Today in South Africa, the search for a new Super Eagles squad begins with Nigeria’s first game against Mali in the home-based version of the Africa Cup of Nations, otherwise known as CHAN. Less emphasis should be paid on lifting the trophy, like their senior counterparts did on February 10 in Johannesburg, when Nigeria beat Burkina Faso 1-0, courtesy Sunday Mba’s strike.
On that night in February, Nigeria re-wrote her football history, lifting the trophy for the third time, the last it happened was 19 years ago in Tunisia, when Emmanuel Amunike scored the vital goals that earned the Eagles the trophy with a nail-biting 2-1 victory.
Both victories came with costs, like the first time we achieved the feat in 1980. We couldn’t defend the trophy, largely because the victories were pyrrhic; not laid on any solid foundation that could guarantee the emergence of new lads to replace ageing and retired stars. It is for this reason that one is tempted to celebrate the Confederation of Africa football (CAF) for introducing the home-based version of the Africa Cup of Nations.
In fact, Nigeria is the biggest culprit of fielding an armada of foreign-based soccer players in her senior national team. This flaw is chiefly responsible for the dearth of talents in the domestic league since the emerging stars know that the only way they can play for the country is to be tagged foreign-based. It doesn’t matter if the country is a soccer power or not. This sickening trend has thrown our best players into such obscure leagues, with many forced to do odd jobs when they retire from the game. Those very talented ones in these novelty leagues change nationality to survive.
It is reassuring that Nigerians don’t expect much from the home-based players. Yet, this team could spring surprises akin to the Eagles’ character of rising to excel when they are underrated. This is my wish and I say so because we need to reduce the average age of the Super Eagles players from 33 years old to a manageable 27, if we hope to compete with the best at the Brazil 2014 World Cup.
Flipping through a brochure of the 2013 Confederations Cup held in Brazil, I noticed that the average ages of the participating countries was between 21 and 24, as against Nigeria’s 33; forget about what our players have in their international passports.
Those countries with higher number of older players had them playing for their countries for close to 18 unbroken years, starting from age grade competitions. What this connotes is that such countries have healthy developmental programmes at the grassroots, unlike ours when a player’s age is determined only after he gains national prominence.
It is instructive to state that Nigeria will be the biggest beneficiary of this CHAN competition only if we can see the tournament as one in which we should strive to discover new talents and not win the trophy. If we win, it should be seen as a bonus and not what we truly want to achieve from participating in the competition.
I will be excited today, if Stephen Keshi hands the task of manning the goalpost to Golden Eaglets star Alampasu. He earned his selection. Therefore, it won’t be out of place if he is fielded ahead of Chigozie Agbim, who, with due respect, has passed his prime, although it often said that goalkeepers get better with age. If Agbim is who we are preparing to replace Vincent Eneyama, then we are expecting to find a virgin in a maternity ward.
Agbim is an old hand with domestic clubs. If he was good, he would have gone to Europe. His stagnated growth in the domestic league explains why Alampasu in goal for the Eagles against the Malian counterparts would be deserved breath of fresh air for the game here. The talk of Alampasu being too young and not having the required experience is cheap. How will he gain experience, if we don’t play him? We must shed this archival thought because Neymar was in the Brazil U-17 team that played at the Teslim Balogun Stadiun in 2009. He came in as a substitute.
The Brazilian jersey looked like an agbada on him. But you could see from his deft touches that he had a future in the game. Need I say that he virtually gave Brazil the 2013 Confederation Cup diadem four years ago? Of course, we all saw how he dribbled Efe Ambrose during the UEFA Champions League matches between Barcleona FC of Spain and Celtic FC of Scotland. It has taken Neymar four years from 2009 to show the stuff his worth. Where are Neymar’s mates in the Golden Eaglets? Oguenyi Onazi. Please remind me of others. The Eaglets lost in the final and Brazil exited early from the competition hosted in Nigeria.
No surprise, Eagles’ defence has been the most reliable in its campaign. One would however, want to see how well the right and left backs would play in CHAN. One hopes that the coaches know that these two positions manned by Ambrose and Elderson Echiejile need boys who can relieve them when they are injured or serving out card offences. As for the central defence, Godfrey Oboabona and Kenneth Omeruo have shown that they can stand against any opposition. CHAN gives Egwekwue the best chance to alter that defence pairing, now that Omeruo appears to be prone to injuries. I expect four new players to emerge for the World Cup squad being assembled.
Mba’s move to France is good. It throws the door open for other midfielders to strive to convince the coach that they can make his World Cup squad. I expect Keshi to expose the creative ones among the home lads, believing that Onazi, John Mikel Obi, Victor Moses and Nnamdi Oduamadi have proven their mettle with the qualifiers.
Super Eagles’ coaches must embrace the spirit of penitence in picking the players for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. Coach Stephen Keshi was not the fittest player when the team was picked for Nigeria’s USA’94 World Cup debut but Clemens Westerhof looked at his aggregate contributions to the team’s qualification and picked him, despite his inadequacies off the pitch. Assistant coach Daniel Amokachi made the Eagles’ squad to the France’98 World Cup not in his best form, yet Bora picked him, largely because of the same reasons stated for Keshi. Simply put, Keshi and Amokachi made the squad on compassionate grounds, even though they were awesome players. Let us see if the coaches will pick Joseph Yobo on grounds that they have benefitted from. Yobo will make the 100 caps as a Nigerian international, if that is what the coaches want to stop. They should know that the players keep referring to Yobo as their captain which mean if there is a change of guards, Yobo returns to the Eagles. Did Yakubu Aiyegbeni not play for the Eagles after many thought he was out of the squad following the awful miss at the South Africa 2010 World Cup? In Nigeria, everything is possible.
I know that the coaches have chosen to drop Ikechukwu Uche for reasons they were guilty of as players. Uche has been accused of expressing his disappointment to the coaches on the team’s style of play and tactics. Can Keshi or/and Amokachi tell Nigerians that they didn’t disagree with their coaches as players?
Uche is very hot in Spain’s La Liga. On Tuesday, he scored a hat-trick for Villarreal. He has been scoring goals for his team. It is about time Eagles coaches invited him. Our coaches must learn how to cope with players’ idiosyncrasies. Uche doesn’t have any record of idiocy in the Eagles; does he? It cannot start now.
Until the emergence of Emmanuel Emenike, it was unthinkable for the Eagles to play a game without Uche. He secured Nigeria’s ticket to for the South Africa 2010 World Cup. That such a boy has been sidelined because he confronted the coaches is laughable, especially as these coaches have a large history of not just confronting coaches but NFF chiefs. The Eagles witnessed the greatest number of revolts when today’s Eagles coaches were players. Need I say here too that revolts returned to the Eagles when they became coaches?
This writer is excited at the return of Joel Obi for Parma in the Serie A and it should be to the advantage of the Eagles, who have been in dire need of creative midfielders. The coaches can also reconsider Chinedu Obasi, who plays in the German Bundesliga. Obasi would give the coaches another window in the team’s attacking options especially on the left side. He shoots well, dribbles the ball intelligently and is a speedster.
