South Africa 2011: The Real lessons for Nigeria

By: Tonebsky Nesta

I dare to say, Lars Lagerback was not Nigeria’s problem at the mundial, no thanks to his jumbo contract that attracted the expected outrage from Nigerians.

It’s high time we stop being fanatical about our football by expecting positive results we never worked for and face the real issue of developing a pragmatic football structure. No doubt our soccer administrators at the Glass House are not doing the country any good by putting their personal interest before that of the entire nation. Wait a minute…., have we asked ourselves why the Spanish and German National teams dazzled as well as showed professional organization in their soccer artistry? The reason is simple! Majority of the Spanish Senior National team players and every member of the German National team before South Africa 2010 ply their soccer trade in their domestic leagues. How then do we now expect our dear Super Eagles to measure up with these quality teams that have a systematic structure with a highly professional domestic set up? Lest I forget, all those who want to crucify hard fighting and industrious midfielder, Sanni Kaita for being the reason behind Nigeria’s expected ouster at the World Cup should ask themselves why the Eagles couldn’t cope without the midfielder? The International friendlies Nigeria played weeks to the world cup as well as the Argentina and Greece march before Kaita saw red had Haruna Lukman playing a freer role, but as soon as Kaita was shown the way out, the young Eagle’s prodigy faded out fast. This is despite the strange right sided wide midfield role Coach Lars Lagerback played the midfield Trojan! Permit me to revert to the real issue of this analysis, which of course is the way forward for Nigerian football, if truly we intend to avoid the kind of National embarrassment we faced at the just concluded senior World Cup in South Africa, the only way out is to look inward as advised by Lagerback. If we must borrow leaf from the Spaniards and Germans, the way forward will be to build a more professional league that will see the bulk of our National team players emerge from our domestic league to allow for proper blending and chemistry and not the politicking that recently played out in the Glass House which saw some egg heads in the NFF edged out in what looked like a commando take over, this is not in anyway holding brief for the helmsmen booted out.