{"id":7168,"date":"2026-01-31T10:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/2026\/01\/31\/meet-sulaiman-bakare-young-defender-who-loves-wearing-jersey-number-10\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T10:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:07:13","slug":"meet-sulaiman-bakare-young-defender-who-loves-wearing-jersey-number-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/2026\/01\/31\/meet-sulaiman-bakare-young-defender-who-loves-wearing-jersey-number-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Sulaiman Bakare: Young Defender Who Loves Wearing Jersey Number 10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports247.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG-20260131-WA0056.jpg\" data-caption=\"\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"td-a-rec td-a-rec-id-content_top  td_uid_2_697dc63f6f2c1_rand td_block_template_1\">\n<div data-sport-trackid=\"141028\" data-sport-trackbid=\"1\" class=\"sport-target\" id=\"sport-761497216\"><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/playstake.club\/landing\/?c=htZNXIaU&amp;offer=sports247&amp;utm_source=sports247ng&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=cf_dir_global_display&amp;utm_term=display&amp;utm_content=sportsbook\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"adv-link\" aria-label=\"NYE Offers GIF-728\u00d790-px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sports247.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/NYE-Offers-GIF-728x90-px.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-lazyload\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A startling story is unfolding at Heart Of Lions Football Academy in the Igando area of Lagos, where a young defender, Sulaiman Bakare loves wearing jersey number 10, Sports247 reports.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports247.ng\/chess-as-correctional-tool-project-launched-at-kirikiri-offers-inmates-path-to-reform-and-renewal\/\">Chess as Correctional Tool Project Launched at Kirikiri, Offers Inmates Path to Reform and Renewal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Young Bakare\u2019s story reflects memories of the days of Williams Gallas at Arsenal of England, but this youngster is not a centre back like the French star.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sport-test-placement-from-wizard-3117735285 sport-target\" id=\"sport-800093708\" data-sport-trackid=\"136764\" data-sport-trackbid=\"1\"><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/paddyplay.com\/trfypft8s\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"adv-link\" aria-label=\"AVIATOR-300_-728\u00d790-English\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sports247.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AVIATOR-300_-728x90-English.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-lazyload\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>While Gallas captained Arsenal and played from central defence, Bakare is a right-back who is also skipper of Hearts Of Lions FA\u2019s junior team.<\/p>\n<p>He told Sports247 during a chat at the academy\u2019s training ground inside Local Government Primary School, off Church Bus Stop, Igando-Ikotun Road, that he fell in love with jersey number 10 because it\u2019s the one that many star players wear.<\/p>\n<p>Bakare, who is currently a JS2 student at Socrates Secondary School in Ologunfe area of Igando, thanked his coach for allowing him wear the team\u2019s number 10 jersey, though he is a defender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thank Coach Afeez Oladimeji for encouraging me in many areas and for helping me all the time. He chose me as captain of the junior team since 2023 because he said I am consistent and hardworking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI also thank my mummy and daddy for how they are encouraging me to play football. I am the first born in my family. That means I have to be very serious, and I want to make them proud,\u201d Bakare declared.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports247.ng\/meet-sulaiman-bakare-young-defender-who-loves-wearing-jersey-number-10\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A startling story is unfolding at Heart Of Lions Football Academy in the Igando area of Lagos, where a young defender, Sulaiman Bakare loves wearing jersey number 10, Sports247 reports. READ ALSO: Chess as Correctional Tool Project Launched at Kirikiri, Offers Inmates Path to Reform and Renewal Young Bakare\u2019s story reflects memories of the days [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7170,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7168\/revisions\/7170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}