Under 17: Have we grown weary of success? I have noticed a very disturbing trend since the Under 17 team started making wave after qualifying from the preliminaries. Many Nigerians were careful not to appropriate their success, and those who doubtfully did, are not sure of themselves, thus trying to take away from this feat. This is disturbing, disturbing in that, ever since they won the cup yesterday, this trend escalated to a level that we now question their age,real age,football age, and their age? I do not know how FIFA calculate their age classifications.but what I know is that same calibration is adopted for all teams,meaning that the Nigerians boys played with their age mates from Sweden, Mexico,etc etc, because FIFA subjected every team to MRI scanning, and in that process six boys were dropped from the Nigerian team,meaning that all the boys that took part in this competition were under the right age classification allowed by FIFA. A check with my colleagues who report sports show that these boys have been together since we learn from our disgraceful outing in 2011, and started grooming them young and keeping them together. I was even told that the Cross River State government made the job of coaching a very comfortable one for Manu Musa by providing him with virtually all he needs to excel.Moreso, the coach who is a die hard Barcelona fan is said to be sold to Barcelona style of football and took time to teach his wards to imbibe that footballing style of the Catalans. I heard they had heaps of tapes of the Barca team. My worry is that people like Kelechi Iheanacho and Yahaya do not go the way of former revelations like Chrisantus. Now is the time for them to be properly guided in the kind of football clubs they should go to,especially where youth football is given adequate attention.Not some Uzbekistan or Kiev teams. My concern here is family pressure. The level of poverty in the land will force our people to fall for $100,000 now, that $50 million in five years to come. These boys earned their glory and we should all acknowledge that.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 12:51:28 +0000
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