WHEN THE 5TH EDITION of the Talent Race Football Tournament kicks off on Sunday, 8 November, at Azhata Field on the Nyanya-Karshi Road, one club will arrive carrying more than kit and ambition. Xriso Sporting FC come into what organisers call the biggest grassroots football festival in the FCT as champions of another competition, hungry to prove that June was no accident.
From Home Ground to June Champions
Based in Abuja and active for several years, Xriso Sporting FC is a grassroots club built on youth development. Under chairman and sponsor Chris Okpara, together with a long-standing patron whose support secured the club a permanent home, Xriso trains, scouts and nurtures young footballers, opening doors for boys who dream of making it in the game. That home ground gives its players steady access to training, and the consistency has earned the club something money can’t buy: the loyalty of the surrounding estates. Residents turn out to cheer Xriso at home and follow them to away fixtures, giving the club a passionate home base that few grassroots sides can match.
That foundation paid off in June, when Xriso lifted the trophy at the fifth Gifted Reach Out Football Tournament in Abuja. In a field of more than 30 teams, they went through the whole competition unbeaten, topping their group despite a hard-fought draw with MKJ, beating Okura Ofante FC in the semi-final and edging VIN Sports FC 2–1 in the final. This time there’s a change in the dugout. With head coach Rose Nwachukwu away on a coaching programme, team manager Shlomo Ben Yaakov, the Gihon Hebrew Synagogue cantor whose journey from the bimah to the pitch AJV has followed, steps in as interim coach. He’ll lead the side while club management works out a permanent arrangement.
The Road Ahead and a Partnership on the Pitch
Sixteen clubs have been drawn into four groups. Xriso sit in Group A alongside Shinning Star FC, Pinnacle FC and SWF FC, two of whom, Shinning Star and Pinnacle, open the festival at 2 p.m. on 8 November. Familiar faces fill the other groups: MKJ Sporting FC, the only side to take points off Xriso in June, are in Group B; Okurafante FC are in Group C; and Vinsport FC, beaten 2–1 in June’s final, are in Group D. If the bracket falls a certain way, Abuja could see a rematch or two before the trophy is decided.
Xriso’s campaign carries special meaning for African Jewish Voices readers. The club partners with Maccabi United Nigeria Football Academy, whose players have trained alongside Xriso’s squad. That partnership has brought two Maccabi United defenders, the Igbo Jewish brothers Chayim and Shimon, into Xriso’s squad for the tournament. For a young academy whose players kicked off by building a sukkah together in Abuja before making an unbeaten start to the season, it’s another step toward a bigger dream: Nigerian Jewish players on the Maccabi stage.
The group stage begins on 8 November, and African Jewish Voices will follow Xriso Sporting FC through the tournament, with results and highlights from every match.