Zadok Yohanna: Dearth of football academies in Nigeria raises concern 

Zadok Yohanna will be playing in the Premier League next season.

This is an incredible statement in itself, as Yohanna was playing non-professional football in 2025.

The 18-year-old began his career at the Ikon Allah Football Academy in Nigeria, before being recruited by Swedish club AIK last year.

It was in Sweden that Yohanna’s career took flight.

The teenager made his breakthrough in the first team, scoring twice and providing three assists in 13 appearances.

In June 2026, Yohanna signed for Brighton & Hove Albion for €28 million, breaking the Swedish transfer fee record.

“His trajectory within a year has been phenomenal. I think it is a pointer to how quickly things can change for people. I also think it’s a reflection of time and chance,” Wale Agbede, a renowned sports broadcaster, told DAILY POST.

“I don’t necessarily think his pathway is the standard route, through which amateur players from places like Africa, the hinterlands of Asia and South America will land in the Premier League.

“But it is a lot of work done by agents, who deserve some credit.

“I’m really happy for him and I hope he grabs the opportunity. In the past, we have seen young players thrown into the deep end, who fail to impress.

“For someone who was playing amateur football two years ago to cost Brighton that amount of money, it will come with pressure.

“People will now regard him as a wonderkid and he would be expected to light up the Premier League in two or three years.

“Yohanna needs to know that this quick, upward trajectory is not always the norm for young players and he stays grounded and put in the work.”

But why are we not seeing a lot of similar stories to Yohanna?

Despite the incredible talent pool in Nigeria, there is no steady stream of young academy products getting these moves abroad.

There used to be a time when Pepsi, for instance, funded one of the best academies in Nigeria, and they consistently produced top players for even the national teams.

Names like John Obi Mikel, Osaze Odemwingie, Sunday Mba and Elderson Echiejile quickly come to mind.

“With football academies in Nigeria, it is just the sheer corruption and commercialization of everything in the country,” Agbede explains.

“There are so many football academies in Nigeria, which are only academies on paper. They don’t have where they train. They are just academies that own the sporting rights to players.

“It’s a cesspool of corruption.

“You’ll hear that this academy has loaned a player to an NPFL team. If you go and investigate, you will find out it is just somebody somewhere in Agege or the depths of Ibadan, who has registered an academy on paper but is not actually teaching the kids anything.

“Especially with the FIFA ruling that academies that own the economic rights for players who move to Europe or abroad for big fees will get a percentage, Nigerians have now bastardized this academy system in our football.

“And because it has been polluted by all of these non-existent academies, there is no motivation for the real ones to invest in Nigerian football.

“So, it boils down to a failing ecosystem.

“What is the motivation for me to invest in an academy, than for me to gather the best young prospects and prepare to sell them?

“Academies around the world are there to nurture and groom players. That is why you find out there is a sporting angle. They either have schools within their set up or they partner with reputable schools, to ensure that the education of the young players is steady.

“For brands like Pepsi who used to invest in academy football, there is just no longer that motivation to continue to pump in money into a system that is overly corrupt,” he further stated.

Zadok Yohanna: Dearth of football academies in Nigeria raises concern