DON’T CRY FOR SUPER EAGLES

“Visionary people face the same problems everyone else faces; but rather than get paralyzed by their problems, visionaries immediately commit themselves to finding a solution.”-Bill Hybels

Super Eagles' duo of   Uche and Nsofor

Some five years ago, I started a campaign here on how best Nigerian players can come well by winning the African Footballer of the Year (AFOY) crown.

The AFOY has become an annual ritual where a worthy player is feted as the pride of the continent. But for some inexplicable reasons, Nigerian players have been shut out since 1999 when Nwankwo Kanu was deservedly crowned for the second time-following his victory in 1996 after leading the Dream Team to win Africa’s first soccer Gold medal at the Olympic Games.

The Confederation of African Football(CAF) recently release  its shortlist  of players to be considered for the 2010 edition and it is best to conclude that the Super Eagles would  be missing out of the list when  the crème de la crème of  African football gather at the Glo/CAF award Gala in Accra on December 22.

Writing about the shame that no member of the Super Eagles made the shortlist of five in 2007, I surmised that not many Nigerians are playing in the traditional big teams coupled with the obvious fact that the national team has fallen to its lowest ebb in recent time.

This was the sentiment I expressed four years ago  when  Drogba was crowned as Africa’s best in 2006: ‘I have come to the conviction that playing for one of Europe’s best clubs is a prerequisite for any player to be considered good enough. Until Eto’o moved to Barcelona from Mallorca, he never had his hand on the big prize as African Footballer of the Year. Though he played some of the best football of his career at Olympique Marseille, Drogba for instance, did not win the award until he moved to Stamford Bridge where he won the Premiership title with Chelsea. What about Ronaldinho? Playing for Paris Saint Germain in the French Championnat did not help his cause until he transferred to Barcelona and deservedly won the World Player of the Year twice. How come Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha did not win the African Footballer of the Year when he’s a far better footballer than Victor Ikpeba for instance? While playing for Monaco helped Ikpeba to scoop the prize in 1997, playing for a back street club like Bolton Wanderers was a big minus for Okocha in spite of the fact that he was regarded as one of the best African players of his generation.’

Today, Nigerian players are not on the same wavelength with their counterparts on the continent with little or nothing to show for at club or national team level. At the 2009 Glo/CAF Awards Gala in Accra, Stephen Keshi-erstwhile Super Eagles captain who incidentally is now the national team coach- lamented the non-inclusion of Nigerians in recent times.

“Not having a Nigerian in the best African 11 is of course painful,” Keshi said.

“Nigerian players are not committed to their job; they do not have that zeal, that fighting spirit that ‘II want to be something and I want to achieve something for myself.’ When Westerhof was our coach, we played for Nigeria, we played for Westerhof. It is not everything that Westerhof taught us that we played?  We had to be creative, we had to initiate some ideas and if the players cannot do that, even if you bring a Mourinho to Nigeria, he won’t do anything if the players are not ready to work hard.”

This laisser-faire attitude has dearly cost the Super Eagles in recent year and it is about time we remind them of the gospel preached by Paul Arden in It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be where he noted that two key factors to success are : vision and will-to-win.

“You can achieve the unachievable,” highlighted Arden who also authored that handbook. Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite. “Firstly, you need to aim beyond what you are capable of. You must develop a complete disregard for where your abilities end. Try to do things that you are incapable of.

“If you think you’re unable to work for the best company in its sphere, make that your aim. If you think you’re unable to be on the cover of Time Magazine, make it your business to be there. Make your vision of where you want to be a reality. Nothing is impossible,” he added.

Yet the AFOY remains a high mountain to climb for Nigerian players all because they are no longer playing at their best with occasionally strides which often becloud our sensibility that all is not well with Nigerian football.

In 2007, there was a this hope that Nigerian football would sooner than later enjoy the boom of the 1990s following the victory of the Golden Eaglets at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Korea but this is no more than a mirage with some of those celebrated youngsters are now playing what could be regarded as backstreet football in Vietnam, Moldova and Russia.

How can we expect such players to compete at the highest level? Those who are lucky to be playing in the elite leagues of Europe believed they are already made hence they show little commitment to the cause of the national team-forgetting that their aggregate performances for both club and country are prerequisite to win the AFOY.

Keshi recently said he has harped on the need for his wards to step up their game to have a realistic hope of winning the AFOY but these players are like the proverbial dog that refused to hear the earnest warning about impending quandary.

Dream Team V faces Acid test

Under pressure: Dream Team's coach Austin Eguavoen

Anytime a team has its back against the wall or has a mountain-like opposition to contend with, it is customary to say that such team faces acid test.

This certainly is the lot of Nigeria’s Dream Team V at the CAF 2012 Olympic Football Tournament in Morocco as the Nigerian  team is grouped  alongside with Morocco, the host; battled hardened Senegal and Algeria desirous  to make up for their lost glory in African football.

For a start, the Coach Austine Eguavoen-led Dream Team V opens their campaign against Morocco in Tangier and they have had a foretaste of what to expect earlier in the week when they were locked out of the stadium to prevent them from proper training ahead of today’s competition. We can only hope that the team would be able to respond favourably to whatever antics that would be thrown at them by the hostile Moroccan fans.

 In 1997 when Morocco hosted the African Under-20 Tournament in Fes and Meknes, I witnessed firsthand how aggressive the Moroccans fans can be and one can reasonably say that the Dream Team V would be facing an intimidating crowd in Tangier today.

Another team that could scuttle the chances of the Dream Team V is no less a formidable force as Senegal who has become a traditional rival with Nigeria. . Senegalese football is now on the rise following the qualification of the Lions for the 2012 AFCON.

Like Nigeria, the London 2012 Olympic Football Tournament offers Algeria any meaningful chance to be part of a big football action next year having also failed to qualify for the continent’s foremost tournament, the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) to compound growing fears for the Dream Team.

Unfortunately, the Dream Team V has faltered to deceive under Eguavoen given the manner they were edged out by Ghana for the ticket to the last All-Africa Games soccer tournament held in Mozambique. With Armanda of foreign-based professionals, the team crumbled against Ghana’s Black Meteors mostly populated by local-based players.

Over the years, Eguavoen has been roundly condemned for lacking the wisdom to deploy his troops and many have already faulted the compliments of players picked for this important assignment. Sometimes in 2005, I wrote  that ‘ Eguavoen  was a feeding-bottle coach’ because the Super Eagles then under his watch  lacked what is commonly referred to in Brazilian football as Vibracao–a mixture of passion and determination.

Elizabeth Quinn, exercise physiologist and fitness consultant explained that ‘coaching is an art as well as a science: “The successful coach is a motivator with a positive attitude and enthusiasm for the game and the players. The ability to motivate and inspire is part of the formula for success. The coach who can motivate is able to generate the desire to excel in their athletes.”

Whether Eguavoen would prove true to Quinn’s article of faith this time yet remains to be seen. Personally, I wish the Dream Team V the best of luck in what undoubtedly is an acid test.

  Typical Mikel!

That Super Eagles’ Chelsea star, John Mikel Obi is one of the renegades in the national team today is perhaps stating the obvious.

Wearing the Super Eagles’ stripes is something that no longer bothers Mikel so far his bread is buttered at Stamford Bridge. Recently, Mikel dodged playing for the Super Eagles in two successive friendly matches against Botswana and Zambia because of ‘injury’. Yet  he displayed a rare gusto in a high profile game (don’t mind his error that haunted the Blues) in the English Premiership against Liverpool barely six  days after he was excluded from the national team’s action on account of what  was  a phony injury.

This is typical of Mikel. In 2007, he incurred the wrath of German coach Berti Vogts when he absconded from a crucial 2008 AFCON qualifier against Niger in Niamey. He did same for Coach Samson Siasia ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games qualifier against Ghana. One would have thought that Mikel would turn a new leaf with the way the whole country stood behind his family when his father was unfortunately kidnapped.

Players like Mikel can only be put in the shade if Coach Stephen Keshi makes the Super Eagles more competitive without handing shirt to players based on past performance. After all, Keshi noted in a recent interactive session, that Mikel ‘is not bigger than the national team.’  

Uncle Jide: Big Brother that never sleeps!

Chief  Jide Adebayo

In Olla today, it would be a crowning glory for one of the keen followers of my column, Mr. Jide Adebayo when he is conferred with the chieftaincy title of Otunba Gbadero of Olla land by His Royal Highness, The Ololla of Olla in Isin Local Government Area of Kwara State.

Uncle Jide (as we fondly call him) and I have come a long way, dating back  to 1995 when we first met at the Inter-Continental Cup  held in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Then holding forth as the Sport Editor at the News Agency of Nigeria, he dutifully played the role of the big brother to our motley crew complete with Johnson Ayantunji, Ademola Olajire, Jaiyeola Ajasa and me.

Overtime, Uncle Jide has become a benefactor and one of my close advisers, professionally as well as family matters. It was at his instance that I started breaking my column to capsules ‘because you can look at so many issues without boring the readers.’

Uncle Jide is a very reliable friend who is ever ready to share in your joy and grieve. A man of immense dignity and limitless compassion, but he would be the first to attribute his kind-hearted spirit to the benevolence of God.

His genial attitude has endeared him to both the mighty and powerless consequently; his recognition is a testimony that good deeds would never go unrewarded. This is just a token of appreciation to a big brother that never sleeps and by the grace of God; a day for proper tribute would come in the near future.