Our next target is to make proper plans for 2026. That’s because we want to achieve many good things in 2026, like sporsporship, and I pray for my players to travel abroad.

“I want my players to get contracts in countries like the UK and other places. I want them to play for big clubs so that they will all be successful in life and support my academy.”

He concluded with an appeal to the NFF and LSFA to instituonalise a system whereby they support youth football clubs and academies with financial backing to make their desires easier to achieve.

Ishola expatiated, “I want my players’ parents, our fans, and the public to hear good news in our team, but funding is our biggest challenge. We lack money to do very important things.

“That’s why I want NFF and Lagos FA to help grassroots teams with financial aids. They should support the grassroots teams with money for training grants and equipment for improvement of our boys.”