Well organized talent hunt programs for grassroot football players have been identified as the hallmark of football development. In Nigeria, VOE Foundation has taken the task of quality talent hunt programs to the zenith with the sponsorship of Bayern Youth Cup Nigeria. In this interview, Mr Victor Obinna Edeh, the man behind the mask of a seven year successful harvest and harness of talents in Nigeria through the Bayern Youth Cup Nigeria gave details of the program and plans ahead.
Excerpts….
Q What is the motivation behind Bayern Munich Youth Cup in Nigeria?
A I think I’ve been asked this question a lot and I usually say we’ve never had a Nigerian who has played for Bayern. Christian Sabaa who was here during 2024 edition played for Bayern. Kuffour was a legend so it makes logical sense for them to go to Ghana. I find it an honour and a privilege that the work I did for FC Bayern in North America made it possible for them to listen to me when we decided to start a project in Africa. They looked at the different locations and I made a passionate appeal, having a collaboration with my foundation made it very easy because I was part of the system. I work in the system so it was literally continuing the work we do all over the world so that was the motivation.
Since then, the amount of talent that we’ve produced in the last seven years I think solidified and cemented the faith and trust. We have projects in Rwanda and South Africa and it was only possible because of Nigeria’s effort
Q: Seven years down the line,what is your current motivation and what are the challenges?
A: Seven years down the line, a big motivation is setting up a structure for Nigerian football. We’re in the middle of setting up a Center of Excellence where we’ll start to admit U-15, U-17 and U-19 and develop them appropriately using FC Bayern philosophy. That’s our biggest motivation.
On Bayern’s end, we want to find a player from Nigeria who will play for FC Bayern’s first team. That’s the biggest motivation. That’s when we would record a big success.
Q: What are the Challenges?
A: I’ll start with funding because hundred percent of the funding is borne by the foundation. Bayern provides all the technical support and the apparel. We’ve given out apparel of over 40 million for this edition so Bayern supported us with that. If you count in kind what they do, it’s well over 300million a year from their end. But flights have to be paid, hotels have to be paid, transport and looking after the kids. So economics still comes out of the foundation and we are fortunate enough to have friends of the foundation and family who have been supportive in the vision. Now we have Victor Orakpo at OGC Nice. We have Kelvin at Crystal Palace, Daniel went to Bayern- he’s at Innsbruck right now. These boys will start to mature and they’ll be in good enough economic position to start to give back and that’s how we can be sustainable.
Q: This program or project seems to me not for winning. But that is what some of the coaches and players come for. What are you going to do to increase awareness for better understanding of what this program is for?
A: I think it’s our culture. We want to win. Nigeria are record champions Under-17 level but we’ve been unable to transition that to the under-20’s. Yes we won the Olympics at U-23 but at the national team we’ve not gotten past the second round because we lay a lot of emphasis on winning. In Europe, there are no scores recorded before you’re eleven, to add to competitiveness you attend tournaments but the key is development. In Nigeria we focus a lot on winning. We’ve managed to try and translate it in our tournaments. The teams who have participated over the years realized that it’s about finding the best talent to develop. So as they start to understand it, it’s starting to look better. In the first edition, everyone was out to win but now people know that you might win the trophy and you don’t have a shirt to represent Nigeria, so it’s changing. We believe consistency is the key. We run our coach academy and technical support is provided by Bayern. We bring these coaches in free of charge and emphasise the need for development. We bring the Bayern U-13 and U-15 coach and pair them up with Nigerian coaches to tell them the fundamentals. You go all our competition after 17, 18 and that’s when you’re ready to compete. So before then, you’re training to become an athlete
Q: What are the significant gains over seven years?
A: Yeah, I think in terms of success, we just spoke about winning, a lot of people will focus on winning. We’re back to back world champions in Germany. But from our end as a foundation, it’s about the human development. This year was in Kano and we’ve seen players from 2018 coming back with their own team as coaches. And this to us is success. It means that these kids who participate, go back get an education, become journalists, etc. The best player in 2018 now works in sports journalism. We have someone who is a sports photographer. So the transition, that is really success.
I fly with these kids to Germany and you see the excitement the first time they’re in flight. And you see that this is something they’ve never thought about and that to them is a big success and they hold it for the rest of their lives. So those are the biggest successes. There’s the obvious professional ones who’ve gone there. Yes as long as we continue to provide a platform, we know that more and more will happen. The more is a Center of Excellence.
Q: Talking about providing the platform, now to Victor Obinna Edeh, what is left for you as a person and will there be that time you say “no, me as a person, I’ve had enough”?
A: A: Well from my end, fortunately I’ve been involved in sports all my life: Pepsi Football Academy, Ball Boy for Rangers, watched Jasper, Iwuanyanwu, Eagle Cement and I’m only 35. I know I’ll be in football when I’m 70 if I’m still here. I don’t think I will stop. I think the Youth Cup is actually the smallest project in the sports development ecosystem for me. I’m fortunate enough to help. I’m helping UEFA organize the Euro U-19 later this year. I’m fortunate enough to do this for Confederations. It will rub off. This is what I will do. I want to be able to hand over and sustainability is key. I think this is where my education comes in handy as in I have a degree in sport business management and policy. The framework for sustainability is at the heart of everything I’m doing. The youth cup sustains itself by virtue of the graduates. They will be able to economically keep the cup to be on going. There’s the world squad, there’s the global academy, there’s the center of excellence we’ll launch and we’ll be housing 120 kids and this will combine education and football.
We want to start hosting international tournaments. We want Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Barcelona, Arsenal to come and play locally against our local boys. I already have agreements with some of these clubs but with everything you go with time. And that’s why I say the Youth Cup is the smallest of the projects that’s about to come.
Q: Some businesses in Nigeria most especially your Nigeria and my Nigeria die because of non- interest of authorities like the government. So to what extent has the government, the authorities-like the Nigerian Football Federation been supportive?
A: Unofficially, the support is there, you can tell. The head of coaches and national U-20 coach, Ladan Bosso was here. I think Manu was in camp, that’s why he didn’t come. We’ve had Manu come down in 2020. In 2019, Gernot Rohr was here. We’ve had the support of the national team. In 2021 we played a friendly game between the national U-17 so on that front, the support is there. Locally here we’ve used the stadium and the sport’s unit. I was fortunate to head his Excellency’s transition committee and my number one request was for the Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium to be sorted out and for the Rangers to come home. I’m delighted we were able to host a Youth Cup in that stadium and that’s testament to progress. And if that’s my contribution, that is enough. Not just Enugu boys have used this facility but boys from Jos, boys from Kano and it’s testament to what we’re doing.
I heard this saying recently,”Nothing is too big.” To the government, to CAF, to the Federation, to FIFA, nothing is too big to give our foundation. The plans we have will make easy the mission of FIFA. The motivation of this is a conversation I had with the head of global development telling me, “You’re Nigerian and you have this vision. Go home, go create a strong sports ecosystem. You have the talent” and that’s it.
Q: Nigeria is going to Germany to defend the title. What is your word or promise to Nigerians as you’re going for the treble?
A: From my end, it’s about the development. First off, we’re going to have to invite the boys to camp, go through all the administrative details of visas and ensuring we get a team to Germany. Once we get there for me, it’s just to enjoy football and it takes a lot of commitment. I wouldn’t like to put pressure on the boys because they’ve gone back to back. There’s no pressure. You could have the best tournament and be the best team but not win it. We hope a combination of luck, tenacity, desire and commitment will see us placed very highly. It’s most important that we identify four boys that will take the next step up. I’ll take that over the trophy.
