There is no gain saying the fact that sports and all it entails is a money-spinner. In our contemporary society, few parents would whip their wards for showing uncommon aptitude for any of the litany of sports that exist in our time.
Today, the prevailing fad of yore where parents descended on their child (ren) who play either football, table tennis, badminton, volleyball and the likes has long panned into oblivion. There have been instances where some parents have had to persuade and encourage any of their children to embrace sports vis-à-vis his area of expertise. Parents of such child (ren) who take to any sports of their choice are given all the support there is for them to make the needed headway in their chosen field of endeavour.
Even families who fall within the low income bracket suddenly cough out cash to finance the growth of their ward(s). They dig deep and go any length to see that their ward(s) excel in life. In a desperate bid to have their ward(s) succeed in the game, some of them have taken up the mantle of being both the managers and agents of their sports-loving kids ostensibly to keep them away from the prying eyes of shylock agents who have overtime put the future of many budding talents in jeopardy through the dubious and fraudulent deals they enter into with their so-called foreign clubs.
A case study is Kelechi Iheanacho, the young star from South Eastern Nigeria who dazzled the football community at the last under-17 world cup in United Arab Emirates (UAE) with his mesmerism, adept footwork, defense-splitting passes and what have you. His contribution was rewarded with the ‘golden shoe’ as he went home with the enviable accolade as the tournament’s best player.
One had expected this whizz-kid to fly high in his career, alas; his hitherto promising career is precariously hanging on a tread. Not a few soccer loving Nigerians celebrated his meteoric rise occasioned by the invitation handed him by Coach Stephen Keshi in preparation for the last African Nations Cup Championship in South Africa (CHAN 2014). The atmosphere and feeling among soccer-crazy Nigerians was simply orgasmic when the youngster hit the training camp to be drilled by the coaching team led by the irrepressible and most successful Nigerian Coach, Stephen Keshi.
As preparations for the tournament for players plying their trade in their domestic leagues gathered steam, a legion of European clubs came calling. Pronto, he choosed Manchester City above the rest and jittered off to East London to finalize the deal. That move did not augur well for the quest at hand. For Stephen Keshi, the youngster had flouted camp rules and ethics. And for having the effrontery to leave the training for England, Keshi declared him surplus to requirements.
He was dropped from the travelling party to South Africa. What could ordinarily have been a quantum leap for the young lad turned out to be a huge debacle. The purported deal failed, owing to the involvement of too many ‘cooks’ who ended up bungling a contract that could have surely shot the rich talent of this precocious lad to limelight.
His story is just one of the messy deals that have been orchestrated by shylock agents who prowl around the length and breadth of the country with scant abandon looking for whom to devour. They take advantage of the impressionable minds of these young players to cajole them to sign for countries whose place in football matters is nothing to write home about.
Many of these agents have gone as far as ingratiating themselves with the parents of these players to curry favour and have an unfettered access to their ward(s). They put on the garb of sanctimonious piety to navigate their way.
Those who know the enormous cash inherent in sports cry blue murder whenever our young athletes are taken for a ride.
Today, there has been a proliferation of football academics all over the country all with the sole intent of projecting and promoting the rich vein of talents possessed by young Nigerians. Some of these academies have made concrete and deliberate efforts to align their methods with what is obtainable in other climes thereby putting in place the right environment and mechanisms that have served as a springboard for our athletes to ‘advertise’ themselves to the global community.
It is noteworthy that these academies produced the bulk of players that stunned the world in United Arab Emirates (UAE) earlier in the year. Our own Samuel Okon, who made the left-wing back his personal fiefdom sprung from “Greater Tomorrow Football Academy” based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Most of these academies are owned and financed by individuals who have embraced the global nature of sports.
A visit to some of these academies will reveal a dearth in some basic facilities that make the beautiful game thick.
Owners of these academies run their establishment from their pockets without an atom of support from either the government or corporate bodies.
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