Viareggio Cup 2024: You Know Goal Scoring Is My Job – Hafiz Ibrahim As He Nets 9 Goals in 6 Games
The story of Hafiz Ibrahim can’t be completely written without majorly emphasizing on the role God played and the believe Coach Abdul has for the young lad.
Discovered in Kano by ‘Open FC Academy’ through one of the finest young and brightest grassroot talent scout in the country, Coach Abdul who against all odds placed a thousand and one percent hope and believe on Hafiz. As a matter of fact, Coach Abdul and Hafiz’s father were former teammates at ADMIRAL FC; so, your guess is as good as mine, it’s not a coincidence.
From a local street Club in Kano, named ‘Juventus’ to Italy making mess of goal scoring as if it’s a (Play Station game) at the ongoing Viareggio Cup World Tournament. Who knows, Hafiz may just attract the services of the old lady of Turin, Juventus.
It has been a fantastic outing for the young lad who is not taking any chances at converting every little opportunity to make defenders pay dearly. Hafiz has scored 9 goals in 6 games including a back to back hat-trick and still counting.. before their last game which was a Quarter Final, jokingly Coach Abdul said to him, “Hafiz I have 20k for you if you score 2 goals today”
Hafiz response was that of an optimistic football player who has got the right mentality, “He smiled and said Coach, you know scoring goals is my job, make sure you get the 20k ready.” According to Coach Abdul.
The young lad went ahead and added one extra goal making it a back to back hat-trick. He’s currently the darling of top football managers and scouts in Europe and across, even though some managers and Academy owners back in Nigeria were not patient enough to harness this great potential future world best striker.
The journey to Ojodu City FC was a quite a turbulent one but Ojodu saw the package, the potential and the fruit it will yield, believed and stake it all. From Raven SC to 36 Lions Open FC and now, the sky is his starting point.
More clubs in Europe are currently racing for the 18 year-old striker; the likes of FC Porto, Sassuolo and FC Mytjiland of Denmark.