By Chigozie Chukwuleta
Beach Soccer have been described as a game with tremendous growth and acceptability in Nigeria.
This is the opinion of veteran Beach Soccer player and member Kebbi Beach Soccer Club, Babatunde Badmus while speaking with Newspathfinder at Nnewi at the just concluded Nigeria Beach Soccer League Second Round.
According to him, Beach Soccer is developing rapidly with it’s league growing in leaps and bounds. “Beach Soccer is getting amazing and growing great in Nigeria. It is developing rapidly and high too. You can see states from the North, East and West coming together”,
“We just need support of government and the Federation. The game is growing fast. We just need little push of encouragement from the FA and other stakeholders to do more. With support, beach soccer will explode in Nigeria”, he said.
Speaking on the fortunes of Nigeria in beach Soccer at world level, the member of the 2019 Sand Eagles said that poor preparation and absence of beach soccer league earlier hindered the desired progress.
“I was a member of the team that went to the world cup in 2019. Our preparation was bad. We had no league, they brought players from the regular football league to play. So there was no structure then”,
“The FA now decided which was the best. To go back to the drawing board. Go to the grassroot, start the league. With that now, we can’t go to Enyimba, Pillars etc to pick players. Now we pick from the Beach Soccer league people who play day in day out to represent the country. And you can see it is getting better. Hopefully Nigeria will do better in the next international outing”.
“At the African level, we are unstoppable. We are not participating but our presence in any Nations Cup will be like ‘the lions are back’. They know we are ever ready. Seeing us back, all the teams will sit up because the lions are back”.
For the young aspiring Beach Soccer players, Badmus advised them to stay focused and determined. “They should stay focused and determined in making their choices. You know this life is all about choices. First of all love what you want to do. When they love it they will enjoy it. They should make up their minds and be passionate about it. I love this thing, I want to do it. They will see the best out of it”.
” For me I love the game of Beach Soccer. I saw the adventure when we play in the beach, the fun and entertainment. You know beach is all about entertainment. When we started playing there, I started developing the interest. So when the game came up, l said this is what I love and have been doing since childhood. I love it and follow it passionately. That’s the way to grow in it”, he said.
Pix by Nasir Auwal
