Adedoyin Ogungbefun: Remo Stars CEO explains Beyond Limits Academy creation

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

The verve to enhance youth development through football has given birth to Beyond Limits Academy, according to Remo Stars Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Adedoyin Ogungbefun.

Formerly Remo Stars U-19, the team academy was rechristened ‘Beyond Limits Academy’, serving as a conveyor belt to the main team and Ogungbefun opened up on the intentions behind the creation of Beyond Limits.

“It’s just creating uniqueness with Beyond Limits Academy. At Remo Stars FC, we believe in youth development. When you bring in young footballers into the academy, in two or three more years, they will get to the first team. It’s all about prospect and investment,” Ogungbefun told www.nigeriafootball.ng.

After winning the maiden TCC League (The Creative Championship League) as Remo Stars U-19, Beyond Limits emerged as Champions of the private league for the second season in 2022.

Ogungbefun revealed that the launch of Beyond Limits was inspired by the urge to catch them young and give young players the platform to move up to the main team and move on to play for other bigger teams.

 “Rather than me looking for a mature player to sign with horrible money, I can give somebody hope, create hope for someone. In return, he gets to play. With the time he gets to play at Remo Stars after some years, they will be able to move ahead to a bigger and another platform,” Ogungbefun explained.

“We do not just develop them, we also give them the platform. That’s why you see the synergy between Beyond Limits and Remo Stars FC. Being the senior team, once you  prove yourself, from Beyond Limits Academy you can come into the main team.”

The philosophy of the club has been to produce players from the academy, serving as the conveyor belt to Remo Stars’ main team.

“The likes of Qudus Akanni who moved from Beyond Limits to the senior team. The left fullback (Lekan) is in Portugal now. We have like five of them in Portugal. Three of them are in the main team now,” he continued.

“It’s just creating your brand and that’s who we are. It’s not about sending a message to other teams. If other teams want to come and pick from our academy, we are open to that. This is who we are.

“You need to have a philosophy. This is our philosophy. We believe in the youthful side of football. Check out our games last season, you will see that it’s a youthful team. The result wasn’t so surprising. We know that this year again with the new injection here and there, I am sure that the team will perform better than we did last year.”

Three players from Beyond Limits Academy were recently handed their first professional contracts with promotion to the first team of Remo Stars, which are Akinyele Ahmed, Oluwaseun Odunsi, and Olisa Emmanuel.