Nigeria Content Online

The win-at-all-costs mentality of our coaches and football administrators has long been the bane of Nigerian football.

It has bogged our
football for decades and does not seem to be easing up. One of the
manifestations of this mindset is the reliance on players who clearly
should be playing for the Super Eagles, to help shore up the fortunes
of our U-20 and U-23 teams.

We saw it at play
recently when we had to rely on players like Ekigho Ehiosun and Nnamdi
Oduamadi to help Austin Eguavoen’s U-23 team in its quest to qualify
for next year’s Olympic Games taking place in London, England.

I must concede that
there is nothing wrong for a country relying on its best young talent
to help its cause. In our case however, that attitude is the product of
laziness on the part of our administrators and coaches.

It does not take
much imagination for anyone to realise that both Ehiosun and Oduamadi
are ripe enough to fight for places in the Super Eagles, as should
Ahmed Musa, the VVV-Venlo of Holland striker whose performances for the
Eagles recently indicate he is likely going to hold down a regular
place in the squad before long.

This is why it is
difficult to understand why the Nigeria Football Federation and coach
John Obuh are growing grey hairs over the player’s release by his club.

What point are we
trying to prove with the U-23 and even the U-21, that is making us so
desperate to get these players to play for them? Does the fact that
Musa is not yet 20 years old mean he must play for the Flying Eagles?

Our biggest need

How old were Pele,
Michael Owen and Norman Whiteside when they first played for their
senior national teams? None of them was 19 years old. So, from where do
we get the idea that Musa and Ehiosun, who have shown that they have
the capacity to swing it with the Eagles, must star for our age grade
teams simply because they are young?

To come back to my
question, what is the big deal about the U-20 and U-23? For the U-20,
we have been to the final on two occasions and have reached the
semi-finals three times. Even though we have not yet won the
tournament, the question surely must be asked whether winning the U-20
World Cup is the compelling need of the moment for Nigerian football.
Would it be the defining moment of our football history if we were to
lift the U-20 diadem? Clearly not.

As for the U-23, we
lifted the Olympic trophy fifteen years ago and were in the final of
the last edition. Winning it again will feel good but will not be the
stuff of legends. The biggest need of Nigerian football as far as our
national teams are concerned is to have the Eagles fly once again to
the pinnacle of world football which they attained briefly in the early
1990s.

To get there we
need the best players we can get and it does matter if they are not yet
20 years old. One clear disadvantage of even drafting players who
should be or are already in the Super Eagles to the junior teams is
that it robs younger players who should be in those age grade teams the
opportunity to coming into prominence.

It is really sad that despite the plenitude of talent that we have at the grassroots, we keep resorting to shortcuts.