President of Nigeria Football Coaches Association Ladan Bosso has in the wake of goalkeeping problems bedevilling Nigeria’s national teams, charged league clubs’ coaches to step up by producing good goalkeepers for the Super Eagles, Completesports.com reports.
The former coach of Nigeria’s U-20 side, Flying Eagles, says the solution to Super Eagles’ goalkeeping problems lies on the coaches involved in local league.
“We have to work harder to unearth and polish young goalkeepers that will go on to take charge of Super Eagles posts as number one. Honestly, we have young lads manning goals for our league clubs , but they are either not encouraged or not ambitious enough
“If you ask me I will tell you that we have goalkeepers who could have competed with the three we took to the World Cup in Russia. But they lost out because they lack confidence or they are not encouraged, or that we the domestic coaches are not working on them to excel” Bosso stated
He continued: “Brazil went through this patch with their national team until their federation and coaches went to work and today, they can boast of four world class goalkeepers including Allison Becker of Liverpool and Ederson of Manchester City. I believe we can also achieve that feat if we put our acts together
“I think we can count on goalkeepers like Ayeleso of Kano Pillars, Ojo Olorunleke, Dele Ajiboye and quite a few young goalkeepers to solve our problems. In the history of Super Eagles, Carl Ikeme was the only goalkeeper who never played our league. All our other goalkeepers have always been products of our league and we have to continue doing that” Bosso who coached took two of Nigeria’s World Cup goalkeepers, Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Daniel Akpeyi to the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup stated.
By Richard Jideaka, Abuja
6 Comments
Our goal keepers trainer should put the National interest first and above his personal and sectional interest, what is happening in goal keeping department now started even under the late Stephen Keshi of Blessed memory. I remember vividly when a home based goal keeper was foisted on the super Eagles even when everyone new that he was not only not good enough for the super Eagles, he was not even among the first three goal keepers locally. We are seeing it all over again. Let us all be a little more patriotic.
The Super Eagles goal-keeping issue is a very sad one. When you are relaxing and watching the National team play, you want to be confident that your goal keeper is up and doing and can hold his own against any good opposition or strckers. Unfortunately, all Super Eagles` goal-keepers do not inspire confidence and I almost died from heart attack on so many ocassions while watching our defences and goal tenders after the departure of Karl Ikeme.
Francis Uzoho is an average goal-keeper and not good enough for the Eagles. A sick Vincent Enyema is better than the one Rohr considers our current best.
Did I read that Enyama has promised to return when he finds a club? Good Lord, we can`t wait for the return of the king!
With the brand new invitees to the Eagles made up of mostly strickers and midfielders, Rohr should further invite one more powerful defender to support the ones we have now and two new goal-keekeepers (while eventually dropping the three goal-keepers Nigeria took to the last world cup, including Uzoho) and the Super Eagles will trully be “super” and ready to take on any opposition.
“Did I read that Enyama has promised to return when he finds a club?”
…..If only he were the same Enyeama if old, he wouldnt need to trial at dijon (albeit unsuccessfully) and be looking for a club all over the place.
While you are waiting for Enyeama to return, kindly ass Ike shorunmu and Peter Rufai to your list.
Perhaps the first place to start is to replace the current SE goalkeeper trainer, Alloy Agu. He has not been able to provide any impressive product, and I have a strong suspicion too that Ezenwa is just filling a slot based on special privilege. Just like Agbim in the days of Keshi, who can categorically claim and beat his chest confidently that Ezenwa is the best locally? See the way Uzoho upped his game in the match against Ukraine because there was another newly invited young gun (Okoye) in the wings waiting to take his chance if he flopped. Let’s find another good third hand to join these 2 — maybe Sebastiane Osigbwe or some other safe and agile glovesman between the sticks.
I thought Rohr once said Carl Ikeme would join the technical bench. What is holding that move? I think we need a new goalkeeper trainer. Alloy Agu and Ezenwa should make way, please. If Carl Ikeme is not up to scratch, let NFF search for a new goalkeeper trainer with proven results — even if it’s a foreign trainer. It’s a crisis situation now. I’m just imagining Firminho, Gabriel Jesus and Neymar in our 18-yard box especially if Tite manages to play all 3 in his formation.
He is right. This is not about Enyeama or Alloy Agu. Enyeama has been clubless since 2017, 2 years so any wishes for him to get a club, come back and be the same keeper he was in 2014 (5years who) is just fantasy.
It’s not for the super Eagles coach to produce talents, just to work with what he is given. One thing I noticed last season, is of the clubs that topped the NPFL, the super six, up to 75% of them had Ghanaian goalkeepers. Nana Bonsu et al.
The clubs rather than develop players are now going for ready made solutions. So much so that the national teams from Under 17 to the Super Eagles are having to do the same.
The under 17 camp has two keepers, Jinadu of West Ham and Oluwabusola of Bournemouth. The under 20 and under 23 are looking at keepers from Tottenham and Arsenal and took Zavala from Italy to the World Cup. The Super Eagles season now evaluating Maduka Okoye from Germany.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Nigerians wherever they are should not be given a chance to shine and show they are the best, rather that we are not producing these goalkeepers locally to compete with them. The clubs in Nigeria are going foreign and the country is following suit.
What this means for the development of players locally is frightening.
Zavala: Zaccala