Nigeria Content Online

Monday Odigie is
ready to change the course of history as he seeks to produce the next
Golden Eaglets that will truly form the nucleus of a future Super
Eagles.

The Eaglets boasts
an impressive pedigree of three World Cup titles and three silver
medals in the FIFA U-17 competition, the 13th edition which was held in
Nigeria last month, but our efforts have been overshadowed by perennial
tales of deceits and cheat.

Allegations of age
falsification or the use of beyond the stipulated age limit have often
trailed our U-17 team, such that a lot of soccer fans in the country
have found it difficult to celebrate the Eaglets’ success with
suspicions that the feat might have been achieved through foul play
rather than in the spirit of fair play.

Nigeria has paraded
a total of 162 players in the nine editions the country has featured in
the competition, but only eight of those players have been able to play
at the

senior World Cup level. Famous among them are Nwankwo Kanu, Celestine Babayaro, Victor Ikpeba and Wilson Oruma.

But following his
experience after working as assistant coach in the 2009 Eaglets squad,
the new U-17 handler, Odigie claims he is ready to right the wrongs and
build a strong legacy that will turn around the future of our football.
He agrees the age issue has been a challenge that is depriving Nigerian
football of its true development and that he is not afraid to fail with
his experiment.

Change

“How many times
have we actually won the competition? I tell you something; the fact
that you have the best 18 players does not guarantee you are going to
win a competition. So one needs to be bold to take your decision and be
ready to face the consequences in honesty to the ethics of the job. As
long as the authorities see the team is in the right direction, I’m
sure they will give me their support”, says Odigie in an interview with
NEXT.

“What is important
is bringing together a credible team, instilling the discipline and the
right tactics on the players. That’s how you get your results, not by
size or age. It is also important to put a programme in place that will
get the young players exposed to supposedly bigger opponents. “They
could get defeated in those games but they will learn from it and you
carry on with the players with the hope of expecting them to improve.
You don’t have to fear, you are not going to deliver because fear is
even a phenomenon in life and no matter how high you go in your
endeavour, it will always be there. So you just have to do your job”,
Odigie said of his aspirations.

Stars fail to shine

The last time
Nigeria won the U-17 World Cup was 2007 in South Korea, but none of the
glory boys have come of age. Talented playmaker Rabiu Ibrahim is yet to
make senior grade at Sporting Club of Portugal while the tournament’s
golden shoe and silver ball winner, Macauley Chrisantus has had to be
loaned from his Bundesliga side, Hamburg, to Karlsruhe in the lower
division. By contrast, Mexico are relying on the nucleus of their 2005
U-17 world champions including Arsenal’s Carlos Vela and Giovani Dos
Santos to prosecute their 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In fact the
young boys have been branded the “Golden Generation” by the Mexican
media to underline their admiration for their development in the game.

“Three years down
the line the boys have not even been able to make any impact in terms
of development. So that’s part of the problem. If you get a truly young
side, you will be able to see some positives in terms of development
because they keep growing. Everyone has an opportunity, and people will
make reference to what you achieve”, Odigie lamented on how our U-17
champions have faded away.

Toughest

The former Bendel
Insurance of Benin defender who guided Bayelsa United to the Nigeria
Premier League title last season regards the Eaglets job as the
toughest portfolio of all the national teams’ coaching jobs.

“I think it is the
most challenging job of all the national teams because the essence is
to bring these boys together in their raw state, give them the right
orientation on how to play such that they will be able to translate the
knowledge into winning games in championship because winning gives them
the opportunity of a good future. This stage is supposed to be the
foundation of the future of national team, so it is no doubt the most
challenging of them all.

“The way we are looking at it is to involve people who are truly
involved in bringing up young talents such as credible academies and
explore school competitions like the Principals’ Cup to get the kind of
talents that can fit into our plans,” he said.