As a follow up to Seye Omidiora’s Nigerian wonderkids who never realised their potential, Goal engages Henry Abiodun in a no holds barred chat to explain why most African wonderkids fail to fulfil their potential.

Coach Abiodun is a seasoned and well-travelled football tactician.

Currently, he is the director of coaching education at Football Coaches Association of Africa Nations (FCAAN).

The commonest one in Africa is usually the falsification of age. Right now, I think it is getting better with the birth of MRI and the world monitoring Africans in this regard,” Abiodun told Goal.

“That is why you see African teams now trying to work on their very young talents – this has helped reduced cases of age cheats. In Nigeria for instance, we now have the U13 and U15 titles.

“Years back, we do not have all these because I recalled about 10 years ago when I asked how we have managed to win the U17 World Cups without having a youth department, then something is wrong.

“Age falsification has dragged us behind a lot because we have always invested in the wrong set of people, and by the time you are expected to reap from them, they start nosediving. When we play at U17 competitions, most African teams rely on our physical attributes which is one out of the six areas of physical fitness.

“In youth football, when you play players who are within 23-25 years against those below 16 and 17 years, they tend to be faster and stronger because of the style of play that is physically oriented and we end up winning.

“You will realise that in recent times, it has been difficult to win because we are beginning to understand that these age-grade tournaments are not meant to be a do or die affairs, instead of developmental tournaments where these boys will be exposed and get mature towards becoming men.”

To the former Sunshine Stars boss, the instructions young footballers get from their coaches at a developing stage go a long way in making or destroying a footballer’s progression.

Source: goal.com