I want to say thank you, Copa Lagos. It’s been amazing. I go to 12 to 15 tournaments a year but Copa Lagos is my favourite. I was here in Nigeria with the England team in 2015 and it was amazing. I’m here with Arsenal team in 2017 and it was incredible. I can’t wait to see you next year.”
These were the words of Arsenal Beach Soccer Club Captain, Aaron Clarke, about his impression of the just concluded Copa Lagos 2017, held at the Eko Atlantic City, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Clarke attested to the fact that this year’s edition which featured an exciting combination of sports, music, fashion and celebrity entertainment lived up to its billing.
For the seventh year running, organisers of Copa Lagos, Kinetic Sports, have been able to move the event from being just a beach soccer one to the most sought-after beach tournament on the continent.
Apart from giving home-grown players a platform to exhibit their God-given talents, Copa Lagos affords them the opportunity to exhibit their talents to the world.
The decision of Kinetic Sports to introduce a beach soccer tournament, tagged COPA Lagos, has added to the tourism interest in the Centre of Excellence, Lagos. For six years running since 2011, COPA Lagos has evolved from just a beach soccer event to the biggest celebrated and most sought-after beach soccer tournament on the African continent.
Our correspondent, AKEEM LAWAL, here captures the excitement and behind the scenes tales of the recently concluded Copa Lagos 2017 Beach Championship. Enjoy
FOOTBALL CHALLENGE
This year’s event featured the Club Challenge and National Team Challenge with beautiful cheerleaders responsible for lighting the mood and easing the tension at the breaks.
The Super Sand Eagles played Spain, Lebanon and Morocco in the national team category while Arsenal Beach Soccer Club were up against Kebbi Beach Soccer Club, Pepsi Football Academy and Gidi Sharks, a Lagos team of young beach soccer players drawn from all over the state by Swiss coach Angelo Shirinzi.
Arsenal Beach Soccer team, captained by Aaron Clarke, emerged winner of the Club Challenge. Despite losing to eventual fourth placed Pepsi Academy 3-2, the Gunners defeated second placed Kebbi Beach Soccer team and third placed Gidi Sharks 9-5 to cart home the trophy. Spanish Beach Soccer team emerged winner of the International Teams’ Challenge after defeating Nigerian Beach Soccer Team – the Super Sand Eagles – in the final.
After an unimpressive outing at the last Beach Soccer World Cup in Bahamas earlier in year, the Super Sand Eagles, ranked 20th in the world and third in CAF, were hoping to find succour and appease their fans by reclaiming the title they last won in 2013. The three-time Copa Lagos champions lost 6-5 to Spain, ranked 16th in the world ranking and 6th in UEFA. Both teams went into the game undefeated after winning their previous two games, with Nigeria beating Morocco 7-6 and Lebanon 9-8, while the Spanish team defeated Lebanon 7-3 and Morocco 8-5.
AWARDS
Nigeria’s Abu Azeez, who was named among the 50 top beach soccer players in the world in 2017, emerged the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Spain’s Dona emerged the Best Goalkeeper, while Nassim El Hadaoui of Morocco claimed the Top Scorer award with eight goals in three matches.
“I want to thank Almighty God for this award. I am so happy to win the award even though I would have loved the Super Sand Eagles to also win the trophy, but that is how God wants it. I want to thank the organisers of the Copa Lagos, the fans for their support,” Abu who was unarguably the fans favourite player at the tourney told The Nation.
For Nassim, the high points on his outing at Copa Lagos 2017 was scoring five goals against Nigeria even though his goals were not enough to prevent his country from suffering a 7-6 defeat in the hands of the Super Sand Eagles in the match day 1 at the tourney.
He scored a goal (his 107th goals in 94 games for Morocco) in a 2-0 win over Lebanon in the final day to help his country finish in third place. He also bagged the Man of the Match award in the match.
“I dedicate this trophy to my wife Imen El Hadaoui Jamaa and my daughter Aya and my parents and my brothers. I thank my teammates, the technical and medical staff, and the Federation Royal Moroccan who allow me to achieve this,” Nassim said after receiving his award.
Clarke’s 100th game
It was indeed an honour for Arsenal Beach Soccer team captain, Aaron Clarke, making his 100th appearance for his team at the Copa Lagos 2017. Clarke, who helped his team to claim the Club Challenge of the tournament, received a customised jersey from the director at Kinetic Sport Management and the Founder of Copa Lagos, Samson Adamu.
“A journey that started in 2013 and I never thought I would make it this far. Words simply cannot describe how I am feeling. I would like to thank all of my team mates as I could not achieve this without you guys. I would also like to thank all the managers and coaches that have worked with me and bettered me. I also want to say thank you to all my family and friends for all your support as it means the world to me,” Clarke said after their final game against Gidi Sharks.
CELEBRITY MATCHES
The celebrity matches saw for the first time the female celebrity match involving Super Falcons stars and popular female celebrities.
Super Falcons stars Asisat Oshoala, Onome Ebi and former Falcons goalkeepers Ann Chiejine and Precious Dede in action as they thrashed their opponents 6-1.
The male celebrity match was packed with big names in the Nigerian entertainment industry. On the one side, the likes of Moses Praiz, Lamborghini, Solid Star, Sound Sultan, Jimmy, Dada boy Ehiz, and also Nigerian veteran soccer stars on the other, some of which were Austin Eguavoen, Victor Ikpeba, Friday Elaho, Victor Agali, among others. The ex-internationals won the game 4-2.
In a chat with The Nation, an excited Lamborghini said he was happy to be part of the tournament but would love to see the event go beyond three days.
“It’s great activities, great sports event that brings everybody together; brings entertainment and everybody together. You can see that everybody is having fun. I was on the celebrity side that played against the ex-Super Eagles and it is an honour to play against them.
“I would love to see more countries come to participate and want the organisers to make it from just a three-day event to like one-week event and if possible, three weeks’ event and let it become global so that every country will come together for this tournament. I’m sure that is part of the plan of the organisers for Copa Lagos,” Lamborghini told The Nation.
While sharing his experience with The Nation, Eguavoen said, “My experience here is wonderful. It’s always nice to be here, being festive period and credit goes to the organisers for dragging people out of their houses and coming down here, it’s quite interesting. It’s quite unfortunate also that some of the ex-internationals, our legs cannot carry on, but the fun in it is what we are enjoying it.
“You can see ladies coming out to show their stuffs during intervals between games and then inviting the entire world to come from all phase of the world is also very important. Entertainment, the game itself, is fun. You see kids as well coming out from their homes. I think it’s fun.
“It would be difficult to speak on the economic aspect, you know there is economic crisis in the entire world. However, as you can see with the turn out now, people are not really bothered because sports is a way of living healthy and it brings a lot of unity amongst people. If you look around, different races of people are right here because it has to do with sports.
“So credit goes to the organisers. Economy or no economy, it is worth what it is.”
FASHION SHOW
Highlight of this year’s edition also was the fashion show which saw designers take the runway by storm. The show showcased the best that Nigeria fashion industry has to offer.
Highly talented designers including Grey, Ré, the Weave Hat Company, Dapmod, Okun and Tsemaye Binitie graced the walkway and reflected the ingenuity of beach and sport wears.
The fashion and exhibition event featured runway shows for sports lovers collections called ‘Footballmania’, where designers did different variations with Nigerian jerseys; exhibitions featuring fashion products and accessories, textiles and design elements.
AFTER PARTY
The after party was the fans’ favourite. Each day of the event ended with an after-party with the best of DJs in Nigeria on display at the FanZone. Fans enjoyed the best of rap, dance competition and music entertainment.
According to a fan simply called Ken, the after-party was a must for him after each match.
“Since Copa Lagos started on Friday, I have not missed the after-party show. At the end of the day’s matches, I always come here to enjoy myself, listen to good music, drink and go home. It has been a great event for me this year. You know Nigeria’s match is always played last, so after each victory I come here to enjoy myself. Even despite losing the final to Spain, I still come here to enjoy myself, life must go on,” Ken told The Nation.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
The impact of Copa Lagos on the economy is huge, no doubt. The influx of people that attend the event deliver direct economic opportunities for food vendors, hotel owners, security companies, transport companies and retailers.
For Divine Amarachi, a retailer selling Hero at the Fans Zone, this year’s edition of the tournament was better organised.
“Doing business here has been very fantastic. We are here for three days and market has been booming. This year’s Copa Lagos is better organised than last year. I’m so much happy and I do appreciate. I was in Copal Lagos last year, but this year was fantastic.
“In area of empowerment, they have helped me a lot. I’m enjoying my partnership with Copa Lagos organisers. In fact, I will give testimony about Copa Lagos, from 2016 till now. They have changed my story and changed everything about me forever and I’m happy about it. I pray for more improvement so that by next year I will have another story to tell because I know that by next year, I will go to higher lever.”
Representative of Tag Heuer, the official time-keeper for Copa Lagos, Sezno Benson, also shared his experience at this year’s edition of the tournament: “Copa Lagos was a fantastic experience, a lot of beautiful games, beautiful football, amazing fans, good energy, these are all the things resonate with our brand TAGHeuer. We like energy and you can see the games, a lot of pressure moments like Nigeria against Morocco. It was just one goal and Nigeria just win it.
“Our tag is “Don’t crack under pressure” and Copa Lagos was filled with those moments. So it was a great experience and we are very happy to be time keeper for Copa Lagos. We are happy to tell Nigerians that we are here in the country,” Benson sounded off.
