A happy Sunday to all. Happy Days are, indeed, here!
Oganla Abdulsalam was a pioneer graduate, in 2009, of The International Sports Academy, TIA, now, Segun Odegbami International College and Sports Academy, SOCA. SOCA.
Oganla was amongst the first set of graduates of SOCA and a recipient of a full scholarship to an American University.
He studied and played football whilst in the USA, and graduated in flying colours. He was his University’s football Captain, and President of the Nigerian Student Union.
He has since become a very successful businessman, a proud alumnus and foremost ambassador of SOCA, and benefactor to several students that are good in their football and choose to combine it with academics in the USA before turning professional.
Between MTN, SOCA and Abdulsalam Oganla, over 70 Nigerian graduates of SOCA have benefited from the recruitment on scholarships by scouts from American Colleges and Universities. Most of them may not have been good enough to play for the Super Eagles, but have become very successful people, mostly still active in various fields within the sports industry.
An exceptional few, with degrees in their pockets, have transited into professional football in the USA and Europe.
Last week, another alumnus of SOCA that migrated to the USA under the guidance of Abdulsalam some 4 years ago, just graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Business from Ohio State University, won the 2024 Mac Herman Award for Best Soccer Player in the State of Missouri, and was the first draft this season to be recruited by CF Montreal into the USA Professional Soccer League, MLS, this season.
He is Michael Damilare Adedokun.
He is a fantastic football player worthy of the attention of Nigeria’s national teams’ selectors.
At SOCA, despite all unimaginable challenges, with the support of parents we are still grinding on, Slowly, Steadily and Surely blazing the trail in producing some very successful student/athletes for Africa.
We are fulfilling our mandate to breed the finest athletes and first-class academics from our ‘sports factory’, our humble specialist sports secondary school tucked away in a little corner of the world in Wasimi, between Lagos and Abeokuta, in Ogun State.
Congratulations Michael Adedokun. We are watching with bated breath into 2025!
Dr. Olusegun Odegbami MON, OLY, AFNIIA, FNIS.
