Ray Ekpu
Our man Ademola Olajade Alade Ayoola Lookman simply known as Ademola Lookman has won the African Footballer of the Year Award for Nigeria. He becomes the 7th Nigerian to be so decorated. Last year it was won by another Nigerian, a prolific goal scorer, Victor Osimhen who is a restless runner, full of energy and vitality.
Lookman is a lucky find who was born to Nigerian parents in Wandsworth, England on October 20, 1997. He played for England’s under 19, under 20 and under 21. Nigeria made three attempts to make him switch allegiance to Nigeria but the young man was unbending. Our coach, Gernot Rohr, approached him in 2017 and he turned down the offer and twice in 2018 he refused to give his nod to Nigeria’s desire to have him lace his boots for the country of his parent’s birth. But on March 25, 2022 the unexpected happened. He put on Nigeria’s jersey in his debut match for Nigeria. It was a Ghana versus Nigeria match as part of the third round of the African section of the qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup which Nigeria missed.
Lookman has made a roaring success in his footballing career, playing for such big clubs as Everton, R.B Leipzig, Fulham, Leicester City and of course Atalanta, the Italian Serie A club that he joined on August 4, 2022 for a four-year contract. Interestingly, he scored on his debut for the club, scored braces in three consecutive matches. On May 22, he scored his first career hat trick in the Europa League Final at the Dublin Arena as Atalanta defeated Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 to win the trophy for the first time in the club’s history. Both the club and Lookman made history.
Since joining the club in 2022 Lookman has made 75 appearances and scored 32 goals. He was named Atalanta Player of the Year 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. This year he was named in the CAF team of the year 2024. As a member of the Nigeria Africa Cup of Nations runners-up team, he was honoured along with the other players by the Nigerian government with the national honour of Member of the Order of the Niger.
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In the short period that he has featured for the Super Eagles, Lookman has made 27 appearances and scored eight goals. It is obvious that Lookman has an exciting club and international career ahead of him once he has no serious injuries.
However, despite the excellent individual performance of people like Lookman, Nigeria’s football is a source of worry to football aficionados. By the latest ranking, Nigeria is at number 44 in the world and 5th in Africa. There was a time that Nigeria was at a single digit. That is evidence that we have declined disastrously today. That is because we have not invested sufficiently in advancing the development of our football. We owe salaries to our coaches. We owe allowances to players for years and months and only have to appeal to their sense of patriotism when they threaten not to report to camp for preparations for upcoming matches. For this reason of indebtedness, our football managers lack the guts to discipline players who report late to camp. When Sunday Oliseh left, he was being owed salaries. When Rohr left he was being owed salaries.
When will this tardiness in football management come to an end so that we can administer this money-spinning business the way other countries do?
Nigerians would like to see the new management of Nigeria football do things differently and efficiently. They would like to see them bring big business into football. Today, we have only one football stadium Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo that is recognized by FIFA and CAF for football matches. Other stadia including the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja and National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos are whited sepulchres. And these are stadia that were expensively built and maintained over the years and Nigerians derived joy from trooping to those iconic stadia for matches. Today, they have been virtually abandoned. If the Godswill Akpabio Stadium is allowed to degenerate, we will be compelled to play our home matches in other country’s stadia. That will be a big shame for this big country.
I keep wondering why some Nigerians keep pushing for the use of Nigerian coaches for either the Super Eagles or the Super Falcons. That is not my definition of patriotism. Nigerian footballers in the Super Eagles and Super Falcons play in foreign clubs that pay them heavily in dollars. Their salaries are higher, much higher, than what the Nigerian Football Association pays its local coaches. That is why some of the local coaches beg the players for a gift of dollars. That too complicates player selection and brings corruption into the management of the Super Eagles and Super Falcons. That is one reason that I cannot vote for the use of local coaches for the two teams.
The second reason for my preference for foreign coaches for the two teams is that our local coaches do not go for refresher courses and therefore have no idea about modern tactics and strategies in the game today. They are probably suitable for the age grade teams where the young players depend largely on their raw skills and energy for success on the pitch. They are also pliable and obedient because they are hungry for success at the early stages of their career. They have not yet earned dollars that can make their heads swollen.
My other reason for preferring foreign coaches for the two senior teams is that foreign coaches receive an appropriate level of respect from our football managers. Our football managers do not give sufficient respect to local coaches. Stephen Keshi, who won the 2013 African Cup of Nations for Nigeria, was very badly treated during the tournament by the NFA. They actually did not support the team. They never thought that the team would win the tournament. And when the team won, they were unpleasantly surprised. And because of the shabby manner in which he was treated, Keshi announced his resignation as the team’s coach right there in South Africa, a very anomalous situation for a winner. That was the height of his frustration. Several other local coaches have been similarly frustrated in the past by NFA officials who seek to decide for the coaches which players they should use for matches. Sometimes, we learn that federal character comes into play. And that complicates the job of the coach. And Nigerian football is the worse for it.
The new NFF chairman must think outside the box, if he wants to succeed. The routinisation of football management in Nigeria has been a major problem. The failure to raise big money for the game is another. If there is no big investment in the game there can be no big achievement. Football is big business today. And the NFF must follow the money and bring it into the game. And when the money is brought, it must be spent in a transparent fashion so as to generate trust in other would-be investors. The game must not be seen as a chop and quench affair but as one that can bring fame and fortune to a big nation like Nigeria. If we are looking up to Lookman and co to bring honour to Nigeria, we must also spread the red carpet for them to walk on. That is reciprocity. Reciprocity can lead to success.