That nigeria is the most populous black nation is not in doubt,that we as a people have one of the best minds (negative or positive) is not in doubt, but the fact that we “must” have an indigene as our national team coach is simply not the best of options.
In this country, talent abound but it as been proven times without number that talent alone does not guanrantee success.
no matter how talented an individual is, he/she still needs proper management which is the major skill we lack in this country. i.e the case of etim esin and the numerous ‘young’ players in cadet competitions that did not make it to their prime is easy to recall.
Unarguably, the best era in the history of nigerian football were the five(5) years of Clements Westerhoff (dutch) and the first stint of Bonfere Jo(dutch) as the technical adviser to our national teams (1989-1996).
in between this years, we matured from being a country with lots of talent to a great football nation.
Apart from producing the best players the country can boast of in every department of the field of play till date (no disrespect to any player past or present),we left a mark on every tournament we attended during this period:
ALGIERS 90 – SILVER
DAKAR 92 – BRONZE
TUNISIA 94 – GOLD
USA 94 – most entertaining team & Ranked 5th in the world
And our most prized trophy as a footballing nation Atlanta 96 olympics Gold.
These men touched all the aspect neccesary for our football to grow: from hunting the talents to nurturing, managing, exposure and turning them to world beaters.
Lets no forget the only other time we manage to hit the bulls eye we also had a certain OTTO GLORIA(Brazillian) in charge of our national team while our own indigenous coaches as always been CLOSE.
This is not saying we dont have good coaches around, but am saying if we want the best we should not settle for less in the guise of been patriotic.
The works of Steven Keshi, Samson siasia, Amodu Shuaib, Late Yemi Tella, Fanny Amun, Adegboyega Oningbinde and Boderick Imaseun is acknowledged while Kadiri Ikhana, Justin Tnger, John Obuh and Fatai Amoo are not push overs in our local league but the achievement of Maurice Cooreman(bulgarian) is not in doubt.
England is said to be the origin of football, but how would you describe them having an fabio cappello (italian) at the helms of their national team after flirting with sven goran erikkson(swedish). in between the swedish and the italian, they had an english man(steve mclaren) who was a dissapointment and was not even able to qualify them for the european championship in 2008.
Still on england, the english premiership is believed to be the most prestigious league in the world but none of their traditional “big 4” club is been managed by an indigene:
ARSERNAL – ARSENE WENGER (FRENCH)
CHELSEA – CARLO ANCELOTTI (ITALIAN)
LIVERPOOL – RAFA BENITEZ (SPANISH)
MANCHESTER UNITED – SIR ALEX FERGUSON (SCOTTISH).
So are we saying the english are not been patriotic?
Being patriotic is wanting the best for your country and if the best is not in the shores of the land a patriot will get help from where ever possible.
In a nut shell, i believe the job of coaching our national team should not be secluded to our indigenous coaches alone, it should be opened for anyone (indiginoeus or expatraite) who is qualified and at the end of the day let the best man get the job.
-
ANGELHEART231