Patrick Schaal’s latest post:
Lateef Omidiji Junior is an exceptional ten-year-old in many ways. He attends Mabel Hoggard Elementary School in Las Vegas, where he is a straight-A student in fifth grade. He dreams of becoming the next Didier Drogba, his favorite soccer player; however, should this dream default, he hopes to attend medical school at Harvard and play for their soccer team. Fortunately for Omidiji Junior, it appears he stands a distinct chance of achieving his first goal, according to an article recently completed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Last year, with a son at the meager young age of just nine-years-old, several scouts approached Lateef Omidiji Senior from the soccer federation of Nigeria, and issued a request for his son to start playing immediately for one of their teams. Omidiji Senior, though immensely proud of his son, deterred a bit, telling the scouts that he thought it was best to wait for six or seven years before throwing the child into such a competitive environment.
Over the course of the last year, scouts have only become more persistent, as word has spread about this apparent soccer prodigy. Danladi Nasidi, infamous coach of Nigeria’s U-13 national side soccer team, traveled over twenty hours just to watch the child play a game recently. For Omidiji Senior, this placed a certain level of reality on the situation; growing up as a boy in Nigeria, Omidiji Senior always heard stories of the infamous coach and knew just how important he was. His presence at Omidiji Junior’s game was, therefore, not underappreciated.
Nasidi has commented on his impression of Omidiji Junior based on observation of the boy’s playing. The coach was impressed with the boy’s soccer knowledge, particularly given his youth; he felt assured Omidiji Junior could very successfully play amongst older athletes. However, the physical component remains a bit of a concern for Nasidi, as he evaluates Omidiji Junior’s skill in this regard as merely “okay.” This is to be expected, as the boy most likely hasn’t even hit puberty yet. Given time, however, it seems Omidiji Junior’s fate is destined to follow his prime path in life, towards becoming the next Drogba of soccer.
from Patrick Schaal http://ift.tt/1kG0Hd1
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