BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

By beating Niger Tornadoes 1-0 to win the Nigeria Premier Football League on Sunday, Remo Stars have become the 21st club to win the title since the league at national level was introduced in 1972.

But if professional football is the consideration, they become the 17th champions since 1990.

Most titles have been won by Enyimba, who won their 9th title in the 2022/23 season.

Yet, it was not a bed of roses for the club that is arguably Nigeria’s most successful club.

They were relegated in 1991 after finishing 15th in a 16-team league.

They returned to the elite division in 1994 after topping the lower division in 1993.

The next most successful club is Enugu Rangers, who have eight titles. But the bulk is in the amateur era when they were the dominant force in Nigerian football.

Since the professional period, Enugu Rangers have won just two titles in 2016 and 2024.

They are followed up by their age-long rivals, Shooting Stars, who have five titles, the last of which was won 27 years ago.

Heartland also have five titles, all won when the club was Iwuanyanwu Nationale.

Next are Kano Pillars, who are the second club from Kano to win the league. Before their four victories in 2008 and from 2012 to 2014, the now-defunct Raccah Rovers were Nigeria’s champions in 1978.

The NPFL winning team of 2021/22, Rivers United, can lay claim to four titles following the victory of Eagle Cement in 1997 and that of succeeding Dolphins in 2004 and 2011. Rivers United is a fusion of the older Sharks FC and Dolphins (previously Eagle Cement) in 2016.

Bendel Insurance have two titles won in 1973 and 1979 before the advent of professional football in Nigeria.

Also winning twice are the defunct Julius Berger of Lagos, who were champions in 1991 and 1999.

Other past winners who are no longer in the topflight of Nigerian football include Mighty Jets, the inaugural winners of 1972; Raccah Rovers of Kano (1978); New Nigerian Bank (1985); Leventis United (1986); Stationary Stores (1992); Udoji United (1996); and Ocean Boys (2006).

Others with single titles are Plateau United (2017) and Akwa United (2021).

Champions by season

• 1972 – Mighty Jets
• 1973 – Bendel Insurance
• 1974 – Enugu Rangers
• 1975 – Enugu Rangers
• 1976 – Shooting Stars
• 1977 – Enugu Rangers
• 1978 – Raccah Rovers, Kano
• 1979 – Bendel Insurance
• 1980 – Shooting Stars
• 1981- Enugu Rangers
• 1982 – Enugu Rangers
• 1983 – Shooting Stars
• 1984 – Enugu Rangers
• 1985 – New Nigeria Bank
• 1986 – Leventis United, Ibadan
• 1987 – Iwuanyanwu Nationale (now Heartland)
• 1988 – Iwuanyanwu Nationale
• 1989 – Iwuanyanwu Nationale
• 1990- Iwuanyanwu Nationale
• 1991 – Julius Berger
• 1992 – Stationery Stores
• 1993 – Iwuanyanwu Nationale
• 1994 – BCC Lions
• 1995 – Shooting Stars
• 1996 – Udoji United
• 1997 -Dolphins
• 1998 – Shooting Stars
• 1999 – Lobi Stars
• 2000 – Julius Berger
• 2001 – Enyimba
• 2002 – Enyimba
• 2003 – Enyimba
• 2004 – Dolphins
• 2005 – Enyimba
• 2006 – Ocean Boys
• 2007 – Enyimba
• 2008 – Kano Pillars
• 2009 – Bayelsa United
• 2010 – Enyimba
• 2011 – Dolphin
• 2012 – Kano Pillars
• 2013 – Kano Pillars
• 2014 – Kano Pillars
• 2015 – Enyimba
• 2016 – Enugu Rangers
• 2017 – Plateau United
• 2018 – Cancelled
• 2019 – Enyimba
• 2020 – Cancelled Owing to COVID-19
• 2021- Akwa United
• 2022 – Rivers United
• 2023 – Enyimba
• 2024 – Enugu Rangers

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

They have been knocking since Season 2021-2022 when they finished third on the log.

In the following season, they were just a goal short of becoming the Nigerian champions.

Last season, they finished second again. But now, the door has finally opened, and on the club owner’s birthday!

Remo Stars have emerged as the Nigeria Premier Football League champions, even with three matches to spare! After a hard fought battle, they beat Niger Tornadoes 1-0 to attain an unassailable 10-point lead which confer the Nigerian championship to them.

The trailing team, Rivers United can only close the gap with nine points if they win all the remaining three matches and if Remo Stars fail to win theirs.

What a turnaround for a team that had twice been relegated in the past eight years. Perseverance, good planning and good structure have seen them taste the good wine.  

What a feat! They become the first Nigerian champion to have come from a small town, the previously sleepy urban village of Ikenne.

Tension all the way!

And so, records come tumbling down. Ikenne is not just known for the production of eminent politicians and jurists, it is staking a claim to be the new destination of not just football, but sports generally.

A large proportion of the events of the 22nd National Sports Festival will be held in the ‘little’ town, which has become the smallest town to produce a Nigerian champion.

Roll out the drums in the 33 towns and settlements that make up Remo. Let the voices sing all over Ogun State, which is producing its first Nigeria League winners since the state was created on February 3, 1976.

Let the celebration start all over the federation as a model club with proper structure has finally emerged as Nigeria’s champions!

History still beckons to them. With nine more points obtainable from their remaining three matches, Remo Stars can still exceed the 77-point mark established by the current worthy runners-up, Rivers United, who in the 2021-22 season set a record of 77 points in a season since the 20-team format was institutionalised 21 years ago.

Remo Stars still have more records to assail. Their 1-0 defeat of Niger Tornadoes is their 21st win this season. They need two more wins to equal the 23 established by Port Harcourt sides, Dolphins in 2009/2010 and Rivers United in the 2021/22 season. 

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

“Let the music play; Make the voices sing; Start the celebration; Drums may roll out” is part of the lyrics of the famous song, ‘Barcelona’, composed and sung by Freddie Mercury along with Montserrat Caballé. It was originally to be the theme song for Barcelona 92, but for the demise of Mercury months earlier.

The recording of the song was played over a travelogue of Barcelona at the start of the international broadcast of the opening ceremony of the 1992 Summer Olympics.

The lyrics fit appropriately for Kunle Soname, as he turns 59 this Sunday, a day his club, Remo Stars, may emerge Nigerian champion. If that happens, he becomes the first man to be so blessed, as no other club owner has won major laurels on their birthdays.

A win by his club, Remo Stars, not only confer the Nigerian championship to the club, Soname will become the first sole proprietor to win the Nigerian league since that of Oscar Udoji’s Udoji United in 1996.

Still blazing on records, Soname’s club will become the first in Ogun State to win the Nigerian lead league and the first South West champions of Nigeria since 1998 when Shooting Stars won the Nigerian League.

Quiet, self-effacing, Soname is an Ikenne-born businessman who works silently, but efficiently like a brand-new air conditioner.

His ValueJet had been the career of the national team since 2023.

He has made a success in virtually all endeavours, and is well known for his cheerful disposition, humility and generosity. 

On Friday, the Nigerian U17-Women’s team clinched a ticket to the World Cup, great thanks to this gentleman who not only quietly motivated the team financially, he hosted their home matches.

Yet he would not voice out the financial gestures, which only came out through secondary sources of the NFF.

Never since the days of Bashorun MKO Abiola has a man been known to run three football clubs.

Abiola had the famous Abiola Babes, Concord FC and also the ITT football club in Lagos.

Soname’s Remo Stars are getting beyond the blue skies. His Beyond Limits Football Academy has become a model that even CAF is quietly studying.

The club has become the launchpad into a professional football career for many Nigerian youngsters who are now flourishing in European and American leagues.

Soname’s third club, the Remo Stars Ladies, has qualified for the Super 6 of the NWFL. That they are still in the President Federation Cup points to the fact of a possible double title this season.

Soname is a game-changer whose support is not limited to football.

Since 2022, his Bet9ja outfit, which is easily the most popular in the gaming business, has been sponsoring the Southeast Bet9ja Foundation Badminton Championship, where close to 100 players have been featured. 

Miracle Ufuasia of Enugu State collects her trophy and medal from Obiageli Solaja, the Africa Women in Badminton Award Winner, 2019.

The championship brought up budding badminton players, some of whom later made marks even at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

In an era where private ownership of football clubs is becoming a high-risk venture, Soname raised the bar with his Remo Stars, which has become a model football club in Nigeria. 

Equipped with its own all-covered stadium, the club boasts of easily the best turf in Nigeria.

Those marvelling at the current Remo Stars Stadium will be swept off their feet as Soname is not done yet. A bigger arena is in the offing.

When he piloted Remo Stars to the international level, featuring in the 2022/23 CAF Confederation Cup, it was a landmark.

That was the first time in more than 30 years in Nigeria that a one-man-owned football club featured in a continental competition. 

His club structure features a football academy, which is the nursery ground for Nigeria’s football stars. The 1998 Africa Footballer of the Year, Victor Ikpeba, was full of awe when he made a tour of the facilities of the academy where players of Beyond Limits are housed at two per room.

“Oh, I wish these were available in my formative years, the sky would have been my limit”, Ikpeba remarked to Sports Village Square. 

The father of Super Eagles’ player Ola Aina, Femi Aina, was pleasantly surprised when he visited the Remo Stars facilities last year.

On getting inside, he exclaimed, saying he never imagined such a facility could exist in Nigeria, let alone his own small town of Ikenne.

This is comparable to what I am used to at the Chelsea academy in London, said Mr. Aina, who also remarked that he never knew there could still be another rich man, outside MKO Abiola in Nigeria, who has tremendous passion for football.

Olufemi Aina (c), father of Ola Aina, is thrilled at what Kunle Soname put up in Ikenne.

“I thought it was only the late MKO Abiola that has the capability of putting together a facility of this nature.

“This man, (Soname), earns my maximum respect.”, said Mr. Aina, who at that point had never met the Remo Stars proprietor.

“I am used to sports facilities, having been the one taking Ola to different academies when he was a teenager. “This place reminds me of Chelsea facilities.”

In the block were a gym, clinic, indoor swimming pool, hydrotherapy chamber, boardrooms and a clinic.

The next point of call was the restaurant being used by the pupils at the Beyond Limits Football Academy. The aroma and ambience were breathtaking. On the walls were messages of inspiration to the pupils and footballers.

The matron later informed Mr. Aina of the daily routine of the players and the level of discipline they are exposed to.

He met some of them at the common room where they were playing computer games. Mr. Aina introduced himself and told them of the tremendous privileges the players are enjoying and admonished them to make the best of the opportunity.

The residential buildings at Kunle Soname’s outfit have 56 rooms for junior and senior players, accommodating 112 footballers.

It has five semi-detached blocks of 10 units, two-bedroom coaches’ accommodation, a restaurant for players and officials, as well as an administrative block comprising offices, a conference room, a training classroom and reception. 

The block is equipped with a panoramic lift to the first floor, which is the table tennis centre.   A twin basketball court has been added as Soname’s facilities will be the epicentre of next month’s National Sports Festival. It will be the first time facilities owned by one man will play a prominent role in the 52-year-old sports fiesta.

Others are the sports centre block of the Remo Stars Stadium facility, comprising a gym, clinic, swimming pool, hydrotherapy chamber and a 30-room hotel with panoramic lift. 

Also at the model arena is a tournament pitch with a 10,000-capacity covered pavilion, three training pitches, 2,000 capacity car parks and a good internal road.

Soname is possibly the only Nigerian who runs four clubs. Three are in Nigeria – Remo Stars, Remo Stars Ladies and Beyond Limits.  He is also the owner of Portugal’s Clube Desportivo Feirense, which is commonly known as CD Feirense.

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