Lagos – September, 2015
The 2015 edition of Camp GTBank, an annual football development programme sponsored by Guaranty Trust Bank plc, is scheduled to hold between the 31st August and 7th September, 2015. Camp GTBank is a residential camp designed to train and develop outstanding footballing talents discovered from GTBank sponsored youth football leagues; Principals’ and Masters Cups.
This year’s camp will hold at The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, with 40 participants selected from the GTBank-Lagos State Principals Cup, GTBank-Ogun State Principals Cup and GTBank Masters Cup competitions.
The ultimate goal of this programme is to sharpen and cultivate the football skills of identified outstanding talents drawing on the experience of top football coaches. The lead coaches for this year’s Camp GTBank are Victor Ikpeba and Henry Nwosu.
Victor Ikpeba is one of Nigeria’s most decorated footballing legends. At age 20, Ikpeba had already become an established name in the game and had received numerous awards for his talented displays, including the African Footballer of the Year (1997) and an Olympic Football Gold Medal (1996).He subsequently went on to enjoy a successful career, playing for reputable international clubs in Belgium, Monaco, Dortmund and Libya. He featured for the Nigerian National football team, the Super Eagles, from 1989 till he hung his boots in 2007.
Like Ikpeba, Henry Nwosu also began his hugely successfully career quite early. He was the youngest member of Nigeria’s victorious 1980 African Nations Cup squad. He also scored the only goal for Nigeria at the 1980 Olympics. He also played in the 1982, 1984 and 1988 tournaments, finishing runners up in the latter two, with his last game for Nigeria in 1991. Nwosu is one of the few Nigerians that have managed to elongate his stay in football by successfully transitioning from the pitch to the dugout. He was appointed as the Coach for the Nigerian U-17 team in 2008 for a short period. He later became an assistant coach to Samson Siasia for the Super Eagles in 2008 and was also an assistant to Onigbinde for Super Eagles in 2002.
These two outstanding coaches will be supported by 4 distinguished ex-internationals and football coaches, including Mutiu Adepoju, Yisa Sofoluwe, Anne Chiejinne, and Waidi Akanni.
The 40 individuals selected will be taken through extensive training sessions on strategy, tactics and conditioning. They will also be given the opportunity to interact with coaches and mentors on and off the pitch. It is expected that their completion of the session will help fine-tune their skills and make them more attractive to clubs and academies as the camp will be open to scouts and coaches searching for young talents.
According to Segun Agbaje, the Managing Director/CEO of GTBank, “the Bank remains a big supporter of sports, as a vehicle to mentor students and develop their talents. He also reaffirmed the Bank’s commitment to the promotion of youth sports development and said that this year’s competition will again provide the students a platform to showcase their skills and further bolster the rekindled faith of Nigerians in home grown talents.”
Guaranty Trust Bank plc is one of the few Nigerian financial institutions that have maintained a defined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy since its inception in 1990. The Bank actively supports Education programmes in-classroom, Out-of-Classroom, infrastructure development, students’ scholarship and teachers training across Africa.