Very few Nigerian coaches are as detailed and polite as Usman Abd’Allah, the current coach of Enyimba International Football Club of Aba, and this goes without saying that there is no substitute for education, reports MORAKINYO ABODUNRIN.
Usman Abd’Allah, former Nigerian international, would be the first to admit that his upbringing in Kano, living in different countries as a professional footballer, as well as his training as a chemical engineer are partly responsible for his polished outlook.
Abd’Allah is indeed a football man through -and -through but his love for his family is infectious, much as he described his household as a fortress.
“I was born and bred in Kano and I finished all my education in the northern part of Nigeria and I attended Tarauni Primary School and Government Secondary School Kazaure – all in Kano,” began the 44-year-old amiable Abd’Allah in an interview with The Nation on the margins of the Eid-el-Kabir (Sallah) celebration with his kith and kin. “I later read chemical engineering at Kaduna Polytechnic and graduated in 1989.
“I left Nigeria in 1991 but before then, I actually played in the Kano State Academicals and festival teams in the 80s as well as the national Under-20 and Under-23 teams along with my senior brother – Hassan Abd’Allah – who is currently among the coaching crew of the present national Under-20 team.
“Before I travelled outside the country for my professional football career, I played for Sanka Vipers of Kano; UNTL of Kaduna; Rocks of Kaduna and at one point played along with the likes of Nduka Ugbade, Imama Amapakabo and several others in the national Under-20 team.
“Most of the current players don’t know some of us because they were born in the 1990s when some of us were no longer playing on the local scene.
“I played in the same era with the late coach Stephen Keshi, Peter Niketen , Friday Ekpo, the late Uche Okafor and so many others; but not people, especially some of these young lads, who are more or less like our children at home.
“Some of the clubs we played for are no longer in existence. Clubs like Abiola Babes, Flash Flamingoes, Leventis United and so forth are no longer in existence. But the good thing is that we the present generation of Nigerian coaches know ourselves very well.”
Truly, Abd’Allah had an exciting playing career with stints at clubs in Africa, Europe and Asia. The other clubs he turned out for included Stationery Stores of Lagos; Mogas 90 of Benin Republic; Al Arabic of Saudi Arabia and Bayern Leverkusen.
He moved to Singapore where he played for three S-League sides – Jurong FC, Khalsa Fc, and Gombak United FC, while his odyssey in Asia also involved periods with top side Sheikh Russle in Bangladesh and Kalantan FC in Malaysia.
At the twilight of his playing career, he returned to France and starred for FC Bolen and FC Sete before retirement to coaching in the French lower division respectively with EPS FC, FC Sete, FC Frontignan and Bollene FC.
Meanwhile, former German international and manager, Jurgen Klinsmann, once stressed the importance of education in order for a coach to attain a level of credibility in his career, stating that a coach is as good as the number of badges he obtained: “I think it’s the highest priority for every coach to get his licenses upgraded one step at a time because it is the highest sign of credibility.
“You don’t want your kid (players) being coached by a coach that doesn’t have the highest credibility and doesn’t have the knowledge because he never went to those licensing courses and got his degree. If you do not have your coaching license, you do not have credibility.”
On the strength of Klinsmann’s hypothesis, Abd’Allah has scored creditably well with an impressive résumé and he’s undoubtedly amongst the new generation of Nigerians gradually working their way along the coaching ladder.
“I have dual citizenship with Nigeria and France,” he explained. “I stopped active soccer playing career in 2006 while I was with a second division club in France before going into coaching.
“I’ve attended several coaching courses and I started attending some of these courses as far back as 1999 and that is why I have so many certificates in both coaching and management.
“I did my UEFA B Licence Certificate in France and also did the UEFA A Licence in England in 2010 and I have done courses in CAF; so I’m rooted in coaching.
“Before coming back to Nigeria, I have been coaching in Asia and France. I obtained degrees in football coaching and team management at Le CREPS de Montpellier in France where I got the equivalent of the UEFA C, B and A certificates.
“After that, I got another UEFA A in England. I also have Strength and Conditioning Level 1 Coaching Certificate in Australia. I also have the National Coaching Accreditation Programme (NCAP) Level 1 from Singapore as well as the LaLiga Coaching Certificate and a few more.”
However, despite his varied coaching education cutting across different countries, Abd’Allah said he is not encumbered by any peculiar philosophy, adding that the beauty of football is the accompanying enjoyment.
“I don’t narrow my model or philosophy to a particular style but first and foremost, football must be enjoyed and I want my team to play in a way the game should be played,” he offered with scholarly elucidation. “Football is dynamic and the style you adopt is based on the type of players you have and the opponent you are facing.
“In Nigeria, we are always worried about what a player can do with the ball but football is more than that; what about what the player does without the ball or how does he contribute to the overall success of the team?
“These are some of the things I look out for, so I will confidently say my philosophy is playing football how it should be played.”
Up till today, the good work Abd’Allah did at his first port of call with Kano Pillars after his sojourn is still well-acknowledged.
“There is no doubt that Abd’Allah is a very good coach and I can say clearly that he has deep knowledge of the game,” Kabiru Baleria, former Nigerian international and current Team Manager of Kano Pillars, told The Nation. “He did so well with our junior team and most of the youngsters can’t forget the wonderful experience they had when he was with us.”
Abd’Allah volunteers more on his coaching career: “All my life, football has been the profession. I took to coaching after my professional football career.
“Before returning to Nigeria, I have been coaching in France because I have a dual nationality. I worked with Kano Pillars last year as an assistant coach and we succeeded to manage the team along with the youth side.
“I want to believe the management of Enyimba was impressed with the good job I did at Kano Pillars and that was why they lured me away from Kano to Aba.
“I must say that Enyimba has been a work in progress because I actually started with the team at the beginning of the season whereby we prepared the team together (with Aigbogun) for both the domestic league and the continental cup competition.
“So, there is no vacuum since the departure of Coach Aigbogun, rather it has been a continuous process. We started the season together and it is not as if I came to take over after he left. In fact, the management of Enyimba secured my service because they knew all along that Coach Aigbogun would be away for most part of the season on national duty assignment. I’m not really under any pressure because before now, I have been managing the team when he was away with the Flying Eagles. All along I have been behind the scene.”
But Abd’Allah is not in any way lagging behind in his responsibilities as a married man since he has the puritanical approach to his family as revealed in a recent photo shoot where his well-oiled lovey-dovey was there for all to see.
“I’m married to a French woman and I have four daughters including a six-year-old twin daughter,” Abd’Allah revealed with an excitement of a player that scored a World Cup-winning goal. “My family is my fortress.”
Of course, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, consequently the Abd’Allahs conveyed the image of a family full of love and what the French call les bonheur – happiness.
For instance, Abd’Allah and his wife were seen cuddling their twin daughter and one affectionately planted a kiss on her dad’s cheek to underline the fact that ‘there’s no greater bond or love between a father and daughter.’
Yet in another enduring image, Abd’Allah too was ruffling the hairs of one of the twins while the other baby girl directed towards him the popular two-pointed fingers salute which denotes some sort of approval.
In another fleeting moment, both wife and husband sat together with their adorable twins brandishing warm smiles.
“I’m a happy family man,” assured Abd’Allah who guided Enyimba to the quarter finals of the on-going Total CAF Confederation Cup on Wednesday.” My family is based in France, and we are doing well by the grace of God.
“This victory (against CARA Brazzaville) is a blessing and it was good we dedicated the new stadium with a win. We are happy because we also made the fans that trooped out in large numbers to support us happy, but we have not won anything yet and we have to focus our attention now to the next stage,” the amiable Abd’Allah noted.