Nigerians on the move?The football transfer window swung open officially on July 1. Clubs have been going all out to improve their various squads in order to battle for titles or maintain their positions in the different leagues in which they compete. But for the third summer window running, there is nothing to suggest that there will be a big Nigerian summer transfer. Not that some Nigerian players will not be changing clubs but these players are not in the window for the biggest clubs in Europe. From France to Spain, Italy, England and Germany, Nigeria boasted just one player in a top four team from these five leagues - Mikel Obi at Chelsea.
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Europe's Top Five Leagues
Ligue 1 [France] - 1; Vincent Enyeama, Lille
La Liga [Spain] - 4: Isaac Success, Granada; Ikechukwu Uche, Villarreal (now off to Mexico); Ramon Azeez, Almeria; Kalu Uche, Levante
EPL [England] - 3; Mikel Obi, Chelsea; Victor Moses and Osaze Odemwingie at Stoke
But there are a lot of players in the European backwoods of Norway, Sweden, Albania, Slovenia and the likes. So what has happened to the value of Nigerian players? Marshall Embre, a Nigerian agent who has dealings with European clubs, especially in Italy is of the view that Nigerian players are now too concerned on what they want to earn rather what they can achieve on the pitch.
"I believe the average Nigerian footballer is just so desperate to escape the poverty and immediately he is comfortable, he forgets that there is more that he can achieve.
"And another fact is that they have not been coached in the intelligence of the game - which proper academies can instil. But in Nigeria, every patch of sand is an academy," he added.
But the country in times past produced world-class players like Sunday Oliseh, Finidi George, Nwankwo Kanu, Emmanuel Amuneke, Taribo West etc. and these players strutted their stuff for the biggest clubs in the world - from Ajax to Juventus to Barcelona to AC Milan.
At the moment, the best we have in any top club across Europe is Mikel Obi at Chelsea, where he is not a regular starter. Deji Faremi, a football analyst asked a poignant question last year when the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2015 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations Cup, "Does Nigeria really have top or world-class players at the moment compared to other African and non-African teams?
"Imagine dumping many of these players, does Nigeria have genuinely better replacements? Do we think it's not a problem that we do well in age-grade competitions, but the players 'decline' as they grow," he asked Dumnodi Okonta, who works at Channels Television, and a keen follower of the game on the local scene, says "Our players are intellectually poor and that can be traced to the lack of a cogent football philosophy that is not driven by the NFF."
So as the transfer activities heat up, expect to hear that Nigerian players are moving to Israel, Turkey and the likes. The situation can, however, be redeemed if the football house can put things in order of importance.
Source: Premium Times
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