African and Caribbean soccer stars raise funds for charity

By Ayodele Odumade

A friendly football match between an African Select 11 and Caribbean Select 11 on will hold on Bank Holiday Monday May 27.  

The match, which will take place at Brentford Football Club, was announced at a recent press conference held in London.  

The Sodje Foundation and the Jason Roberts Foundations are the two charities behind this event. Some of the biggest names in the world of sport and show business will be among the players who will take part in this unique event, which would also be a fun day for families with other various events apart from football.  

The African Captain will be Efetobore Sodje while Jason Roberts will captain the Caribbean team.

Speaking at the press conference, Stephen Sodje said: “For the last two years, we have been speaking about what we can do to give something back to the community.  One of the things we decided to do was to collaborate. Our family was always doing events and Jason’s family was also doing events. We decided it would be nice to come together and one of the things we decided to do together was a football match. We also decided to do a mini festival, which would be something for families and something for the kids.”

Otis Roberts who is Jason’s cousin is also part of the event and he said, “In the build up to the game, you are going to see a lot of banter but I think you are going to see two charities raise a lot of money to do good work in the community.”   

Jason Roberts said, “I am very exited. The last year has been very distressing for us for various reasons."

Some of the proceeds of the event will go to the Damilola Taylor Trust, Daniel De-Gale African Caribbean Leukemia Trust and to Brentford Football Club’s chosen charity.