From Springsoca Academy to Stardom: The Story of Super Falcons Star, Folashade Ijamilusi
From Springsoca Academy to Stardom: The Story of Super Falcons Star, Folashade Ijamilusi
A solid foundation remains key to a lasting and enduring experience. Above is the expression that best captured the story of the Nigeria Super Falcons star, Folashade Ijamilusi, whose discovery and nurturing was engineered and championed by Springsoca United Academy in Lagos.
Folashade, one of the heroines of the Nigeria Super Falcons 's achievement of winning the 10th WAFCON in Morroco recently began her football journey at Springsoca United Academy.
Her notable impact of scoring two important goals and assisting the team in achieving their age long dream of Mission X has etched Folashade's name in the history book.
Despite being one of the players who made the cut for their first WAFCON tournament in Morocco, she was heavily involved from the quarter-finals for the Super Falcons team after sitting out the group stage games.
While she scored the last goal during the 5-0 thumping of Zambia in the quarter-finals, she netted the equaliser that roared the Nigerian team back in to the hope of winning the trophy in the final.
It would be recalled that the 24-year-old star first got a Falcons invite in 2019 during the Olympic Games qualifiers before returning in October 2024 during the two-legged friendly in Lagos and Ikenne.
It's however important to note that, Springsoca United Academy, one of the Nigeria's foremost football Academies with focus on developing male and female footballers played a pivotal role in Folashade's rise from a young footballer to a super star.
The Academy boasts of many other successful footballers among which are Salim Fago who plies his trade with NK Instra in Croatia and Ahmed Mubarak who currently plays for ACDC FC in Thailand.
From discovering the then little and talented Folashade at Jakande in Lagos, to developing and guiding her through the stormy waters of grassroots football, and ensuring her breakout from an amateur to a professional footballer, it's not only worthy to mention Springsoca in her success story but to also commend the Academy for its efforts in producing yet another super star for Nigerian football.
Springsoca didn't only bequeth Folashade the right training and skills, but the Academy also gave her platform where she found her purpose and strength to grow through Its technical and tactical programme for over 10 years.
From Springsoca United Academy, Folashade Ijamilusi had the opportunity to play for Nigeria's youth teams at U17 and U20 level, between 2016 and 2019, featuring at the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup and the 2019 All Africa Games Women's tournament which Nigeria won.
While she would later move to FC Robo Queens to earn league experience and aid her call up to the Super Falcons team, Folashade proved her mettle by emerging the highest goalscorer of the Nigeria Women Football league in 2024 where she netted nine goals in the season proper.
Her exploits in the NWFL, including a brief stint with Edo Queens eventually attracted interest from top women clubs around the world and she would later end up at the joining Liaoning Baiye in Chinese Women’s Premier league where she's now making waves.
While Folashade's trajectory continues to resonate with the popular cliché of grass to grace, her foundation with Springsoca United Academy has become a reference point of how a girl child could achieve her dream with right mentorship and training which Springsoca provided her when it's needed most
