Sports
Odemwingie Retires From Football
Former Nigeria international,
Peter Odemwingie has retired from football at the age of 37.
The striker, who last played for Indonesian side Madura FC in 2017, announced the decision to hang up his boots at the Uefa Equal Game conference at Wembley on Wednesday.
“It’s an emotional day, so many memories go through your head,” Odemwingie told the audience.
“I didn’t know how to do it or where to do it, but I think this is the right place to do it. Wembley is a place with a lot of history in football.”
The attacker also shed light on his next move in the game: “The next chapter is slowly building up to a coaching career,” he continued, “and hopefully I will be coaching in the Premier League one day.”
The 37-year-old began his career with Nigerian outfit Bendel Insurance before moving to Belgium in 2004 to team up with La Louviere.
Successful stints in France and Russia, with Lille and Lokomotiv Moscowrespectively, followed, before the dynamic Uzbekistan-born forward caught the eye of Premier League suitors.
In 2010, he joined West Bromwich Albion, where he scored 30 goals in 87 top flight appearances and won three Player of the Month accolade (September 2010, April 2011 and February 2012).
On the back of an infamous 2013 transfer deadline-day fiasco, where he turned up at Queens Park Rangers attempting to engineer a move, Odemwingie left the Baggies under a cloud and went on to don the colours of Cardiff City, Stoke Cityand Rotherham United before leaving English football for Indonesian top flight side Madura FC in 2017.
Internationally, Odemwingie – whose mother is Russian – chose to represent Nigeria (his father’s country) and made his debut on May 4, 2002, coming on as a substitute in a 3-0 victory over Kenya.
He represented the Super Eagles at four African Cup of Nations editions (2004, 2006, 2008 and as captain in 2010), and in 2008 was named as an overage player as the Dream Team V secured the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics.
Odemwingie also played at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, scoring the winner against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Brazil that ultimately secured the West Africans’ passage to the Last 16.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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