By Chigozie Chukwuleta
The All Africa Games may have come and gone but the memory of Nigeria’s poor outing lingers. In this interview with Coach Ladan Bosso, the Chairman of Nigerian coaches explained what happened in Ghana. He also talked about the Nigerian league and other things.
Excerpts……
Q. Nigeria went to Ghana for the All Africa Games and they came back without a medal. What happened?
A. Sometimes it is always like that, but there are things in youth football/sports development that you cannot compromise. Even as we went, I know what I went through and what the players went through. Precisely, the federation owns the football team but it was a tournament handled by the ministry. We have had a lot of discussions with the minister prior to that time but some other things didn’t add up. I know the minister was passionate particularly in the football event and we went and we couldn’t get it right. Reason not far fetched, we only had about 13 days of training and out of that 13 days we played about four friendly matches and you know what it means. We are going for a tournament and tournament is all about matches. You need to get this boys through matches as that would equally help us. We went there with the mindset of at least doing well for the country, but then God has his own way of doing things. We lost the first match and in the second match we managed ourselves compared to what happened in the first match. We made some adjustments and we won the second match. In the third match we needed a draw to qualify, we held a draw until they scored the winning goal at the ninety-something minute. So that is football for you. The question now is what did we learn from it? My own mindset which I explained to the office is that this is going to be a foundation team for subsequent outings. As Nigeria U-20 team we started with the All African Games, after this the next task is the WAFU, after which it is the Nations Cup U-20 AFCON and after that it is the World Cup. In football preparation, we have three stages namely, the foundation team, the experimental team and the main team. Just like what happened in the last World Cup in Argentina the WAFU team in Niger was a foundation team preparing ourselves for subsequent outing. Then the team we took to Egypt was the experimental team. So we look at the areas that needed reinforcement in the foundation team then we reinforced it in the Nations Cup team (the Nations Cup in Egypt) and that is the experimental team. After that, taking several things into consideration public comments inclusive, we try to adjust and inject some professional players because we went to the WAFU and Nations Cup with only one professional player. Then in the World Cup we now brought in about three professional players making it 4. So in that level of U-20 as a coach traveling with only 4 professional players you know it’s very very rare yet we were able to get it right. Get it right in that we didn’t win a trophy but everyone knew that Nigeria did her best because it was only Nigeria that scaled through the group stage, no other African country can boast of that feat in Argentina. We got to the quarter finals and we lost out of ill luck because S’Korea that defeated us 1-0 had 30 percent ball possession and we had 70 percent possession but they won. That is football for you. The Italy that we beat in group stage ended up playing in the finals. So as the game progresses the mindset changes. The lesson we have learnt from the All African Games is that we should start preparations early.
Q. Now what you said about Africa not going beyond some kind of level in World championships, what do you think is wrong?
A. We Africans take things for granted too often. Looking back at those days when Amunike was in charge of U-20, Sudan defeated us in Lagos. That U-20, the Osimhen group did not make it to the World Cup and the same team went to beat Sudan 2-1 in Sudan. Nigerians, Africans are a group of people that like to take things for granted and it is not done. Doing the right thing, getting the best results you have to be consistent that is what the Europeans have over Africans. Secondly, the facilities and process of preparation. If the European countries are going to compete against the African teams in the World Cup, you see them playing friendly matches against the African teams before the World Cup and that is part of what helped us in Argentina. We played a lot of friendly matches with the Argentine team even their league leaders too, that kept the mindset of my boys positive. It is not so for Africans but our present NFF has asked what has gone wrong and are interested in the way forward. What has gone wrong is in the technical report. The way forward is only suggested in the technical report so it is only when they go through the technical report and call us so that it will be properly digested together for progress to be made.
Q. Do you think that the perception of players not having respect for indigenous coaches is true
A. No I don’t believe that. When you say that players don’t have respect for the indigenous coaches it means the coaches make themselves cheap to the players. When you show them that you are in charge and work with them to get to the desired result, you earn your respect. It depends on how the coaches presents themselves to the players. When a coach starts asking the players for favors, the players will have the mindset that this person can be bought. When a coach is being bought over by players, forget about discipline in the camp.
Q. Looking at the NPFL, how would you describe this season?
A. This season is one of the best as far as I am concerned. This is the season we have seen the best of away results. My problem now is the tactical approach of the premier league teams and the recruitment processes of the players done by the coaches and then the support from government and supporters. These are just the areas we should work on and of course the aspect of marketing. Marketing in that when a team is managed solely by government their money can only come as soon as govt makes money available and in most cases most of these government owned clubs have same problem. The governments don’t look at them as priority except when they are pressured by the public. In the area of recruitment, it is only in Nigerian premier league teams and within the coaches that you see the recycling of old aged players and that is why we can’t market our premier league players. We have the upcoming players, the peak players and the aged players. We need at least 3/4 of the aged players to guide the young ones and then the peak players are the ones that can give you 90-minute game without showing undue fatigue. Then the upcoming players are the players that need to be carried along by the other two groups, people that will encourage them and they can equally start the game and the older ones can end.
Q. Oftentimes, Nigerian teams win the league, win the FA cup but going to the African scene they come back empty handed. Why?
A. The issue of international competition is winning away, losing at home. If you go and win an away match when that team comes to face you at home they have understood your strengths and weaknesses and they work on it. When they come to your home where you have relaxed based on a previous win they will win. That tactical issue has always been a problem. Another aspect is that the real team that are supposed to play in the continent level don’t get the chance to. We need to give a bravo to this current league management team because they want the best for the league not a league that they decide who is going for continental even before they kick off the league.
Q. You were in Enugu for the Bayern Youth Cup. How would you describe the program?
A. Personally it was overwhelming. I went there for myself and saw things for myself. The idea is a good one, we have to give kudos to the organizers. I had to send a message to my office and I told the chairman of the technical committee that I had to be there and why and he added that I stay and equally watch Enugu Rangers that played the next day. We used one stone to kill two birds and with what I saw it’s a very good thing to see such at grassroot level and for sure if other stakeholders can emulate this Nigeria will be placed at the right position where we are supposed to be. We as youth developers love to see where the youths are engaged. Look at the situation now, without this organization (VOE) these youths would have been involved in social crimes but they were busy, they want to grab something that can better their future. This is what we try to see, try to discover their talents, identify their weaknesses and strengths which will direct us on what to stop or build up. Once again I congratulate the organizers and the participants
Q. As a grassroot coach yourself do you think there is a future from what you saw there ?
A. Yes of course, I remember before the last U-20 World Cup in Argentina, when I submitted my list to the federation there were a lot of challenges, a lot of criticism about the list but just look at it. It is a youth tournament the World Cup the likes of Mohammed Beji, Jude, Sariki, Emeh they never played big clubs but I insisted on them because I know they have something to offer and today these players i just called are no longer in Nigeria they have all been signed by big clubs in Europe. These are the things that we are trying to see and in the nearest future you’ll see them playing for the Super Eagles that is our target.
Q. Did you see any quality player from the program in Enugu?
A. One good thing I want to tell you about myself is that I have had the opportunity to watch this kind of program in the North Central, the South West and if you look at the team I took to Argentina you find out that very few players are from this axis because I was not opportuned to be in the East. Now that I went for that program and with the quality of players I saw there, there is no way I did not see an exceptional player from the program and I will not have them in my team next time. When I was asked in Ghana, I said the players I took there are players I have access to, they are readily available for me to watch and work with. Now I have watched some of these boys in Enugu and I now know what I am looking for just as I have told the development team. I know what I went looking for there and it is to reinforce the team I took to Ghana so we are good to go.
Q. What is your word to all these scouts doing one program or the other in the country and are not actually impacting positively the careers of the children?
A. Some of my key players in Argentina you must have heard about them, they didn’t play in the Junior league in Nigeria talk more of the Premier league. The last time there was a playoff there in Enugu here 3/4 years ago, the likes of Wikki Tourists, Elkanemi and Co I went here on my own and at a point I was even stranded. I wanted to watch about 3-4 matches, it was Ogba Obinna that came to my rescue so you can see it is we coaches that suffer these things. We want to watch and scout new players but sometimes it’s hard. By the time you offer yourself to those scouts the middle men you are now at their mercy and they’ll influence you and want to give you players that are not of your taste. As a coach you are supposed to go and watch matches independently but when you are in Nigeria you know how that goes. We try to do what we can do to make sure we justify our presence so that we can present a team that the country is happy about.
Q. What is your word to young players?
A. You cannot be an elite footballer under one coach and the idea is that whatever coach you are under try and understand the coach and give them what they are looking for. If you meet another coach tomorrow, forget about what your former coach said and study your new coach. For coaches, the problem Nigerian coaches have is godfatherism, this is killing the game. The present coaches prefer to go with godfatherism than mentorship, a godfather will push you to any length but what happens when they are no longer there. Mentorship will always guide you mentally, technically and otherwise so go for mentorship.
Q. You are the chairman of the Nigerian Coaches Association, don’t you think it is time to begin to propagate rules and regulations that will encourage coaches to look for players at the grassroots instead of recycling the big players?
A. These are things that I personally have been doing. I remember when I coached Abia Warriors the likes of Chika, Terra, Shadrach, Olaha I got them from the streets but these guys are now already playing in big clubs in Europe. Look at what I did when I was coaching Elkanemi, someone like Mohammed Amin, I got him from his 100L, 2 years before I left Elkanami and he now plays in the Super Eagles. These are boys that never had the opportunity to play in the Junior league within the country but from grassroot to Elkanemi and from there to Super Eagles. So if you look at a player and you know what this player can offer and you know that he is a coachable player you go ahead.
