There is always a first time; as the Nigeria Premier Football League side Remo Stars FC has demonstrated by winning the 2024/25 league title, even with three matches to spare. But the success just achieved by the Ikenne-based outfit is far from happenstance.
Way back in 2004, the Founder and President, Mr. Kunle Soname, initiated what he called grassroot club to be used as a platform for recreation and development for the youths of Ketu area of Lagos State. In no time, the club gained traction with the ‘youth development’ aspect of it also attracting attention from far and near, having helped the youths in the area to deploy their energies for meaningful enterprises.
It was soon christened FC Dender of Lagos and by 2010, gained promotion to the Nigeria National League (NNL). Despite facing the odds of a rookie in a system, FC Dender survived to remain in the lower league. But Soname was already driving the management towards wholesale rebranding and repositioning of the club, necessitating a change of location, as well as name and altogether creating a new fan base.
By 2011, the club moved from Lagos to settle in the founder’s home town of Ikenne in Ogun State. Perhaps, the need for Soname to identify with his tribespeople then led the management to rename the club Remo Stars. The rebranding was complete.
Remo Stars FC would from then on move as a force to reckon with; first to be tutored by youth coach, Fatai Osho, whose brand of football is tailored towards giving players freedom to express themselves on the pitch. Although Osho soon after departed the club for greener pasture at some clubs before eventually landing the big pies at NPFL top sides Enyimba FC of Aba and Rivers United FC of Port Harcourt, he had helped Remo Stars lay the foundation that subsequent coaches would build on.
In the 2013 and 2014 FA Cup competitions, it would take the experienced Enyimba side to stop Remo Stars from going all the way on both occasions. After six seasons in the NNL, Remo Stars secured promotion to the elite NPFL for the 2016/17 season. Osho returned again to bring his experience in the few clubs he tinkered to bear on the NPFL rookie side. But it ended up in a fiasco as Osho could not save the club from getting relegated to the NNL. Interestingly, Osho achieved promotion for Remo Stars again through the 2017/2018 Super 8 Play-offs competition in Aba, only for him to depart once again, ceding way for Kennedy Boboye who eventually also got the club relegated again to the Nigeria National League after just one season in charge.
Notwithstanding the foregoing inconsistency, however, Remo Stars FC had begun to reap the fruits of the youth academy system it established in 2016, which had an equally youthful Daniel Ogunmodede in charge. Aside driving the academy to produce a plethora of players who currently ply their trade in Europe, Ogunmodede himself has since taken charge of the first team which he has now led to a premier league title for the first time both for himself and the club.
Week 36 of the current season resumes on May 7 with Remo Stars, sitting atop the league table with unassailable 68 points, playing away to El Kanemi FC in Maiduguri. But Ogunmodede is unrelenting in his quest to finish on high. “We celebrated the win against Tornadoes FC which gave us the title in Ikenne. But we also knew that there are three games left to play and I have told my players that they must not deviate from our ambition to end the season as true champions,” the gaffer, who is also head coach of the Super Eagles B team, said during the week.
Ogunmodede would however not delve into the club’s prospects on the continent yet as Nigeria’s next representative in the CAF Champions League. “I am sure that issue would be discussed and sorted in the next two to three months. For now, I think I just want to enjoy the moment,” he said.
Remo Stars FC management understands what evolution stands for and has pursued it with vigour. By 2022, the club, a wholly private enterprise, was estimated worth €1.5 million euros. No current figure is not available but with the club’s fan base having grown exponentially since 2022, in addition to having its own stadium, club house and other facilities befitting a professionally run football club, it is estimated to be around €8 million euros. It would be enough to set a standard for even the government-owned clubs in the NPFL to run their enterprises as strictly business-oriented.
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