By the time you are reading this, the Super Eagles of Nigeria would have completed a very critical assignment against the Mediterranean Knights of Libya. It is critical because so much is at stake depending on how the match ended yesterday. A good and convincing victory will consolidate the gains of the previous two matches. The Super Eagles need to return very quickly to winning ways and restore the confidence of Nigerians in their national team as well as in the ensemble of Nigerian coaches......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
Winning well against Libya might even change the fortune of football in Nigeria by boosting confidence all around, boosting the football-economy opportunities, receding the matter of a foreign coach further to the background, and creating a firmer ground for general improvement of Nigerian football. The reality is that Nigeria’s football fortune at the national level greatly impacts what happens to sports, as whole, in the country.
Super Eagles and Football are that important and powerful.
The aura around Nigerian football these days is good. Having been down in the pits due to poor results and poor administration for a very long time, there seems to be nowhere else but northward for the game to go now. Fate, and not any deliberate design of the system, appears to be taking sides and has influenced many positive things in this emerging conspiracy.
Or how else can one explain the following exciting and refreshing new developments?
Kanu Nwankwo, MON, one of the most accomplished Nigerian football players of all time is the current Chairman of one of the biggest clubs in the country’s history. Enyimba International FC are two-time winners of the African Club Championship, and the first and only Nigerian club to have achieved that monumental feat. To make an ex-international its Chairman is a major statement that creates a whole new world of possibilities into the future.
Kanu, in turn, hires Finidi George, MON, another former phenomenal international player, and coach of the Super Eagles for a brief period, as Chief coach of Enyimba FC. That, also, is a major statement – a morale booster for indigenous coaches.
Other teams have since followed a similar example.
Emmanuel Amuneke, MON, one-time Africa’s Best Player, after failing to get appointed as Super Eagles coach, has accepted the offer of Chief Coach of a struggling Heartland FC, one of the big teams in the Nigerian professional league.
Daniel ‘the Bull’ Amokachi, MON, has also been appointed Technical Adviser to Lobi Stars FC. That is a cosmetic designation for manager, a position higher than that of Chief Coach but not as high as Chairman. It is also strategic for future politicking in football administration.
Benedict Akwuegbu, a former International, is the latest appointee as a Consultant to Mighty Jets FC of Jos. Like Daniel, he can use that position to launch a move up the ladder of administration in Nigerian football.
These developments are creating a buzz with plenty of excitement in the football space in Nigeria. More of such are on the way. The Nigeria Football Federation should see more action by footballers within its fold.
What tops them all, however, is the decision by Ahmed Musa, MON, to return to the Nigerian professional football league as a player after one of the most successful international careers in Nigeria’s national team history – longest serving Captain of the Super Eagles, most capped player in Nigeria’s history, and highest goal-scorer for Nigeria at the World Cup.
Ahmed Musa has done what generations of ex-internationals before him did not dare to do – return to the hard and difficult domestic football terrain of Nigeria and resume their careers before finally bowing out.
Last week, he played his first match before a capacity crowd that came to see him re-enact his football skills at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano. He did not disappoint. He scored a brace and, by so doing, added a new dimension to the domestic league by injecting new confidence in returning international players to retire from the professional leagues in Europe (as well as from the Nigerian national team) and still return to play out the last years of their careers in the domestic league. Ahmed was even audacious in his intentions and ambition. He told me he would play so well in the domestic league this season that he would earn a recall on merit to the Super Eagles. That will be huge.
Collectively, the return of all these retired and retiring superstar players will do great things for Nigerian football – ignite the domestic league and bring the crowds back to football grounds; influence the improvement of the quality of playing grounds in order for the returnee players to be able to play well; make the clubs more inventive in their business models, branding and marketing; hire more professionals to become involved in managing the clubs and players; and attract corporate Nigeria’s interest, like bees to nectar, and start to explore the possibilities and opportunities that these new developments will bring.
The Super Eagles are a hot commodity again.
Uyo, since last night, must have been bathing and basking in the celebration of their victory