A highly resourceful and well-travelled football coach, Abdulfatai Omotanwa Abdulwahab has blamed poor facilities and insufficient equipment for slow rate development of talents in the country, Sports247 reports.
Abdulwahab added that Nigeria’s cadet national team, Golden Eaglets have failed to qualify for the FIFA U17 World Cup in recent years because the right quality of coaches is not available to groom talents at the grassroots.
The well-acclaimed youth developer, who has over 15 years’ coaching experience, gained from working in Nigeria, Benin Republic, Namibia and South Africa, gave his views while appearing on ‘Hot Seat’ segment of Sports247’s weekly television programme, Inside Naija Sports, during which he called for better efforts from football egg heads in the country.
The former player at LSDPC FC of Lagos, Jasper United of Awka as well as Eleven Arrows and Blue Water FC of Namibia, reckoned further that Nigeria needs a revival of former youth football development methods in order to get out of the abyss.
Abdulwahab, who is now the head coach of Greenlock FC of Lagos in the Nationwide League One (NLO), reflected on his personal experience, in which a chance occurrence turned his life around, and conceded that many talents now depend on luck to move ahead.
“When I was young, I was not a soccer player,” Abduwahab recalled, “I was a boxer, but it was something that my mother did not like.
“She often said, ‘No, no, no …boxing you can’t do.’ So, after some years, I put my interest into football. Immediately after my days in secondary school, I joined LSDPC of Lagos.
“I played some years with LSDPC before I joined Jasper United and then moved to Namibia. My move to Namibia came through a chance opportunity when I went to play Sunday-Sunday football at Agege.
“A guy just came to me and told me that I was a fantastic goalkeeper. He said he had watched me play against Udoji United in the league, and he had a deal for me in Namibia.
“He said it was an opportunity for me to play outside Nigeria and, before long … maybe two or three weeks … I found myself in Namibia.”
The soft-spoken tactician, who holds CAF B-licence, FCAAN D-diploma and UEFA C-level 1 certificates, among other qualifications, further spoke about the experience he gained from playing in Namibia and coaching in South Africa, where he recalled that everything is effectively done.
“I noticed a big difference over there. Outside Nigeria, they make playing football easy for you, in terms of money aspect, facilities and the environment.
“Even the players you want to develop will enjoy the atmosphere. On the other hand, here in Nigeria, things are not easy. Facilities are not enough, training equipment is not adequate and the pitches are bad.
“Nevertheless, we have to manage what we have and make the best of it. This is where I started and, as Nigerians, we just have to manage what we have,” the cool and calm tactician submitted.
Sports247 adds that, while speaking further during the programme that airs weekly on YouTube and NTA News24, Abdulwahab also proferred solutions to problems affecting football development in Nigeria.
He pointed out that a major development is the aspect of training coaches in modern techniques of the game, which he reckoned is being achieved with the recent organisation of several coaching courses in the country.
