From some examples, I have developed fears on the right
handling of our young football talents by European clubs.
It first happened to Philip Osondu, voted the best player in
1987 edition of FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Canada. His talent never saw the
light of day after being hoodwinked by deceitful foreign agents to sign himself
into what came to be known as slavery. He never played any meaningful game
after that, and Nigeria lost his services. FIFA was helpless because of the
signing the boy ignorantly did. And so ended a beautiful, promising career. That
was a bright light wickedly snuffed out in its glow!
Then is the case of John Mikel Obi. Though still playing,
Mikel is nowhere near his contemporaries like
Lionel Messi against whom he
played the final match in the 2005 FIFA Under-20 World Cup where Samson Sia-Sia
guided the team to pick the silver. Mikel, at only 18, was hot cake after that
competition, and a subject of controversy between Manchester United and
Chelsea, with Mikel preferring Chelsea to Man. U. Man. U has, meanwhile, been
accused of forging Mikel’s signature in a bid to land him at Old Trafford. At
the end of the day, Chelsea won and Mikel joined them. But can one sincerely
say Mikel has been successful at Chelsea, where his natural role of an
attacking midfielder was changed by Mourinho to one of a ‘holding’ midfielder
(whatever that means), thus limiting him in the attacking role? To this
writer’s mind, Mikel has rather gone downhill than he had risen. He would have
developed and reached his full potential better under a liberal and fatherly
mind like Sir Alex Ferguson who desperately needed his services at Man. U. than
under a complacent and strikers-full Mourinho whom he hardly impressed, except
in the new suppressive role of a ‘holding’ God-knows-what. Imagine that Mikel
has, in 8 years of play for a club, managed only a goal. Not even taking a penalty
is he reckoned with to be able to take. Just compare him to Messi with whom he
was in contention for the best player in 2005, and you would understand what we
are saying. Or even think of Cesc Fabregas who won both the best player and the
highest goal scorer awards in the 2003 FIFA Under-17 competition. Fabregas,
presently with Barcelona, is still being chased about by top European clubs. This
is what made Sia-Sia lament over Mikel saying that Chelsea has spoilt his boy.
Recently, a former Nigerian international, Etim Esin, said Mikel does not
deserve Nigeria’s No 10 jersey that he dons. I completely agree, because we
know what magic most No. 10 pack in their boots in the field of play, a magic
which Mikel lacks. And now after running him down and almost ruining his career
with the imposition of an unfamiliar role, Chelsea is now ready to offload him
at a paltry 6 million pounds to whoever cares, when Lukaku, his contemporary at
Chelsea, loaned out to Everton, for the ‘sin’ of missing a crucial penalty
against Bayern Munich, is going to Everton for that club’s record signing at
23.7 million. The NFF must think about this development and evolve a strategy
to preserve and play our young talents for many more years than they do
presently.
What of Macauley Chrisantus, the highest goal scorer at the
2007 edition of FIFA Under-17 won by Nigeria, a competition that also featured
players like Toni Kroos who recently won the 2014 World Cup with Germany. Kroos
has grown from obscurity in 2007 to prominence in 2014, while Chrisantus has
gone the opposite way.
Those of our boys who continued their career successfully did
so under grit teeth. Nduka Ugbade who captained Nigeria’s Under-17 team in 1985
to win the maiden edition of that competition in West Germany literally
struggled through his brief international career with injuries and alleged
indiscipline. If I remember well, Ugbade played his last international match
for Nigeria in the World Cup qualifier between Nigeria and Algeria in 1994, but
coach Westerhof refused to pick him for the World Cup proper that year in USA,
denying Ugbade the opportunity to make history as the first footballer ever to
feature at all three categories of FIFA-graded competitions – Under-17 in 1985,
Under-20 in 1987, and senior category which Nigeria first qualified for in
1994. But it was not Ugbade alone who was denied. Nigeria was equally denied of
being the first country to have ever produced such a talent. But while the
grudge game lasted between our coach and his player our football house did
nothing. We lost that honour due to our indifference. Other countries have
since overtaken us in that record. We would have lost the 1994 African Cup of
Nations which we won against Zambia in the final match. It was evident to
Zambia that Keshi’s position in the defence was a weak link in the team, so
they cashed in on it. Their forays into our eighteen were usually through that
wing. Westerhof was reluctant to change his ageing Captain whose hitherto
superb reflexes were a shadow of the past and the Zambians mounted more
pressure. At a point, Group Captain
Emeka Omeruah who was Chairman of the then Nigerian Football Association (NFA),
in a characteristic military style told Westerhof, “Change Keshi or lose your
job”. He did and we won, because the football house intervened. We learnt
Westerhof also wanted to drop Jay Jay Okocha from the team to USA ’94 but for
the intervention of the team Captain Stephen Keshi, who reportedly told him
that Nigerians will kill him (Westerhof) if he dropped Okocha. So he grudgingly
took Okocha to US and benched him for most of the matches, introducing him only
when it was evident that we were losing against a Rossi-inspired Italy team in
the second round of the competition. NFF needs to monitor what is happening to
our players and intervene when necessary to save the boys’ careers and preserve
resources for the nation’s use. If we had intervened in Ugbade’s career,
perhaps he would have served this country more than the nine years he did. Well
managed players can serve their countries for at least 15 to 20 years. Most of
our players rarely last that long.
My fears for Kelechi Ihenacho are real. At just 17 he has
signed for a big club like Manchester City, and is banging in the goals even in
the presence of such established boots as Yaya Toure. But from Pellegrini’s
statement, the boy being just 17 is not qualified to play in the EPL. So what
happens? Bench him and waste the talent? If there are regulations that occasion
such delay, NFF should ensure the boy’s talent is maximized elsewhere. And we
pray the boy and his agent listen to superior wisdom. I say this because, at
times too, the players do not want to listen to advice intended for their good,
and their agents even complicate matters for them. I believe Keshi would have
taken Kelechi to Brazil had not the father insisted the boy travel to
Manchester from where the old man was expecting a windfall. But I think such
selfishness denied the boy the opportunity to be another Pele, who at 17 in
1958, led Brazil to their first senior World Cup glory. Kelechi would have
dazzled the world in Brazil, were he there, and Nigeria would have been the
better for it. I believe we would have gone beyond a quarter final berth. I am
already dreaming of Kelechi being not only Africa’s best player but the world’s
in no distant time. But he has to be properly managed, and not left to the
whims and caprices of those who may want to deny Nigeria that opportunity. NFF
should please monitor our boys wherever they are and guide them to make the
most of their careers. We should be in touch with them through calls and visit.
We should be a support in their trying times in their clubs. It has been
alleged in the past that because of our football house insensitivity to players’
plight, some players have failed to honour calls to national duty. It
contributed to Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2006 Mundial in Germany,
when Jay Jay Okocha feigned sickness and failed to turn up for a crucial
qualifier against Angola. On hearing of Okocha’s absence, the Angolan coach
gladly concluded that they have won. And they did. It all boiled down to how
the NFF managed the rift between Okocha and the coaches. So the first task
before NFF is to manage our players well. This should cover players of both our
domestic and foreign leagues.
The second task before NFF is the updating of our coaches.
Football is a dynamic game with new methods and tricks being invented by the
day. Keshi should be sent for a refresher course. He needs to add more
knowledge to what he already knows. I observed at the last World Cup that Spain
still played their old game plan of 2010 that won them the cup. But they forgot
that the Netherlands team they beat in South Africa to lift the trophy has long
changed their pattern of play. It appears we play the Spain type of game –
playing into the eighteen, or even beating all defenders before attempting a
shot. That may have worked in the past, but now most teams have learnt to
counter such game plan. It therefore becomes necessary for coaches to be able
to read games as they progress and make necessary adjustments even if such
adjustments altered their initial plans. This is what Keshi lacks. He finds it
hard to evolve a game plan that can effectively check an opposing team. Worse
still, he berates those players who think differently. But I think the players
understands the game just as much and may produce their own creativity on the
field of play in addition to what their coaches tell them. It may or may not
yield result any more than the coaches tactics may be considered foolproof. I
wonder what Keshi would have done coaching players like Kanu Nwankwo who enters
the field with a bag of tricks to unfold when the going gets tough. Was that
not how he led us to beating a Bebeto-inspired Brazil in the semi final match
of 1996 Olympics in Atlanta? Arsene Wenger also found Kanu’s creativity his
saving grace in the 1999/2000 EPL game away to Chelsea when, at two goals down,
Arsenal turned the tables against their host, with Kanu striking thrice to make
it 3-2 in favour of Arsenal. Keshi has little patience with creative players. I
guess that is why he dropped Ike Uche from the World cup squad, and almost
would have done same to Odemwingie, who incidentally gave him one of the goals
he needed to advance in the competition. So I think Keshi needs a good
refresher course to update his knowledge of the game. The NFF should do this
for him and other handlers of our national teams. This will go a long way to
promoting our game and ranking.
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