Papilo Academy was founded in 2000. It was established to groom young players and train them to become full grown pro footballers. Just like the intention of the owner who is a product of an academy, that was what inspired him to establish the academy so that raw talents can be discovered from our localities.
It is interesting to note that since inception, the academy has developed a lot of players that have turned out to be national team players. Among them are Kelechi Iheanacho, Chidiebere Nwakali and a good number of them. Also, most of the academy players were injected and used to form the main Papilo Football Club team. The team in the space of three (3) years got promoted to Nigeria National League (NNL) division.
Right now, Papilo Football Club has established a relationship with Leeds United Football Club, United Kingdom. Last year (2018), about four (4) players from Papilo Academy were invited to Leeds United Football Club for training and the development is to be sustained for 2019. The team will be playing in the Nationwide League One. We also secured another partnership with Vandrezzer Oil Services.
In conclusion, the team has really lived up to expectations and we intend to develop further, possibly to push the team to premier league in the shortest time.
In terms of finance, the proprietor (Kanu Nwankwo) has invested over 100 million naira since formation and we hope to complement his efforts by pushing the team further so that his aim of starting both the academy and the football club will be realized.
Major Achievements:
Papilo Football Club won the State FA Cup in 2016
Papilo Football Club got promoted to the National League from Nationwide One in 2016
Two (2) times finalist in the state FA Cup.