By Desmond Ekwueme
The Golden Eaglets failed to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The lads of Nduka Ugbade lost their last group game to Burkina Faso. They couldn’t reach the semis which would have served them the World Cup ticket.
The exit of the team has sparked wild controversy and criticisms as stakeholders wonder aloud what could have gone wrong with the team which in their opinion had solid preparation before Algeria 2023 U-17 AFCON.
The scintillating performance of Super Eagles and Napoli strongman who is an ex-Eaglets, Victor Osimhen further angers fans who felt Nigerian football has been deprived the opportunity of producing another Osimhen or his likes.
Recall that Osimhen was a member of the Chile 2015 triumphant Golden Eaglets and he was a major discovery of the squad tutored by Emmanuel Amunike.
So what went wrong with Ugbade’s Boys? What are the issues or problems that affected the team? After 2013 and 2015 victories of Golden Eaglets under Garba Manu and Amunike, why are Golden Eaglets struggling to qualify for or excel in FIFA U-17 World Cup since then.
2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023 Golden Eaglets have been out in the cold. They’ve failed to re-enact their trademark performance at the global stage. What is wrong?
Perhaps for the sake of better understanding and staying within the context of this piece, let’s limit our focus to Ugbade’s team…as we go into the conversation given the matters raised by stakeholders and fans of Nigerian football.
AGENTS & SCOUTS
One of the major troubles of football especially in our clime is the presence of agents and scouts who storm camps of football clubs and national teams to whisk players away most times under the noses of team handlers and managers
The undue pressure of agents and scouts who are loaded with cash and offers to lure away the players by talking the coaches and managers into deals to drag the players out of camp for offers abroad.
Most of these players are naive and to a large extent desperate to play in Europe. Rather than develop themselves here, they are rushed out to Europe and they end up in countries like Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijani.
The agents and scouts lure the boys away and most times, they don’t secure clubs for them. In the case of Ugbade’s team, it is sad that the agents and scouts distracted their attention and focus. The boys don’t get to showcase their talents and gifts but what the agents and scouts want.
The presence of the agents and scouts who are always ready to pay the way of their players into the team, derailed the attention of the coaches to pick or select or include or admit average players into the team.
However, we must not shy away from the fact that, some officials of the Football House are equally agents and scouts directly or indirectly working with their partners on ground here or overseas. They’re the real enemies of Nigerian football.
TRUE U-17
It is believed that Ugbade presented a true U-17 team in Algeria….but African football today at this age category has been bedeviled by age cheats.
Perhaps the players of the oppositions aren’t as young as the Eaglets . But if we go by this argument we should also look at the official documents presented by each team or country which is the international passport of the players and their MRI Scan results.
These were certified by CAF therefore, shouldn’t be an issue or excuse for failure of the team to reach the last four of the tournament.
Again, it is better to present a true U-17 squad even if they will not win the tournament or qualify for the World Cup. The good thing one should take from such team is building on the positives by graduating the good players to the senior teams.
QUALITY OF PLAYERS
Talents at the U-17 level are abound at the grassroots and secondary or post-primary schools. Why coaches fail most times to comb the nooks and crannies of the country to get these talents remains a mystery.
It is surprising therefore for a coach who didn’t visit major football grounds and centres across the six geopolitical zones in the country before assembling his team to get as much as 3000 players in the first day of the so called open screening for the team.
The question is where are the 3000 players coming from? How many of them are secondary school students? Who informed them of the open screening exercise? Answers to these questions must be provided for the purpose of building a better team in future.
HIDING THE TEAM FROM THE MEDIA AND FANS
The tradition of exposing all tiers of the national team to fans during camping by ensuring open training exercise has in the past helped the coaches to select top quality players.
The fans who troop in en masse to watch the team help to identify quality players by cheering the team, jeering and bowing poor and dismal performance by the players.
This creates room for open assessment of the team and the individual players. Therefore, the coaches, agents and scouts cannot manipulate the team or choice of players seen, identified and generally applauded for excellent performance in training sessions over a period of time.
This is no longer encouraged by the NFF who simply hide the team’s by engaging them in friendlies inside the FIFA Goal PROJECT ground where feeble friendlies are organized and played against unknown clubs and academies.
ACADEMIES WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE
Academies are now scattered all over the places. No one knows if standards are diligently followed.
Bottomline is average players are littered in the training grounds of the so called Football Academies….and ironically the owners of these academies who are connected to top government officials and club agents and scouts abroad take advantage of the poor remunerations of the coaches to bring their average players in exchange for whatever the coaches are willing to request for.
Something urgent needs to be done about the involvement of these academies in the building processes of our age grade teams. Coaches should go to the schools and grassroots where true talents are discovered and where the true ages of the players could be ascertained or verified.
TOP QUALITY FRIENDLIES
When national U-17 and U-20 teams play friendlies with ABC Academy in Lugbe or XYZ Academy in Brass or MNO Academy in Ebenator, you hardly get the kind of oppositions that would help prepare the teams.
Friendlies should be games to toughen and shape up the teams. They’re meant to keep the players on the edge and keep them focused. When Golden Eaglets win 12-1 or 7-2 most times, we should be concerned to ask which team did they beat? What is the makeup of the team? What’s the capacity and strength of the team?
Winning 10-0 in a friendly just to give the stakeholders unnecessary hope only to fail to qualify for the World Cup leaves much to be desire.
CAPACITY OF UGBADE
For a coach that has seen it at.all.lebels, one cannot ask for anything less. He is ably qualified to handle the team having played and captained the team to rule the world.
Perhaps Ugbade should be in the best position to tell Nigerians why his team was disappointing. He had worked in assistant capacity as second assistant to Manu and first assistant to Amunike. So the NFF took a right decision to place a round peg in a round hole.
May be there was something we didn’t look at in appointing Ugbade. May be we didn’t take luck into cognisance….but like a critic argued, he didn’t get into the stage where we should be considering luck, talking about the semi final or final of the tournament. Therefore, luck should be out of it.
Well whatever was responsible should be made known to all to aid better preparation and performance next time.
CONCLUSION
We have a mentality among the stakeholders of Nigeria football. It is about winning all the time as far as the Golden Eaglets are concerned.
By winning all the time, we want the team to always pick a World Cup ticket and go ahead to rule the world. But we equally forget that times are changing…as other countries are waking up to the reality of marching our feat in continental football and dominance.
Senegal for instance has been dominating African football at all tiers talking strictly about the men’s game. So what are we doing about it as a football playing nation? Do we think other countries would fold their arms and allow us run them down and keep ruling Africa?
This is where quality administration and good management with visionary leadership comes to play. Do we have them? Can we say confidently that our administrators are round pegs in a round hole? Like we say, you can’t give what you don’t have.
Football has gone way beyond talents and quality coaching. The administrative angle is key and fundamental. Do those running our football have the capacity to attract investors? Is investment or investing in football all about begging state governors to fund home games by way of paying bonuses and allowances of the players?
Until the rotten tooth is pulled out, the mouth must chew with caution. Back to the drawing board…if it isn’t filled up already.