Some of the greatest footballers in the history of football are either excellent dribblers, or deadly goal scorers.
Their list is long and very special: Pele, Maradona, Haruna Ilerika, Rashidi Yekini, Zinadine Zidane, Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Lamine Yamal, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe, ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Abedi Pele, Kalusha Bwalya, Ahmed Musa, Victor Osimhen, and so on.
What separates these greats from the rest is their ability to do special things with the ball at their feet that others would struggle with.
They can control the ball and dribble with it with better efficiency and constancy.
In the process of this artistic expression they go past opponents and create more chances to score goals either for their team mates or for themselves.
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In short, dribbling is paramount in the breeding of exceptionally gifted football players. The easier players can control the ball, shield it from opposing players, dribble past opponents, and then pass or shoot at goal, the more special they are, irrespective of where on the field that they play.
The African Style And European Influence
Dribbling is an art form and a supreme asset to have for players. It is done with close control of the ball, clever shuffling of the feet, feinting body movements, accelerating and racing past an opponent, and so on.
Each of the greatest footballers I listed earlier had one or more of these attributes. Historically, in this part of the world, the art of dribbling became engrained in West African football culture through the influence of Sir Stanley Mathews who played for England in the 1950s and 1960s, and toured some African countries teaching the art form to footballers and coaches. It changed Nigerian football, becoming an integral part of the country’s football culture, one that became naturally cultivated in the small-sided games played on the streets of Nigeria.
When a Jay Jay would eventually go to Europe to play without the tactical and technical knowledge of a European player, what he took with him to his first German Club as an 18 year old player, were skills the German players did not have — clever mesmerizing dribbling! He did not know tactics or strategy. Those came with time in Europe!
Nwankwo Kanu, like ‘Jay Jay’ had uncanny skills of expression on the ball. Ahmed Amusa, Tijani Babangida, Finidi George, all had superb dribbling skills of taking on defenders and racing past them.
The same thing happened to the army of African footballers that moved abroad to play in European leagues through the decades from the early 1990s. They took with them that skill of expressiveness on the ball, plus the physicality of speed and power, to compliment what Europe had in abundance — team tactics, organisation, players’ movement off and on the ball, and so on.
Nigerian players were very ‘hot’ for the European football market because of what they brought to the table – the dribble, athleticism, speed and power. Now, one of the most important ingredient has diminished badly.
Coaching Insights From The Remo Stars Vs Mamelodi Sundowns Clash
Last Sunday, I was at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena in Abeokuta, part of my Sports Ambassadorial role in Ogun State, to watch the African Club Championship match between Nigeria’s current league Champions, Remo Stars FC of Ikenne, and their South African counterparts, Mamelodi Sundowns FC.
The Decline Of Domestic Nigerian Football
No match has ever revealed the current state and standard of Nigerian football better than that match.
It may be a record of some sort, but I cannot recall any Nigerian club side ever losing a continental club match at HOME by as many goals as Remo Stars FC did last Sunday. They conceded 5 goals and scored only one. At the end, rather than bemoan the humiliating loss, we all left the stadium acknowledging the superiority of the South Africans and accepting the depths to which domestic Nigerian football had fallen.
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All the evidence was in that single match between the two biggest teams in Nigeria and South Africa!
I sat with the most powerful persons in Nigerian sports — the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, the Chairman of the National Sports commission, and his Director-General. The only person missing was the Chairman of the League Management Board.
We all acknowledged the yawning gap between the two teams as reflected in the humiliating final scoreline. The two teams do not belong to the same planet, right now!
Coaching Conversations And The Missing Foundations
Since that match, in several media, I have read many, very good reviews and opinions on what went wrong. I listened to the owner of Remo Stars FC, Otunba Kunle Soname’s very insightful exposition of the disparity between the football business in Nigeria and South Africa, and why Nigerian clubs cannot compete at the current level of football in Africa for many reasons that he listed. Some other countries like South Africa, and the North Africans have overtaken Nigeria.
If Remo Stars FC are Nigeria’s current pin-up club, a model of modern club football management (run without government interference), what then needs to be done to change the tide?
Why is the Remo Stars FC model not yielding the right dividends in player-development?
That ‘jaw jawing’ by so-called experts straddling the corridors of Nigerian football administration will surely now continue, and will NOT produce or provide the answers until some fundamental issues are understood and dealt with.
Coaching, Grassroots And The Lost Nigerian Football Identity
One is the restructuring of the administration of football in Nigeria. This is a seminal conversation that should clearly and fearlessly address the issue of who the genuine stakeholders are to be responsible for the development of football in Nigeria. For now it is generally NOT in the right hands.
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So, back to the football match.
In that single match, myths were shattered and reality was revealed. Nigeria may have the biggest leagues in the continent, but they are far from being the best.
Players from the domestic leagues are just not good enough for the Super Eagles, period!
Academies And The Wrong Football Priorities
The coaching at grassroots level is very very very poor. It is not well understood and the prescriptions are wrong. Yet, that is the foundation of Nigerian football players where they are imbibed with the culture of expressiveness in football, the dribbling skills I wrote about earlier, an art that separates the best from the rest, a basic ingredient that is missing in the streets and in the sprawling academies all over the country.
Unfortunately, most of these academies are established NOT for the purpose of grooming exceptionally gifted talents to maturity, but to sell sprouting seeds of footballers without firm roots entrenched by Nigeria’s football traditions as found in the streets.
Last Sunday, the match in Abeokuta was the easiest the South Africans must have played in their history against a Nigerian side. They strolled through it like a training session. The Nigerian team was no match. The players were no match too.
Admittedly, 7 of the players in the South African team are in the current squad of Bafana Bafana, the national team of South Africa that the Super Eagles could not defeat during their last World Cup qualifier encounter. The team had two Brazilians manning and controlling the midfield.The goalkeeper is the captain of the national team. The average player in the South African team earns five to ten times what Nigeria’s highest paid players in the league earn. And so on and so forth. Everything was weighted against Remo Stars FC.
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Yet, the truth is that domestic Nigerian football is not doing well at all. It may have slightly better organised leagues than some years ago, but the football being played cannot produce exceptional players for many good reasons, including the uncontrolled flood of migrating players to the rest of the world from the league year-in, year-out.
Coaching, The True Key To Nigerian Football Revival
Beyond that, however, is the production line of the players that is most important. We are not producing exceptionally gifted players again – those that can do things with the ball! Only one player in the Remo Stars team stood out, and he is not even a Nigerian. He is from Liberia. The other players in Nigeria’s current best team, were, individually, just not good enough!
One area where everything has gone wrong is coaching. Coaches now de-emphasize the art of dribbling and, instead, work for foreign scouts looking for particular kinds of players. Coaches now emphasize the passing game and sacrifice that which makes Nigerian football players uniquely special.
It may be that simple.
Coaching, Grassroots Revival And Nigeria’s Football Future
We must return our attention to football coaching at the grassroots, on the streets, and in the schools, and get games masters and specialized coaches to resume teaching the children basic dribbling and scoring skills. These are natural to us and are ingredients to make us the best in the world.
My two pence!
5 Comments
With all due respect to “Mathematical Segun Odegbami, the gulf in class between Remo Stars of Nigeria Vs Memelodi Sundowns is a reflection of, not grassroot coaching, but the fact that Nigerian league lack the Financial wherewital to compete with the South African or North African leagues, particularly Moroccan, Egyptian and Tunisian leagues.
You did mention that the average wages of the Sundowns players is 5-10 times more than that of the highest paid Remo’s player- and Remo players are probably the best paid in Nigeria! So how do you want then to be able to compete? The fund available to Wydad Athletics Club of Morocco would probably buy the whole 20 or so teams in the NPFL.
Because of the continuous devaluation of our Currency (Naira), Nigerian players pay have steadily become worthless, such that every decent player ships out even before they are 16yrs old to anywhere in bottom leagues in Europe- Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Croatia, Belarus before catching the eyes of the decent Western European sides. Those stuck in Nigerian leagues are the “below average” players who cannot even signed by Tanzanian and Kenyan Clubs.
It’s not only in player wages that the Nigerian league is lacking but in all aspect of player welfare and motivation, poor training facilities and lack of decent football infrastructure.
I am not too sure that Grassroot Coaching is an issue because Nigerian football Academies are still producing decent footballers that are shipped away, at young age, mostly to Europe and are not available in the NPFL to compete with their peers within the Continent- the likes of Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze, Wilfred Ndidi all left for Europe right from their Acedemies and never played in the NPFL before leaving for Europe at very early age.
I your days of active football playing, Oga Odegbami, the Naira was worth even more than the Dollar and there was no motivation to leave the Nigerian league to cold Europe as Scavengers.
So St Eloi Lupopo, that humbled Orlando Pirates 3-0 on home soil in the first leg of their CAFCL match are earning more than Pirates abi….that is why they could humble a team that has supplied nearly 50% of the players that featured for Bafana Bafana in their last 4 World Cup qualifiers leading to their qualification for the world cup.
Continue lying to yourself and to charlatans like you who take you seriously, all in the name of patriotism.
Even in the years when Enyimba won the CAFCL back to back, they were not earning half what clubs like Ismaili, Esperance or Etoile du Sahel were earning…..yet they found a way to overcome such teams all the way to winning back to back CAF CL trophies.
But Remo stars disgracefully being humbled on home soil is as a result of earning less than Mamelodi sundowns players.
My people will say “dem say person beta pass you, you say shebi na small, ngwa go buy the small for market na”.
Left to cheap liars like you……even the EPL is not better than the local league, it’s just that there is more money in the EPL.
If I didnt know better, I would have said it is Quality that attracts money into football. You don’t sell trash and expect businesses to pour their hard-earned profits into the trash you are selling. So if a league has more money than yours, then go and improve the all-around value you are offering. How many times have you heard of crowd trouble in SA league…? How many times have you heard home teams bribing referees to win at home at all cost…? By the way do you know that NO NIGERIAN REF, ASST REF or VAR REF was selected by CAF to officiate at the next AFCON…..??? I guess its also because Nigerian refs also do not have as much money as their counterparts across the continent.
Even Mr Odegbami, the biggest advocate of local players and local coaches, has finally conceded defeat……yes….FINALLy. He has finally agreed with what Dr.Drey (who is not patriotic and always spreading dark clouds about Nigerian football) has always reiterated on CSN for almost half a decade now. He has finally agreed with Dr.Drey that “….One area where everything has gone wrong is coaching….”. He has also finally agreed with Dr.Drey that “….Players from the domestic leagues are just not good enough for the Super Eagles, period!….”
SA league players are not better than Nigerian league players…..its just because they have more money……LMAOooo…..SA coaches are not better than Nigerian coaches, its just because they have more money…….LMAOooo……but our U20s qualified from the same U20 AFCON and went to the same U20 WC and the SAns were better in every ramification. Our CHAN teams competed in the same CHAN tournament (despite SA using mostly clubless, 2nd division and benchwarming players) yet they were still better than Nigeria’s CHAN team in every ramification in the last CHAN tournament. Even with out star studded all europe based SE players, their main team qualified for the world cup (I will add technically with a game to spare since they only 3 points in the board room rather than on the pitch) ahead of us…….I guess all these were still because their players and coaches have more money than ours.
Mr Odegbami must have joined Dr.Drey in becoming an unpatriotic liar who is just out there to deceive Nigeria about the current state of Nigerian football. I am talking about the former national team player, captain, and manager, the no 1 promoter of the local players and local coaches project finally admitting, now that the scales has fallen off his eyes, that he has been wrong all the while.
But Mr Partiortic TONY K, who is the most patriotic Nigerian, who always says “true and nice things” about Nigerian football is still here dropping trash and lies as usual in arguement with Mr Odegbami and the “…most powerful persons in Nigerian sports — the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, the Chairman of the National Sports commission, and his Director-General…..”
Don’t worry, continue telling yourselves more lies ehn……..Y’all have not started getting jealous of Dr.Drey and his “I TOLD YOU SO” yet. There’s will continue to be more ” I told you so” because of born liars like you who see the truth as an aberation that must be silenced. But what you dont know is that the truth can never be silenced.
Local league players are not better than South african league players yet they cant make the group stage of CAF competitions whereas SA league teams are always among favorites to win the trophy.
SA coaches are not better than Nigerian coaches, yet Man United’s assistant coach for 3 years was a South African, Real Oviedo in the La liga currently has a South African coach, 2 or 3 national teams in Africa currently has a SAn head coach, 3 to 4 clubs in north Africa have SAn coaches, a South African got to 3 back to back CAF CL final as ALhaly’s coach within the last 5 years.
Dont worry ehn…..as they say in local parlance……you go explain, explain, explain, you go explain taya because no EVIDENCE.
Continue spilling lies out there in the name of patriotism ehn…….very soon, between you and Dr.Drey, the world will know who the enemy of Nigeria’s football progress is.
I wont be suprised if one day you so-called patriotism forces you to claim the EPL is not better than the NPFL, its just that there is more money in the EPL and the pound is of more value than the naira.
“By the way do you know that NO NIGERIAN REF, ASST REF or VAR REF was selected by CAF to officiate at the next AFCON…..???”
You missed adding the most important link to that sentence…
“… FOR THE 19TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR!”
The last time we had a referee at afcon was in 2006.
Pride no go let ndi patriots see the folly of their “patriotism” jare.
Even as Mathematical don dey born again (and e go too pain many), others will like to swim with the failed patriot diatribe.
They think telling lies many times will automatically become truth.
Remo Stars suffered from the departure of almost the entire team that won the league last season.
Prof. Odegbami nailed it, the European style not only affected our football but also Brazils. Tite who qualified the team prior WCQ 2022 with losing a game went to pollute his Brazilian skills by going on Internship in Europe and Brazil left the world cup shamefully.
Rohr killed the creativity just to keep possession by replying on the wingers to dribble only. The other players became workers while the only playmakers were the wingers albeit Moses Simon, Victor Moses.
Our style that Prof described relies on the quality of team selected because when the dribblers loose possession, the workers will retrieve the ball without having to drag the playmakers coming to defend. Rashidi never defended one day.
But the reality is that the olden Eagles cannot run as their ages suggest coupled with a lack of competition for places which makes those selected work their socks off. No wonder Peseiro turned us to a defensive team to achieve his aim with such rigidity that it cost him his job.
We need to device a unique style of play for our national teams (both male and female), cutting across all teams from under 17 to the senior national teamd. The same style of play should also dominate our local leagues. From there we can have a unique style of play. Take for instance, all Spanish teams have a peculiar style, same with the Italians, the Germans, the Dutch and English national teams.