GERNOT Rohr has turned the Super Eagles into a shopping centre. Every new list introduces several rookies under the guise of being Nigeria-born kids. Not many of these kids get to play for the country beyond wearing the Super Eagles jerseys and granting irrelevant interviews of how they have either met their parents’ dream or theirs. The few of them who get to play cameo roles in the Eagles aren’t good enough for the next assignment(s) or disappear like ice cream left under the scorching sun with nobody having the guts to ask the coach what informed his choices. How Rohr gets away with the frequent changes is alarming. What does it say to anyone that Rohr still has a 40-man provisional list for the Africa Nations Cup despite placing third in the last edition and playing at the Russia 2018 World Cup?
It is apparent from Rohr’s list of players that there isn’t a system of vetting which means that there are no set rules for picking the players. In the past, we knew those who played for the Eagles from their weekly games for either Nigerian clubs or European clubs. No prize for guessing right that it is almost forbidden for Rohr and his employers to invite home-grown players into the Eagles. The flipside to this disturbing abnormality is the rationale behind having the league whose products are worthless. Is it not clear now why the domestic league hasn’t been able to attract corporate sponsorships?
What would the league organisers be telling the corporate entities as the ROI when talents discovered are left high and dry by those who should be marketing the league? No wonder the executive governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike has opted to use the Real Madrid FC of Spain model in Port-Harcourt to show the way other football-crazy countries organise the game to attract several sponsors – not government funding which is the tag on almost 85 percent of our local teams.
Governor Wike’s support for soccer is legendary such that Rivers United FC of Port Harcourt has players on its payroll who earn N1 million monthly. Wike also supports the state’s female soccer team, Rivers Angels. So, no one can accuse Wike of being Eurocentric, knowing him as a showstopper for excellence in the execution of projects which are dear to his hearts. Had Nigerian football administrators shown enough zeal to grow the domestic game, Wike would have provided the platform for them to excel. Without playing to the gallery or hypocritical, Wike abhors lazy people. He is a workaholic, who sees things for himself and doesn’t tolerate any form of mediocrity.
I don’t support Real Madrid but I cherish what Wike is doing in Port-Harcourt because it would serve as the benchmark for those who would want to emulate what he is doing. The facilities that I have seen are world standard which is the basis for such projects. Equally instructive is the fact that kids can go to school while still playing the game. This way, the kids’ future is guaranteed. With time this Port Harcourt model would be copied and no European coach would insult our sensitivities by inviting between 24 to 30 foreign-based players for games against soccer minors in the African continent. Yet nobody in our football administration has learned from Wike’s mission to change the narrative or see anything wrong with this blatant waste of resources.
Interestingly, NFF President, Amaju Pinnick told a team of players largely based in Nigeria shortly after a comprehensive 4-0 hammering by Mexico during a friendly in July this year that: “If you’re living in Nigeria, you’re going to a top club. Villarreal, Valencia, Lille, and all those proud footballing clubs and not to one mushroom club that you’re better off. I want to expose you, people, to the highest levels so when you’re going to a foreign club, and we won’t allow any agent to take you to countries like Cyprus, Belarus, etc., no, never we won’t allow it and I will make sure no transfer is issued on situations like that.”
The quest to help Super Eagles players get better clubs didn’t start from that faithful day in July but it has happened in the past. Speaking during an event in Lagos on March 3, 2018, Pinnick said: “People are now talking about Oghenekaro Etebo’s exploits in Las Palmas in La Liga. I called him and told him to leave his former club where he was not a regular. Today, he is playing against Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and so on. Those are the players he will play against at the World Cup.”
The new Super Eagles list has raised eyebrows in many quarters as ‘our dear’ Odion Ighalo returned to the team ahead of the in-form Taiwo Awoniyi. Rohr’s recent admittance that the Eagles are good enough for a semi-finals appearance at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations slated to hold in Cameroon, should tickle his employers to ask him to take a walk if he can’t aspire to win the trophy, given the abundance of talents in the country. The Eagles as it presently is, can’t be our best in Europe.
Perhaps, if we had the culture of organising send forth ceremonial games for our retiring players, showing such carnivals at this time could prick Ighalo’s conscience to do a rethink. It isn’t the first time we are dragging players out of retirement but the effects of such ridiculous decisions have left the Super Eagles with bloodied nostrils, and the country paid dearly for it by failing woefully. Need I mention those players and what their return to the game caused our national team?
The era where young boys in our leagues or schools such as Henry Nwosu, Tarila Okoronwanta, the late Stephen Keshi, the late Thompson Usiyen, the late goalkeeper Wilfred Agbonivbare et al played for the Eagles in spite of being members of our cadet teams are to be termed the good old days. With the dearth of rookies at the grassroots arising from the lack of vision on the part of our league organisers, it won’t be long for the Golden Eaglets squad to be populated with Nigeria-born players who can’t even recite our national anthem. You need to watch how many Super Eagles players are unable to recite the country’s anthem before games are played. Will you blame them? No.
The Azzurri of Italy was a delight to watch at the start of every match during Euro 2020. Not because of the high sense of fashion or gorgeous long hair of some of their players, their blue eyes, or the model personality of the manager Roberto Mancini. But the aggression at which they recite the national anthem – it’s with gusto and power. The Italian players line up before every match with their arms around each other and belt out the lyrics with passion and fire to sing the song. Opponents are already scared before the ball is kicked and it was no surprise that these Italian warriors won the European Championship.
The catchy lines of the song also make it stand out from the rest. Italy’s national anthem is originally titled “Il Canto degli Italiani.” It means “The Song of the Italians”. However, it is also popularly known by its first line — ‘Fratelli d’Italia’, which translates to “Brothers of Italy.”
Just before his national team debut in 2020, German-based defender, Kevin Akpoguma said during an Instagram chat with the Super Eagles official Twitter handle: “I will learn the national anthem. Firstly, I have to learn the new song I will sing for the players because every new player has to sing for the older players. But I will learn the national anthem for Friday.” Hopefully, he knows the lines now.
Alex Iwobi was another one that openly confessed that he didn’t know the national anthem just before the 2018 World Cup. He said: “I know it but I don’t know it well. When they are recording, the camera comes on you I know what to say. For the Nigerian viewers, I do know it.” It’s three years after, hopefully, he is comfortably belting out the Nigerian anthem better than singing ‘God bless the Queen.’
Let’s be serious here, singing the national anthem softly or aggressively doesn’t guarantee victories, but it shows that you understand the values of the colour you represent. Representing Nigeria means laying it all on the ground, even if it means leaving the stadium in a wheelchair. We want to see passion from our national team players. We want to see the type of tackle on opponents that would get fans cheering as loud as seeing a goal scored. Nigerians want players of the Super Eagles to be their warriors. To fight what is in front of them, not because it is his enemy but because he values what he protects behind him. So, if victory can come by singing fear into opponents – do it! Home games should be a fortress – not allow teams like the Central Africa Republic to steal a win without seeing blood mixed with sweat.
In all, we can’t dissociate the recitation of the Nigerian national anthem from the anomalies that are being fuelled by Rohr’s inclusion of players from outside the country and who have little or no knowledge of the anthem nor urge to want to learn and master it.