The Super Eagles will be the Cinderella at the Russia 2018 World Cup, going by the indices available. Pointers to this dream are the novel changes in the system, starting with the conscious attempts by NFF President Amaju Melvin Pinnick to run the body’s affairs differently.
Pinnick’s insistence on scientific approaches to the way things are done at the Glasshouse is chiefly responsible for the new dawn in the Globacom Premier League, where referees have been exemplary in the manner in which they have handled matches. There have been startling results, with home teams losing games and the fans walking freely out of the stadia.
Of significant importance is the new drive for getting the biggest sports brand solvent through interactions with the business sector in and outside the country. Gone are the days when NFF chiefs look towards the Federal Government for cash to fund all its programmes.
Eagles chief coach Sunday Oliseh is billed to ring the bell at the Stock Exchange on August 17. Is this not the new dawn people have canvassed for? Oliseh’s presence at the Wembley Stadium last weekend to watch John Mikel Obi, Victor Moses and Alex Iwobi is also remarkable.
Seeing pictures of Oliseh and Moses raises the hope that the coach knows where the shoe pinches in the team. Gone are the days when Eagles coaches and key players quarrel over little things.
If the players are happy and feel wanted, they will give their best. Coaches must be told that without the players, they cannot function. Only the players enter the pitch to play. There isn’t anything a disciplined coach can do if the players choose to play badly to frustrate him. Therefore, Oliseh’s visits to key players set the tone of what to expect from the players when the matches begin.
I can see the light at the end of this tunnel, but Oliseh must be sincere in his choice of players. He must adopt the right strategies for the team to excel. Teams that have won the World Cup are not spirits. They are human. They achieved this feat using scientific methods, buoyed with good planning and adequate funding. We are not lacking in getting the players to actualise our dream of watching Nigeria play at the finals of the Russia 2018 World Cup. Please, don’t wake me up from this dream.
Am I being too ambitious? What is giving me this conviction that Nigeria will shake Russia at the 2018 World Cup? Have I considered the troublesome NFF and its coaches? Have the players changed their attitude towards playing for the country? Who are the players in the Super Eagles who have given me this confidence? Or do I think the World Cup is another bazaar for everyone?
The World Cup is the platform for excellence. It is the big stage for new kids eager to redefine their careers and expand the frontiers of the game in their countries. Besides, the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) has sustainable developmental programmes meant to discover, nurture and exposed budding talents across the globe.
Indeed, most of the new lads discovered at the senior level most times have made their names in FIFA’s age-grade competitions.
Other discoveries have come from the integrated programmes found in the 209 countries affiliated to FIFA. The mill to produce talents is enduring for those who apply the extant rules to the letter – those aptly tagged the soccer nations.
Countries serious to make an impact at the World Cup don’t do so with a pilgrimage of appearances. For instance, Senegal hit the quarter-finals of the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup in her debut outing, losing because the players lost focus and we were contended with what they had achieved.
A star such as Lionel Messi hit our consciousness with his exploits at the 2005 World Youth Championships held in Holland, defying his morphological deficiencies to dazzle the world with his silky skills. Messi hasn’t disappointed soccer fans with his breath-taking performances since that time, churning out sterling performances which have earned him all the accolades that there are to be won in the beautiful game. Sadly, Messi hasn’t won the senior World Cup, even though he is being rated alongside the game’s greats, such as Erantes de Nascimento, aka Pele, and Diego Amando Maradona.
Africa is always being tipped as the best outsider to lift the World Cup outside the Europeans and South Americans. Those who hold this view have it reinforced anytime African countries win the world cups at the cadet levels. Not a few cynics have sneezed at Africa’s feats in age-grade competitions, largely because the products fade away when the world waits for them to blossom.
Nigeria has been champions at the cadet levels, producing great lads such as Nwankwo Kanu, Celestine Babayaro, Victor Ikpeba, Jonathan Akpoborie, John Mikel Obi, Taye Taiwo, Tijani Babangida, to mention a few. Kanu and Ikpeba went on to be crowned African Footballer of the Year.
Indeed, Kanu won this diadem twice. One player the system under-developed is Akpoborie – no thanks to the coaches that have handled our senior team. After he shone at the 1985 WorldU-17 Championships in China, Akpoborie became Nigeria’s biggest export in Europe. That Akpoborie isn’t one of the lads whose exploits with the Eagles we would not talk about, tells the story of our coaches’ fixation. Scoring goals yearly to rank among the top five in the strong German Bundesliga was enough to earn Akpoborie a regular shirt in even the German side. Not in Nigeria. This explains why the cabal ended late Rashidi Yekini’s meritorious career with the Eagles. A few players felt that the late Yekini was earning the glory of their collective efforts and shut him out. The Eagles died, their careers ended abruptly and new stars were discovered.
Many have forgotten that Mikel and Taiwo fell behind Lionel Messi in 2005 World Youth Championships held in Holland. The difference then wasn’t as alarming as it is now, given the incredible manner in which Messi has transformed into one of the world’s greatest players.
Attempts to change the face of the game here have been politicised. At other times, sentiments ruled decisions, such that we seemed to take a step forward only to realise that we have indeed engaged the reverse gear, crashing into the ditch. With every fall came the corrupt phrase – going back to the drawing board. For the coaches, rebuilding became a lingo, even when the teams were winning matches and trophies.
Under such settings, what we recorded as pyrrhic victories came back to haunt us as we lost out in big competitions that opened new vistas for better prepared nations. However, the changes being put in place to ensure that the Eagles return to winning ways are such that throw up Nigeria-born kids, such as Jordaan Ibe, Alex Iwobi and Chuba Akpom as the missing links in the team. Our players’ attitude to matches must change now that we have an NFF that is willing to make them comfortable and resolve their complaints.
Ibe (forget about the cheap talk that he has dumped Nigeria) Iwobi, Akpom and indeed the legion of Nigeria-born kids’ inclusion in the team will bring back the required mentality of playing for the country to win laurels, not playing because they think they are doing us a favour. This new mentality will eliminate the sickening tradition of protests and revolts that belittled us in the polity of football nations.
Oliseh knows that the Eagles are a jaded side, especially as most of the players cannot make the Russia 2018 World Cup. He needs to get young boys into the team to increase its speed, endurance and zeal to excel. Most of the players are no longer motivated to give their best, having won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013, been to at least three uneventful World Cup and honoured with MON, OON etc. The presence of players who are in the twilight of their careers explains why it is easy for them to be swayed into revolts. They have nothing to lose anyway.
A top Green Eagles player told me how at half time during one of the Seoul 1998 Olympic Games qualifiers, the late Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji asked three big men in the team why they were not passing the balls to him. The late Okwaraji walked up to them as they sat together. He held his shirt and asked: “Is there any difference in the jersey that I’m wearing and yours? Let me know so that I can tell the coach to give me another one since I cannot understand why nobody passes the ball to me, even when I’m unmarked.”
The former player said he was deeply touched by the late Okwaraji’s statement and talked with the clique to ensure that he got passes. The defender said Okwaraji scored in the second half and was awesome in the game and subsequent matches until his death on August 12, 1989 at the National stadium in Surulere, Lagos.
This defender was buttressing the fact that the Eagles had cabals that determined those who should play and those who shouldn’t. Oliseh must crush them all. Players must accept to play for us without conditions or stay in their clubs. No player should be indispensable. Anyone who misbehaves should be shown the door and quietly dropped from the team until he shows remorse.
Oliseh’s search for new kids who have been developed in other climes is because he wants to hit the ground running, knowing that coaches are as good as their last results. The Eagles’ camp isn’t for learners. Rather, it is a place where certain things are given. Players are told what tactics are to be played and when they need to change as the game progresses. Since systems are universal, it is expected that they know what every strategy demands. This is why Oliseh is insisting on those who play regularly and for top teams. Isn’t he right?
