Grassroots Football Not Developing In Nigeria -Coach

The head coach of Port Harcourt City Football Academy, Joseph Egbu, has said that grassroots Football is retrogressing in Nigeria.
He explained that, Nigeria was   one of the first African Countries to have developed and talented players from the grassroots but today, we are going down in the junior level of the game.
Egbu, who is popularly called Coach Zico, made the assertion yesterday at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium Port Harcourt, when briefing sports journalists on the way forward at the 59th Independence celebration.
“ Nigeria did dominate in the junior level of football in the 80’s because most of the players were picked up from the grassroots”, coach Zico said.
He also used the medium to appeal to Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to appoint coaches from the grassroots to handle the junior team at the Nation level.
“ The NFF did not believe in the grassroots coaches, not knowing that they were in better position to handle the junior team. “The Grassroots is the best place to get the right coaches for the junior team” he said.
He noted that junior team were not getting the expected results recently, because the grassroots coaches who knew the basics  and how to groom young players together were not given the opportunity to handle the teams.
“ Kanu Nwakwo and Udoka Ugdade  made the country proud in the 80’s. They were all discovered from the grassroots”, he explained.

Kiadum Edookor