Former Kwara United coach, Samson Unuanel has reiterated that Nigeria has thousands of Victor Osimhen in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and he grassroots level that are yet to be discovered.
Recall that the Napoli striker was named winner of the 2023 Africa Footballer of the Year Award after defeating Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Morocco’s Hakimi.
However, in a chat with Completesports.com, Unuanel called for the need to unearth more Osimhen in the NPFL and also grassroots level.
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“Osimhen has brought joy to Nigerians today because it has been ordain to be so. Instead of us to concentrate on the Home Based players, starting from the grassroots.
“We have more than 10, 000 Osimhen playing all over this country, the problem is, it is either we are lazy to search for them or lazy to groom them.
“Let me tell you, training players to be good is different from talented players. We have a lot of talented players in this country and Osimhen has shown the NFF the way to follow. I am not saying they should not invite those players that are playing abroad.
“Like I said, we have thousands of Osimhen roaming around the street of Nigeria. As a grassroot coach, I am happy that he won the CAF award.”
By Augustine Akhilomen
10 Comments
Well said
The grassroots, yes….the NPFL, I doubt.
Unless Mr Unuanel is referring to another NPFL.
Amongst all the Nigerian players making waves across Europe, there is a near zero representation of the NPFL.
Next to none of the homegrown players in the SE can be said to be product of the NPFL…no even Osimhen himself.
Even when they eventually make it to whatever backwater leagues they go to, their careers never grow from there….So Oga Unuanel, which of the NPFLs are you making reference to….?
Hahahaha my brother i don’t really understand this unuanel
Abeg tell them joor Dr Drey.
Since 2010 the NPFL players that have made impact internationally are too few and almost non-existent compared to the number of players that have played in the league.
As of now I only know of Ahmed Musa (2010), Efe Ambrose (2012), Oghenekaro Etebo (2016) and Godfrey Oboabona (2013). Others like Fegor Ogude, Nosa Igiebor and Anthony Ujah made minimal impact while the likes of Sunday Mbah, Juwon Oshaniwa etc fizzled out too quickly.
This is an extremely poor ratio for a thirteen year period wherein more than six hundred players feature in the NPFL per anum.
Bless you OmoEsan.
I repeat, the last player to seamlessly transit to mainstream Europe straight from the NPFL in over a decade was Ahmed Musa…and in 2 decades, Taiye Taiwo.
Charlatans who like to distort reality can argue with the records.
So much for the so-called league they say produces “many talents”.
Dr Drey that is far from the truth. What about Akor who played in the league and now doing well in France.
There were others who were not noticed or had nobody to bribe their way to be invited to the national team.
Hahahaha….Mr custodian of the truth….please which club(s) in the NPFL did Akor play for…? How many seasons did he play in the league.
And who are the others who were not noticed but are now making waves in Mainstream Europe…? Please name them….LMAOoo….tell us the last household name in the NPFL who was signed straight from the league into medium to top level European leagues for as long as your memory can serve you….LMAOoo.
Did every Nigerian born player lighting up Europe today play in the national team before hitting Europe and Making upward career moves afterwards.
Is it a crime for your quality, talented NPFL players to move to Sweden or Norway or Greece or Switzerland straight from the league for 2 seasons, from there move to Holland or France for another 2 season the land in Germany or Italy or England afterwards or land in a massive regular UCL or Europe league club like Porto, Sporting Lisbon, Galatasary, Shaktar, CSKA Moscow, Olympiakos, RB Slazburg and the likes if at all they don’t make it to the top 5 leagues…?
Did the likes of Terem Moffi, Osimhen, Iheanacho, Chukwueze, Onyedika, Collins, Zaidu, Uzoho, Alhassan, Boniface, Adebayo, etc play in the NPFL.
So please tell us who is not being truthful here…LMAOoo
Tell us which one of your NPFL players have made straight moves to mainstream Europe and sustained a career progression since after Ahmed Musa or Etebo going to a decade ago now….please don’t mention Team B and team C moves here biko….LMAOoo
For a league that registers almost 600 players every season, if is difficult for you to mention just 20 players in 20 years, out of a possible 6000, who have been talented enough to make moves like Taiyo Taiwo or Ahmed Musa…in the last 20 years…LMAOoo and you open your mouth without shame to declare you have quality players in your league….LMAOoo
Please Unuanel, don’t focus on a near-finished product and make empty pronouncements for self-promotion. How many of these NPFL players can polish themselves up to Osimhen’s standard?
Having “thousands of Osimhens” roaming the streets in poverty without a structure to develop them is nothing to be proud of
Unuanel there is any arrays or organization in Nigeria football, NFF destroy this arrays with administerive corupption and bribes by NFF members and club’s administrators and coaches , also Nigerian national team’s coaches forchossing the players with bribes and sentiments not with mentality or merit; I think if NFF members and coaches change this conduct, they will develop Nigeria football, then will produce more and more Osimhens from academies orfrom clubs, so Nigeria can reach World Cup , then reach semi- final as Morocco has done.