Babalola Oluwatomiwa
Social Member
It came as a rude shock to many when Nigeria failed to progress beyond the second round stage of the 2015 FIFA U-20 world cup in New Zealand while some of her finest players were on the bench.
Manu Garba and his boys kicked of their campaign on a low, contrary to the believe of many, because of the feat they achieved at the U-17 level- just two years ago, winning the world cup a record four times.
The Flying Eagles lost 4-2 to Brazil in their opening campaign on June 1, a game which Kelechi Iheanacho couldn't help his side subdue the Brazilian opponent.
Three days later, the Nigeria's U-20 coach sat Iheanacho on the bench as Godwin Saviour scored a brace while Enyimba's Sokari and Granada's Isaac Success scored one goal respectively to earn Manu Garba his first win- a 4-0 win over Koorea DPR in the tournament.
Taiwo Awoniyi's brace sank the Hungarians in the third group game as Nigeria made it through to the knock-out stage of the championship, where they were fell to the Germans, who took advantage of some coach-manager lapses in the flying eagles team.
After the crash, both Manu Garba and Nduka Ugbade came out to tell Nigerians that Iheanacho wasn't fit that was why he was benched for most of the games Nigeria played at the tournament.
But, unknown to many, the 18-year old tweeted on his handle "@67kelecchi that "I played 3 games for MFCF's Academy this week. Praise God! I am fit and excited for the U20 World Cup. Just waiting for my New Zealand Visa"
Which means that there's a missing link that has refused to see the light of the day- it is either Iheanacho was benched because he refused to give the coach money, as claimed by some quarters, or that the coach was simply unable to manage his success.
Probably, if the likes of Lionel Messi, Nwankwo Kanu, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Fernando Torres and many more had gone through the same process as this, may be we wouldn't heard of their fame today.
In all, we would like to congratulate the Nigeria Football Federation for the success of the series of capacity building programs organised for the coaches.
But in real sense, we are simply proposing a train-the-trainer program on man-management so that such occurrence as that of Manu Garba, Kelechi Iheanacho and Musa Yahaya will not repeat themselves.
What makes a coach is to bring out the best out of his player, both on and off the pitch- and see them succeed at their various clubs and in the national team.
Good luck to all out Nigerian coaches as they discover, nurture and produce great players out of these raw talents...
@babalola_tomiwa
Manu Garba and his boys kicked of their campaign on a low, contrary to the believe of many, because of the feat they achieved at the U-17 level- just two years ago, winning the world cup a record four times.
The Flying Eagles lost 4-2 to Brazil in their opening campaign on June 1, a game which Kelechi Iheanacho couldn't help his side subdue the Brazilian opponent.
Three days later, the Nigeria's U-20 coach sat Iheanacho on the bench as Godwin Saviour scored a brace while Enyimba's Sokari and Granada's Isaac Success scored one goal respectively to earn Manu Garba his first win- a 4-0 win over Koorea DPR in the tournament.
Taiwo Awoniyi's brace sank the Hungarians in the third group game as Nigeria made it through to the knock-out stage of the championship, where they were fell to the Germans, who took advantage of some coach-manager lapses in the flying eagles team.
After the crash, both Manu Garba and Nduka Ugbade came out to tell Nigerians that Iheanacho wasn't fit that was why he was benched for most of the games Nigeria played at the tournament.
But, unknown to many, the 18-year old tweeted on his handle "@67kelecchi that "I played 3 games for MFCF's Academy this week. Praise God! I am fit and excited for the U20 World Cup. Just waiting for my New Zealand Visa"
Which means that there's a missing link that has refused to see the light of the day- it is either Iheanacho was benched because he refused to give the coach money, as claimed by some quarters, or that the coach was simply unable to manage his success.
Probably, if the likes of Lionel Messi, Nwankwo Kanu, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Fernando Torres and many more had gone through the same process as this, may be we wouldn't heard of their fame today.
In all, we would like to congratulate the Nigeria Football Federation for the success of the series of capacity building programs organised for the coaches.
But in real sense, we are simply proposing a train-the-trainer program on man-management so that such occurrence as that of Manu Garba, Kelechi Iheanacho and Musa Yahaya will not repeat themselves.
What makes a coach is to bring out the best out of his player, both on and off the pitch- and see them succeed at their various clubs and in the national team.
Good luck to all out Nigerian coaches as they discover, nurture and produce great players out of these raw talents...
@babalola_tomiwa
