I’m excited that we didn’t have a sports minister when the Golden Eaglets retained the FIFA U-17 trophy, beating Mali 2-0. The absence of a minister and indeed ministers in the Muhammadu Buhari administration has given us a clearer picture of what happened in Chile. Now we know those to credit the feats achieved in Chile.
No minister stormed the players’ dressing rooms to deliver political messages. No minister to whisper to the President that the NFF people were causing problems. No minister to promise the players voodoo match bonuses that could lead to crises.
No minister to start any wahala. I was thrilled watching our players celebrate their feats on FIFA’s ceremonial podium, devoid of politicians in flowing Agbada. The focus was on the players, the coaches and Nigerians at the stands waving Nigeria’s flag.
Nobody (state governors, senators, representatives, ministers et al) is raising the players’ hopes about what to expect from President Buhari. Pundits have kept sealed lips, unable to decipher what package the President would unfold on November 29. But there are hints of what Buhari could do, going by his promise to ensure that the pioneer Golden Eaglets who won the maiden edition of the U-16 championships in China in 1985 get their rewards which he directed the state administrators to implement. They never did.
In Nigeria, governance isn’t a continuum; otherwise, why has it taken 30 years for those heroes to get a reassurance that their labour in China in 1985 wasn’t in vain? Purists are excited that Buhari has promised to fulfill his pledge. So, if Buhari could offer such mouth-watering packages for the 1985 squad, one wonders what would happen to these new champions. The flipside is that the Nigerian economy, 30 years ago could accommodate such grandiose exercise. Things have gone bad. Anyone expecting anything fabulous is wasting his/her time. I will be glad if the players get scholarships. I will be excited if Buhari institutes a life insurance policy scheme for the players to secure their future. Who will take the late Kingsley Aikhonbare’s reward? How I wish he was alive to reap the rewards of his sweat. His family should keep track of this development. Aikhonbare was the kid defender who wore a white head band in our matches in 1985. I expect that all the promises made on November 29 will be kept to avoid a repeat of the China’85 experience.
I sat through the Eaglets’ seven games leading to the victory over Mali. And I was convinced that Emmanuel Amuneke learned a lot as a Barcelona FC player. I saw a Nigerian side play with different tactics per game. I was marvelled at Amuneke’s ability to read matches and make spot-on changes. I noticed most significantly that the Eaglets’ spine was built on the sharp reflexes of goalkeeper Udoh, the midfield mastery of Funso Bamgboye and the ruthless finishing in front of goal by Victor Osimhen. Little wonder Osimhen is the highest goalscorer in the history of the competition with 10 goals.
How can you forget about Kelechi Nwakali? many would have asked? Nwakali is a class act. Every cup winning team needs a talisman to come with something special when things are going awry. And Nwakali provided the difference. Or how else can you describe the spectacular free kick which he took to equalise the goal which the Mexicans had scored early in the first half? Nwakali’s curly kick wasn’t expected. But when the ball rested inside the Mexicans’ net, the Eaglets rose to the challenge and gave their opponents a lot to remember with a 4-2 victory to qualify for the final game.
Nwakali was the pivot of the Eaglets, a worthy captain, a fighter and one boy who reminded me of the late Mudashiru Lawal, with his sensible play and his ability to take responsibility when the chips are down in any game. I wasn’t surprised that FIFA’s technical committee adjudged Nwakali as the best player in the tournament. Nwakali sat deep in the Eaglets’ defence when we were under pressure. Yet, he had the presence of mind, skill and mental alertness to join the team’s attacking forays. What shocked me most was Nwakali’s strength. He ran throughout our matches such that he formed a synergy with Bamgboye to give the Eaglets the verve to rev their attacking forays.
Unfortunately for Bamgboye, he isn’t as clinical as Nwakali but he would have been the best player but his penchant for bagging cards. Bamgboye needs to work on his tackles and he must have learned not to be childish. He had no business trying to use his hand to punch the ball into the net against Brazil. That silly act cost Bamgboye the semi-final game as he was promptly sent off. How could I have forgotten Chukwueze? Chuwkueze’s great vision, power and knack for scoring goals with long range shots was vital whenever it seemed that the opposition held Osimhen from bombing them with goals. Osimhen was a marked man in Chile and, expectedly so, having scored in every game the team played. To score 10 goals from seven matches isn’t an easy feat.
I also saw Lazarus run the right flanks with ease. When he lost the ball, I marvelled at the way his colleagues covered up. It was seamless and showed that Amuneke knew is onions. It has been a long time since I saw a Nigerian shoot the ball with his left leg with such accuracy and power like Anumudu did against Brazil. He collected the ball from his mate, pushed forward, looked up and saw that he could drive the ball beyond the goalkeeper. I was amazed that Anumudu shot the ball so hard without a high back lift. The ball zoomed into the top corner of the net. It was sweet. A befitting way to send the Brazilians home empty handed.
Except for the game against Croatia, which the Eaglets lost, they played the best brand of football in the other six matches. The loss to Croatia was a wake-up call. The players thought all they needed to beat the Croatians was to show up on the pitch. That defeat prepared the boys properly for other matches. They never underrated anybody and stuck rigidly to Amuneke’s game plan.
I was particularly happy that Amuneke fielded Orji Okonkwo as Bamgboye’s substitute in the semi-final game, which showed that his team had depth-in-strength, with no player being indispensable. Okonkwo’s thunderbolt told the story of a crop of boys well grilled in all the rudiments of the game – scoring goals from well-taken kicks has been a rarity in our national teams. I hope the other national team coaches watched our matches in Chile. If they didn’t, it would pay the NFF to get them the match tapes. They could also talk with Amuneke for tips on how to prepare a World Cup winning squad of equally skillful players.
Thank you, Amuneke for discovering Osimhen, the gangling youth who bestrode the pitches in Chile and left behind great goals that many would cherish. It isn’t a surprise that he broke the competition’s goals record. Osimhen scored in every game.
Did you see Osimhen’s first goal against Mali in the final? Only the late Rashidi Yekini could shoot the ball with such power and accuracy. Unlike the late Yekini, Osimhen appears to be more skillful. I wish Osimhen can be humble and strive to be better than the late Yekini.
We are busy celebrating the Eaglets’ feat. Not many people are talking about goalkeeper Udoh’s exploits for the team. If you truly watched the early minutes blitz by the Mexicans, you will appreciate why Udoh deserves special mention in any discussion on the Eaglets. If Udoh was as ineffective as Chigozie Agbim, we won’t be talking about Nigeria’s fifth FIFA U-17 World Cup victory. I feel strongly that Udoh deserved to win the FIFA Golden Gloves, not the Malian Samuel Diarra.
Diarra is a very good goalkeeper. He made the final look like an equally matched game despite the fact that the Eaglets outclassed the Malians in the second half. In spite of that, Udoh stands tall in my reckoning of goalkeepers. I felt that FIFA chiefs didn’t want Nigeria to sweep the individual awards on that day. But is that a crime, if we truly deserve all the awards?
Having anaylsed the Eaglets’ conquest, need I talk about how far they can go in the beautiful game? Our players don’t know how to manage success. Soon, many of these players will elope to Europe and some funny countries in search of the proverbial green pasture. They will soon fall into the hands of shylock agents who will sell them into slavish contracts. Soon many will be answering different names to evade the prying eyes of soccer watchers.
Soon, these kids who left the country for Chile unsung will be driving the best of automobiles. They will be the toast of night clubs. They will be the “happening boys” seen with the best girls in town. These distractions will soon affect their form. If they are in clubs, they won’t return to training until sometime next year. This last two months is for show-off. They have to be seen. Their coaches now adore them. They allow them do what they like in camp. They train when they like. They select matches that they will play. The aggregate of these juvenile acts is the reason many of them don’t grow to their full potential.
One of the players’ fathers didn’t have a generator to watch the Eaglets’ games. But such a boy will return to his father’s house, buy the generator and, of course, get his own apartment where he will boogie till dawn -indiscriminately. He will buy a car or cars and the noise from the musical set inside the car(s) will be deafening.
Another reason for the dwindling form of our age-grade players is the plethora of FIFA agents in the country. These people bring into the country all manner of scouts to confuse these boys. Sadly, these gullible boys get swayed because they are either paid peanuts in their clubs or not paid at all.
NFF men need to standardise these academies and ensure that the FIFA agents work in tandem with the federation. The devious acts of agents, scouts and players’ indiscipline are chiefly responsible for the lack of graduation of our age-grade stars to the Super Eagles.
I’m happy that NFF chieftains have worked assiduously to field players within the age bracket. Majority of the Eaglets I saw in the seven games that Nigeria played looked like kids. I was impressed that they came from academies that we know. What is equally exciting is the fact that no Globacom Premier League player made the squad. If we address the excesses of the agents and scouts, we would have more of these Eaglets rise to be Super Eagles stars and world beaters.
