As reactions continue trailing another failure of Nigeria’s cadet team, the Golden Eaglets, to qualify for the African U17 Cup of Nations, a former head coach at Heartland FC of Owerri, Chijioke Gabriel Osuagwu, has blamed it on a lack of exposure for the squad.
Sports247 reports that Osuagwu’s verdict comes in the wake of a 1-1 draw the Eaglets had with Cote d’Ivoire on Saturday at the West African Football Union (WAFU)-B U17 Championship in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, which was not good enough for a semi-final ticket.
Having lost 2-1 to the Niger Republic in their first game of the competition, while Cote d’Ivoire played a 1-1 draw with the same foe before Saturday’s game, Coach Uwejamomere’s squad finished third with a single point in the pool and failed to proceed into the next stage.
It means Nigeria misses qualification for the African championship for the third consecutive time and a fourth straight absence from the FIFA U17 World Cup, much to the disdain of Osuagwu, who started as a grassroots coach with Frankelson United FC of Lagos.
Osuagwu, who later popped into the national spotlight as a member of the youth project squad of Nigerian Grassroots Football Federation (NGFF), from 2001 to 2008, stressed in an exclusive chat with Sports247 that lack of exposure proved costly from the Eaglets’ first game in Ouagadougou.
He then called both technical and administrative officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to question, wondering why egg heads of the governing body would keep the Eaglets holed up in Abuja, instead of taking them on tour all over the country.
The former handler of Stationery Stores FC, Flaming Flamingos FC and AS Racines of Lagos as well as Bussdor of Port Harcourt also recalled the success story of Ambassador Fanny Ikhayere Amun in 1993, which Osuagwu firmly suggested should be reintroduced.
Osuagwu recounted, “If I should refer to how Fanny Amun built his team that won the World Cup at Japan ’93, I would tell you that he toured around the country and berthed at Rojenny, near Onitsha, before moving over to Lagos.
“His team played a series of friendly matches to expose the players, even against some national league sides. Nowadays, we don’t know anything about the level of preparations that go on for the Eaglets.
“They just package them, keep them in Abuja and call small teams to play against them. They fail to give them the required exposure that would have put them in line to meet any level of opponent from anywhere.”
The veteran gaffer, who also previously handled Abia Warriors of Umuahia and played a major role in taking them back to the top-flight Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), posited with a pointed charge to NFF’s top shots to look into various issues concerning the Eaglets.
Top among those key factors, stressed the youth football expert who friends fondly call ‘Ogburonu,’ is the choice of coach, how the players are selected, location of the camp, duration of preparations, and who they play against in build-up matches.
“I believe the average Nigerian player has the heart to conquer any opposition and, in the process of playing a series of different build-up matches, the coach would be able to judge the quality of what he has.
“He will gauge the level of his own players with what he sees in those he plays against. From there, he can pick new talents through a process known as substitution by elimination. That’s what the NFF should ensure the Eaglets get.
“For now, though, the NFF are not doing what they are supposed to do. Those at the helm of affairs in our football have made our age-grade teams look so ordinary and unable to perform. They just have to go back to how it used to be done,” Osuagwu submitted.
Sports247 gathered further that the veteran coach, who also played key roles in grooming Kelechi Nwakali and Samuel Chukwueze at Diamond Football Academy of Umuahia, suggested that the next Golden Eaglets’ squad should start taking shape immediately.
