In this interview with our sport correspondence SAHEED AFOLABI, sport administrator, Datti Umar Yusuf talks about his interest in sport and why he established Moonluck FC.
What prompted your interest in football and establishing a football club?
My name is Datti Umar Yusuf, the CEO of MVP Sport Management Agency and the co owner of Moonluck FC in partnership with the chairman of the club, Mr Collins.
The reason why I established a club and have an interest in football is to give back to the grassroots because here in Nigeria we have a lot of talents but they don’t have that opportunity to showcase their self, so we use sport to discourage them from being a terrorist, internet fraud and oil theft.
What has been the achievements since establishing Moonluck FC?
Wow, so far so good, we have been able to make some players sign professionally in Spain, Portugal, Germany and other parts of Europe, we classify this as an achievement because we were able to make this players achieve their dreams of playing outside the country professionally and this also motivate other players to associate or play for Moonluck FC.
How do you scout for this players?
I do go to different communities where kids play street football, I will seat down and scout for the good ones among them that have the basics of football and are also very talented. That’s how I scout for players for Moonluck FC.
Sometimes I organize Football scouting tournament, where I also use that to scout for very good players.
As a football administrator, how do you manage players that are not disciplined?
When it comes discipline, players must be disciplined, if they are not disciplined inside the pitch or outside the pitch, it will affect their careers. We discipline our players by inducting them into the club to know the rules and regulations guiding the club, by this we know the player physically, mentally and psychologically.
We make housing accomodations for our players, feeding, and transport allowance so as to make our players focused, disciplined at the club and this will enable you get the best from them.
