Sports
Football Pundit Lauds S’Eagles Coach’s Efforts In Monitoring NPFL Players
A well-known football pundit in the state, Chief Christopher Okonkwo, has lauded the efforts and vision of Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to inviting some exceptionally good ones discovered into the mainstream 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 it’s been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker with the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged coach lead the national team, visiting some of our Nigerian league venues during the league matches to spotlight some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of the Eagles team.”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continuously been over-depending on the use of foreign-based players during the invitation of players to the national camp, thereby relegating the domestic home-based league players to the background as if they had 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 the Nigerian football league before they graduated to play in Europe, through which they were later invited to the Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria.”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serve as a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in the near future,” Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker with the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself to staying in a big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discovering some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there are some good young players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, it could give some of the invited foreign-based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a position in the team,” Okonkwo emphatically stated.