The Sodje brothers, the ultimate sporting family, will be launching the Sodje Foundation with a bang as a Legends of Sheffield Wednesday side face a Friends of Africa team at Hillsborough.
Stephen, Efe, Sam, Akpo and Onome are all committed to helping out young people within their own community, as well as in Africa. And they do so with the full backing of the PFA – as Stephen explained...
Q: Are you pleased the Sodje project has received official endorsement from the PFA?
A: I am both delighted and excited that the PFA has decided to give their full backing to the project. Myself and the rest of my family don’t really know how to put into words just how grateful we are and I want to give the PFA a big thank you.
I met with Gordon Taylor and Bobby Barnes and they presented me with a substantial cheque and have offered us help going forward as well, which we are very grateful for.
Q: What sparked off the idea of a project?
A: We were all born in this country and went back to Nigeria at a very young age. There wasn’t great facilities for sport such as football in terms of pitches, boots and shin pads.
Grass roots football in Nigeria isn’t supported particularly well and, as a family, it was something that we wanted to support. We live comfortably in England but rather than just sit around we wanted to try and make things better in Nigeria.
Q: It has been running for a while now hasn't it - even if not in the current format?
A: The concept has been running for the past ten years as we have been going back every summer to help when the football season had finished.
We would buy kit, balls and boots out of our own money and give it all away whilst putting on coaching sessions for young people. However, over the past couple of years we have thought about setting up an institute or academy.
Q: What do you hope to achieve?
A: We have called it the Sodje Foundation and it will be an opportunity for young people to educate themselves in healthy eating, social awareness and playing football. They will finish school at 3pm and then come back to the Foundation for an hour after school to learn all about positive living and eating well.
However, it is also for the children who can’t afford to go to school. You have to pay for education in Nigeria and a lot of parents cannot afford to send their children to school for any form of education. We are opening the door at the foundation for children of all ages regardless of their race or religion.
It is all about helping the kids.
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