By Esther Egbe
The first edition of the Stephen Keshi National Under 17 Football tournament is set to kick off with eight states comprising of thirteen teams from Friday 1st to 7th June 2018 in Benin, National Daily learnt.
The participating teams are Oceanic Stars Football Club (Rivers) Recovery Football Academy, Freiburgerweg Football Academy (Lagos) Rahbam Sports Football Club (Plateau) Lasora Spring Soccer Academy (Kwara) Kingdom Stars Football Academy (Bayelsa) Solo Wonders Football Club (Abia) Obazuwa Football Club, Cowbell Footbalbl Academy, BJ Foundation Football Club, Fortress Football Academy, Edo: Rock Star Football Club (Edo) and Ogunmala Football Club ( Delta)
The teams will arrive Benin on thursday 31st June to kick start Preliminaries on Friday 1st June and grand finale on 7th June 2018 at the Crescent Club Football pitch in GRA Benin
National Daily gathered that the tournament is part of activities organised by the National Association of Nigeria Professional Footballer in conjunction with the Stephen Keshi Football and Vocational Training Centre to mark the second anniversary ceremony of late Stephen Keshi former national team capt and coach of the Super Eagles who died in Benin on the 7th of June 2016
A technical committee has been put in place to select the best Players from the the tournament to play a game with the National under 17 team to give the selected players the opportunity to be part of the National team .