•Nigerian winners and officials at the CAF Awards in Marrakech, Morocco
Nigeria has been gripped by a euphoria by the success of its footballers at last week’s African Footballer of the Year Awards held in Marrakech, Morocco. At the Awards gala held on Monday, Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen and Asisat Oshoala were named Africa’s Footballers of the Year (men and women respectively), with Chiamaka Nnadozie emerging as the Goalkeeper of the Year (women), while Super Falcons became the Best Women’s National Team of the Year. Since the ceremony, many Nigerians have been celebrating the country’s return to a position it last occupied in 1999.
But CHRISTIAN OKPARA writes that the victory in Morocco will amount to nothing if stakeholders did not do the things that would ensure that the country produces more Osimhens, Oshoalas and the Nnadozies of the next generation, reports The Guardian.
Suddenly, Nigerians have become optimistic again. A people that were left despondent by their national team’s failure to qualify for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup and the hit and miss pattern the Super Eagles have adopted in the last two years are now dreaming of greatness because four of their own, Victor Osimhen, Asisat Oshoala, Chiamaka Nnadozie and the women national team, the Super Falcons, were on Monday in Marrakech, Morocco, declared the best among Africa’s football stars for the year 2022/23.
In a country where many do not know where their next meal will come from, football, the most unifying factor in the Nigerian milieu, has once more come to embody the hope the people so desire at this critical period of the country’s political development.
The euphoria of the four crowns their compatriots won in Morocco has emboldened many football fans to start thinking that 1994 is here with them.
Described as the Golden era of Nigerian football, the period from 1994 to 1998 was a time when everything in Nigerian football turned to gold. That was the period the Super Eagles won their first African Cup of Nations outside the country and also became the first non-European or South American nations to win the Olympics gold medal in football.
Nigeria was so blessed with talents and a beautiful brand of football that no less an organisation than the world football governing body named the Super Eagles the fifth best team in the world, aside from the accolade as the second most entertaining team of the time.
Since that period when the Nigerian team was known as the ‘Dream team,’ the country’s football has so nosedived that the Super Eagles find it difficult, most times, to achieve what should be routine like qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations. Making the World Cup has become so difficult that such countries as Angola and Ghana now find it easy to deny Nigeria the ticket.
However, a host of sports commentators and analysts, who spoke to The Guardian, that era of failure would soon be history as the new crop of players available to the national teams could stand any opposition in Africa.
This belief stems from Osimhen, Oshoala, Nnadozie and the Super Falcons reckoning by the football elite as the best Africa has to offer the world. Is it that easy?
They believe that some young players are emerging, who needed to be guided and tailored to meet future expectations.
Former Super Eagles Manager, Adegboye Onigbinde, believes the era of success could be re-enacted if only Nigeria does the things winners do.
Onigbinde know this, because he has gone through the route successfully before.
In 1982, when Nigeria’s football was at its lowest ebb following the Eagles comprehensive defeat by Algeria en route the Espana ’82 World Cup, the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) brought Onigbinde to rouse a team that was in tatters with most of its stars electing to retire from the national team after the failure to add the World Cup ticket to the African Cup of Nations trophy they won just two years earlier.
The Modakeke-born high chief went round the country combing for fresh talented and energetic young boys to rescue their nation.
That was how he assembled a team made up of Stephen Keshi, Jamed Etokebe, Humphrey Edobor, Chibuzor Ehilegbu, Ademola Adeshina, Yisa Sofoluwe, Shefiu Mohammed, Kingsley Paul, Patrick Okala, Peter Rufai, Sunday Eboigbe, Bright Omokaro, Henry Nwosu, Rashidi Yekini and Clement Temile, among others, to return to the elite class of African football.
With little or no experience in such a big tournament as the African Cup of Nations, Onigbinde’s team defeated such tough nations as Egypt and the defending champions, Ghana, to get to the final of the 1984 edition of the competition. But for the luck in penalty lottery, the team would have qualified for the Los Angeles Olympic Games instead of Morocco, which beat Nigeria in the final hurdle after a shootout in Rabat.
Speaking on the 2023 CAF awards and how Nigeria can make the best of it, Onigbinde said going back to the grassroots is the key to achieving any dream Nigeria has of returning to its position as the continent’s football powerhouse.
He said Nigeria should stop the lazy attitude of relying on players nurtured outside the country for its national teams, pointing out that Osimhen, Oshoala and Nnadozie were discovered and nurtured to stardom from the grassroots.
According to Onigbinde, there are more Osimhens and Oshoalas in every part of the country waiting to be discovered and given the opportunity to bloom.
“The award has exposed the fact again that Nigeria has abundant talents in the country waiting to be discovered. With this award, football stakeholders should draw out a programme to discover more talents. This has been my word over the years.”
He said his experience as a member of CAF technical committee exposed him to the fact that Nigeria has more abundant football talents than any other country in the continent.
“Our problem is that we don’t have quality programmes to unearth these talents. Our coaches are not well trained and exposed to identify these talents when they see them.
“It is not all about winning the CAF Awards, but working out ways to keep sustaining the greatness of Nigerian football by discovering more talents from the country. This can only be done through a well-organised and coordinated football development programme,” he said.
He said the euphoria generated by the wins at the CAF awards will turn to sadness if the managers of the game still refuse to put the right structure in place for talent discovery and development.
Super Eagles former captain, Austin ‘Jay-Jay’ Okocha, says Osimhen’s victory at the CAF awards is a testament to the innate talent in many Nigerian children, adding, however, that such talents can only become great stars if those managing the game allow knowledgeable individuals to contribute to the development of the game.
In a recent interview broadcast by a South African outfit, Okocha said leaders of Nigerian football are uncomfortable whenever ex-internationals come near the football house and, therefore, do everything possible to ensure they don’t get into administrative positions.
Okocha once came under severe attack when he said he preferred to watch the English Premier than the Nigerian league because of the sorry state of the local game.
According to the former Enugu Rangers midfielder, Nigerians should face the fact that the game has gone terribly down.
“If we’re talking about getting better, improving, and meeting our expectations, I think it’s high time we started telling each other the truth.
“I said that I’d prefer to watch the Premier League on television than watching our NPFL, because we’re not where we are supposed to be, because it hurts to see that the efforts we all put in, that nothing has been built on it.
“Yes, now it seems like we’ve realised that and have started creating exciting tournaments and clubs are now taking the initiatives to make sure that they’re doing the right thing. And this is what we’re craving for and this is why I made that statement, so that we will wake up and realise that we need to start attracting people to our local league.
“We need to make our stadiums conducive for people to go and watch matches and not be harassed. We need to make sure that the right results are what we’re experiencing and not the home team-must-win syndrome. We want to see a good league, an attractive one,” he said.
Okocha said the national team is not getting the right results because Nigeria has failed to do the right things.
“We are paying the price for failing to invest in the grassroots. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We just need to speak to ourselves and accept that we are no longer the football powerhouse that we used to be. We should put things in order,” he said.
To Sabinus Ikewuaku, a sports analyst, the country must return to the old ways that brought it so much fame if it wants to leverage the euphoria arising from the CAF awards to bring in sponsors that would help grow the game.
He said Osimhen’s rise from a street hawker to Africa’s best footballer shows that many talents abound on the streets waiting to be tapped, adding that corruption and taking short cuts have held the game down for so long.
“Where are schools the sports minister and public official bandy about once they are given authority in the sector?
“We used to raise teams of all levels from the Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON), a private organisation that worked with the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to cover the grassroots. Every city in Nigeria once had a thriving football league with the big teams playing in the state league. And so, before a player graduated to the national league, he has become a complete player because he must have learnt the rudiments from the various leagues.
“We once had players going straight to the senior national team direct from secondary school. Players such as, Stephen Keshi, Henry Nwosu and Prince Afejekwu were schoolboy internationals, but today you hardly find secondary school students in the national U-17 team. The Golden Eaglets has become a team for the rich such that you now find sons of directors in public service and big politicians in the team.
“If Osimhen from a struggling family did not get the chance to play for the Golden Eaglets, we will not be here talking about African Footballer of the Year award.
“The NFF must clean up its house, clear out those corrupt coaches that take money from agents and players before inviting them to camp. Their must be a grading system to rate the coaches so that only the best are given opportunity to handle the youth teams because these lay the foundation for whatever the senior team becomes.”
Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) President, Isaiah Benjamin, is among those who believe the CAF Awards is a catalyst the country’s football needs to reclaim its position in the comity of football playing nations.
Thrilled by the country’s exploits at the wards, Benjamin said, “I really feel very proud being a Nigerian. The collection of major awards by our footballers, who were mainly groomed on Nigeria’s soil, is a testament of better times.
“Thank God, this is happening in about one month to 2023 AFCON scheduled for Cote d’Ivoire. I believe it will also steer the spirit of our Super Eagles to give their best especially as their performance have not really been satisfactory in recent times.
“I must say that all the awardees got the honour on top merit. And the awards shouldn’t make them relax, rather they should put in their best the more for future anticipated glorious moments.”
The country’s number one sports writer, however, advises Nigerians to look at ways of making these celebrations a permanent part of the country’s football by doing things that would develop the game.
He said: “Talents abound in every nook and cranny of this country, the onus lies with the administrators to do more in discovering them. The giant leap by these three footballers who were adjudged best among others in the continent on Monday night and were specifically discovered from cradle in Nigeria to a very large extent shows that the solution to our football development is with us.
“Much as those who were born abroad and grew up there are also needed, more efforts should be channelled towards galvanising a sustainable developmental pyramid from U-10 to elite level for both men and women. Also, more attention should be paid to the various Nigerian leagues,” he said.
