The Future Awards Africa Prize For Sports
Al-farouq Aminu (29)
Al-Farouq Aminu is a professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays internationally with the Nigeria national basketball team, the Tigers. Aminu was picked by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2010 non draft with the eighth overall pick. He has also played for the New Orleans Pelicans, Dallan Maverick and Portland Trail Blazers. In 2018, he scored a season-high 24 points in a 124–120 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls.
Georgia Oboh (18)
Georgina Oboh burst into limelight after she won the US Kids World Championship at the age of 15. The teenage prodigy who is known as one of the highly rated female golfers out of the continent won the Cote d’Ivoire Open title in 2018, her first professional trophy. Georgia has won a lot of youth tournaments, including the US Kids Teen championship which made her the first Nigerian to ever win the competition. In 2018, she contested in the Youth Olympics in Bueno Aires, Argentina and was also Nigerians flag bearer. At the age of 17, Georgia became a professional Golfer and won her first competition as a ‘pro’ in the Cote d’Ivoire open in 2019. She holds the record for being the first and youngest African female to be invited to the Ladies Professional Golfers Association of America.
Eseoghene Oguma (21)
Ese Oguma is a Professional Athlete. He is also the sprint double champion (100m/200m) of the maiden Lagos school Games (Ibile), he then won a bronze medal at the National Junior Championships (200m).
This year, Ese started a tour of various secondary schools in Lagos and Ogun promoting the culture of Athletics by educating the teachers and pupils on the benefits of participating in athletics.
He also attended inter-house sports to take children on basic warm-ups before a race as well as speak to parents as to why they should let their children do Athletics.
Not leaving out the Athletic Heat weekly Awards, that has given out over 20 Athletic Heat weekly awards to the best performing Nigerian athletes and these awards comes with monetary incentives to boost the morale of athletes to perform better the following week.
Plans are underway for the 2019 Athletic Heat Track and Field Awards, an event him and his co-founders started at 18 which has inspired many athletes to go on to become World-class athletes.
Samuel Chukwueze (23)
Samuel Chukwueze leads a new generation of young Nigerian professional footballers with world-class football skills. He plays for Villarreal CF where he forced his way into the starting line up with his dazzling dribbling skills, one of the very few Nigerian talents that terrorize even the best team defense in the world. Chukwueze scored his first senior goal on 20 May 2018, netting his team’s second in a 3–1 away defeat of Bilbao Athletic. He contributed with two goals in 11 appearances during his first season, as his side missed out of promotion in the play-offs. Chukwueze made his first-team debut on 20 September 2018, replacing Nicola Sansone in a 2–2 home draw against Rangers, for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League. He also made his league debut on 5 November 2018, playing a 90-minute full play in a 1–1 home draw against Levante, for the 2018–19 La Liga. In April 2019 he won the Nigeria Football Federation’s 2018 Young Player of the Year award. He has been recognized as one of the most promising talents of his generation.
Israel Adesanya (30)
Israel Adesanya is a Nigerian-New Zealander professional mixed martial artist, kickboxer, and boxer. As a mixed martial artist, he is currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the UFC Middleweight Champion. In kickboxing, he is the former Glory middleweight contender winner and King in the Ring, two-time cruiserweight and heavyweight champion, which is the most titles in King in the Ring history. As of October 7, 2019, he is #8 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings.