forgiveness:



The National project was only to discover talents but it was not the National project that paid for his trip to Europe. Someone paid for him.

Who paid for Alaba and other Nigerians born abroad to play in Academy? Hustling Nigerian parents or well wishers.

Habib Makanjuola was doing well before he came to play for the U17. So, he have been dropped for those who are not doing well as you earlier said.

forgiveness:


@bolded

Sir, what do you say about Habib Makanjuola who is doing well before he was drafted into the U17?

enomakos:
why change a successful system?just because of alaba?

shogz89:
did he play throughout the tournament?

TheGoodJoe:


I honestly believe the handlers should have dropped Makanjuola. There were other youngsters like Godwin Savior who could have taken his place.

But, if the coaches felt they want the continuity of the talent spotted in a National talent hunt by playing him with the National team set up. It is not such a bad idea.

So, I do not know why the deviated or bent the norm for Makanjuola.

Alaba on the other hand was a professional footballer. He was even in a far better condition than Alaba. If you believe that if we are using the U17 to promote grassroot talents, that Makanjuola a Chelsea academy player should not make the team, why are you furious of the Coaches dropping a professional European footballer?

shogz89:
did he play throughout the tournament?

Icon4s:


Makanjuola only came in as a second half sub in that 3-3 draw against Sweden. He was far from being adequate and was subsequently permently dropped to d benches for d rest of d tourney.

forgiveness:


I am glad you admitted that you do not know why they deviated or bent for Makanjuola and others(foreign based) to fight for a shirt lately. Maybe it's the new trend to search for talented players.

I believe that we are using U17 to promote grassroot talents hence my support for any talented players regardless of where they are based. That's my point and we can see NFF also concur to it.

Alaba was still in the Fk Austria Wien Academy in 2007.

forgiveness:


I am glad you admitted that you do not know why they deviated or bent for Makanjuola and others(foreign based) to fight for a shirt lately. Maybe it's the new trend to search for talented players.

I believe that we are using U17 to promote grassroot talents hence my support for any talented players regardless of where they are based. That's my point and we can see NFF also concur to it.

Alaba was still in the Fk Austria Wien Academy in 2007.

safarigirl:
This forgiveness sha......inferiority complex is a disease.

forgiveness:


You are wrong sir, Makanjuola only came in as a second half sub in the first match against Mexico. He came in the 82nd minutes as the youngest player for Nigeria at 14 years. How can you access him with 7 minutes to the end of a match?

TheGoodJoe:


I have a feeling he is based overseas and he does not understand much about Nigerian football. That is why he does not rate Nigerian local footballers. He feels those in Europe are the obvious best and we should stick to them.

Icon4s:


Emmanuel Amuneke: Featured first for Nigeria at the 1991 AAG as a 20yrs old. Former African Footballer of the year, African nations cup winner, Olympic Gold medalist, scored twice in the 1994 world cup, former Barcelona winger, adjudged to be the best left wing forward in the world during his time at Barcelona.

Celestine Babayaro: Featured first for Nigeria's U17 in 1993 as a 15yrs old. U17 World Cup winner, scored at the 1998 FIFA WC, Olympic Gold medalist, former Chelsea and Newcastle left back.

Yakubu Aiyegbeni: Featured first for Nigeria's 2000 Olympics team as a 17yrs old. 3rd highest goal scorer in Nigeria's football history, played for Middlesbrough, Everton, Leichester City amongst others, 2nd highest scoring African ever in the EPL (jst behind Drogba).

Nwankwo Kanu: Featured first for Nigeria's U20 in 1993 before being sent to the U17 same year. FIFA U17 WC winner, Olympic gold medalist, UEFA Champions league winner, Former African footballer of the year, English Premier league winner, English FA Cup winner, played for Ajax, Intermilan, Arsenal amongst others, finished top 10 in FIFA Ballon D' Or list.

Victor Ikpeba: Featured first for Nigeria's U17 in 1989 as a 16 yrs old. Olympic gold medalist, Played for AS Monaco, then under Arsene Wenger, scoring 13 league goals to help Monaco win the league title in the 1996/97 season, and also finishing as the second-top goals scorer in the 1996–97 UEFA Cup, 1997 African footballer of the year, scored at the 1998 FIFA WC

Augustine Okocha: Featured first for Nigeria's U20 in 1993 as a 19yrs old. Olympic Gold medalist, 1994 AFCON winner, played for Eintract Frankfurt, PSG, Bolton wonderes, Hall City amongst others, former BBC African player of the year winner.

These guys are some of the products of our youths system and most to me are better than Alaba. You can take that to the bank.

forgiveness:


I am not saying we have not produced great players from our youths system. There will always be only one Kanu, Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar etc in a generation. And in this generation Alaba is far better than what have presently in Super Eagles.

Nevertheless, Alaba achievement has surpassed all you have mentioned above. Maybe with the exception of Kanu, because of the FIFA best player listing, apart from that he has won more medals than him and he is a better player than kanu.

Note: Kanu was not in the top ten of Ballon d'or, he was only nominated. While, he was voted no 6 FIFA best player of the year.

Check out David_Alaba's profile

1, key player in one of the best and biggest club in the World. Bayern Munich.
2, Won Bundesliga 4 times, Runner-up 1
3, DFB-PoskaL 3 times
4, UEFA champions league once, Runner-up twice
5, Dfl- Super cup 2 times
6, Fifa club world cup once
7, UEFA super cup
8, Austria footballer of the year 5 times
9, Austria personalty of the year 2 times
10, UEFA team of the year 2 times
11, ESM team of the year once and.....
12, UEFA Champions League team of the group stage 2015 ...
13, 2015 FIFA Ballon d'or Nominees ...still counting.

TheGoodJoe:


I have a feeling he is based overseas and he does not understand much about Nigerian football. That is why he does not rate Nigerian local footballers. He feels those in Europe are the obvious best and we should stick to them.

Icon4s:


Atleast u mentioned it that Kanu was voted FIFA's 6th best player of the year. Has Alaba come close to that?

Alaba has never won UEFA player of the year while Amuneke, Kanu, Ikpeba took turns to win the CAF equivalent. Alaba has never lifted any FIFA organised competition for national teams at any level. He has never climbed any Olympic podium. He has never won Any European competition be it U17, U19, U21 or the senior team. He has never scored in any world cup while Babayaro, a co-left back; scored 2 goals at the 1996 Olympics and a world cup goal against the great Zubi Zereta of Spain at the 1998 world cup.

forgiveness:



I no they lie to myself that is why I told you he was 6.

UEFA team of the year na wetin? 2015 FIFA Ballon d'or nomination na wetin? Fifa-club-world-cup na wetin?

I dey chop make I finish.

forgiveness:


Bros, callesth thou ajepako oversea based. Na.

I am d son of the soil.

We have ended that discussion. Since, you have admitted and agreed that you don't know why they deviated and bend from the norm for Makanjuola(Chelsea) and Francis Uzoho (Aspire) to be included in the U17 2013.

Icon4s:


Ok. I may have misplaced the particular game bt d fact remains he only came in once as a sub.

And u are wrong with the number of minutes he played.
Coming into d game @ 82 mins amounts to playing atleast 10mins and nt 7mins as u put it. 10+ mins is enough to assess the quality of a player.

forgiveness:


I am not saying we have not produced great players from our youths system. There will always be only one Kanu, Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar etc in a generation. And in this generation Alaba is far better than what have presently in Super Eagles.

Nevertheless, Alaba achievement has surpassed all you have mentioned above. Maybe with the exception of Kanu, because of the FIFA best player listing, apart from that he has won more medals than him and he is a better player than kanu.

Note: Kanu was not in the top ten of Ballon d'or, he was only nominated. While, he was voted no 6 FIFA best player of the year.

Check out David_Alaba's profile

1, key player in one of the best and biggest club in the World. Bayern Munich.
2, Won Bundesliga 4 times, Runner-up 1
3, DFB-PoskaL 3 times
4, UEFA champions league once, Runner-up twice
5, Dfl- Super cup 2 times
6, Fifa club world cup once
7, UEFA super cup
8, Austria footballer of the year 5 times
9, Austria personalty of the year 2 times
10, UEFA team of the year 2 times
11, ESM team of the year once and.....
12, UEFA Champions League team of the group stage 2015 ...
13, 2015 FIFA Ballon d'or Nominees ...still counting.

forgiveness:
Meet Roma’s Umar Sadiq – Nigeria’s next Nwankwo Kanu


Sadiq Umar scoring his first Serie A goal for Roma against Genoa
Roma have won the Seria A three times in their history, the last one in the 2000-01 season and ended the 2014-2015 season behind champions Juventus.

This season, the Italian giants are counting on the quality of stars like Daniele De Rossi, Edin Dzeko, Mohamed Salah, Gervinho and the ageless Francesco Totti to push their hunt for a first league title in 15 years and progress to the final stages of the Champions League.
In their rank also is a young Nigerian already tipped for greatness.

Farmed out by Abuja Football College just over a year and a half ago, Umar began his European sojourn at Spezia Calcio, a club that plays in the Serie B.
The Kaduna-born Sadiq, whose father played for the famous DIC Bees of Kaduna, wasted little time in settling down in Italy and was soon the talk of town with his silky touches and finishing abilities.

The gangling 1.92m teenager, whose physique and style reminds one of Nwankwo Kanu, scored a record-breaking 26 goals in 27 games in the Italian youth league, generating interests from all of Italy’s biggest clubs.

But it was AS Roma who won the race for his signatures, snapping him up first on a year-long loan deal with the option to commit him to a permanent contract worth about 1.7 million Euros should the lad impressed.

And impressed he did. After only 13 games, the youngster had banged in 8 goals for the youth team and assisted a few more, including three goals in four UEFA Youth League games with two assists. Roma manager Rudi Garcia was so amazed by the 18 year-old’s quality that he quickly promoted him to the first team.

His Serie A debut followed soon after. The 18-year-old came on for striker Juan Iturbe in the 89th minute as AS Roma were held to a 2-2 away draw at Bologna in a highly entertaining game.

Roma’s struggles have been well documented this campaign after starting the league season ever so well but have gradually slipped out of the title race and the Champions League places.

And on Sunday at home to Genoa, when Rudi Garcia needed a saviour after watching his side play the last 15 minutes with ten men, he turned to his Nigerian goal-machine.

Umar Sadiq duly obliged and headed in his first ever Serie A goal within minutes of being introduced as an 82nd minute substitute. The strike rubber-stamped a 2-0 victory for Roma, ending a seven-match winless streak in all competitions and easing pressure on their embattled manager.

That goal, coming in just his third senior appearance all from the bench, may just be the beginning of another legend in the ilk of retired former CAF Footballer of the Year, Nwankwo Kanu.

A hugely talented Nigerian youngster is destined for greatness. He is not Kelechi Iheanacho or Victor Osimhen.

I give you Umar Sadiq.

http://mobile.newsnow.co.uk/A/2/808335454?-21310:8643:t

Icon4s:


Ok. I may have misplaced the particular game bt d fact remains he only came in once as a sub.

And u are wrong with the number of minutes he played.
Coming into d game @ 82 mins amounts to playing atleast 10mins and nt 7mins as u put it. 10+ mins is enough to assess the quality of a player.

joseph1013:
[b][size=14pt]Dalung bars NFF from selling Under 23 Eagles players[/size]



Speaking on alleged regular ‘illegal transactions’ of players at the NFF, Dalung warned that International transfer certificates should not be issued against the interest of the player.

He said that it was unfortunate that the young players, who brought glory to the country by winning the African U-23 championship in Senegal and the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, were being sold out to clubs without the players’ understanding of the contract they were being made to sign.

A statement signed by the minister’s special assistant, Nneka Anibeze, reads: “It has come to my knowledge that these young players, who are the source of our pride in world football, are currently being subjected to harassments and manipulation of signing for clubs without them even understanding the content of the contract.

“Therefore, I have directed the NFF which has the authority to grant licenses of these players to refrain from endorsing any of these slavery transactions without a clear framework that follows the due process required for such contracts.”

The Minister added that as custodians of sports in the country, the Ministry of Youth and Sports will not close its eyes to slavery contracts of players without their consent.

“It will amount to moral suicide if we sit and watch the future of these young players not only being traded but also negotiated in the interest and benefit of some selfish agents and football officials. Any of such purported transactions that violate not only laid down procedures but player’s rights to choose will not be recognized,” said Dalung.

Dalung urged agents and players, who intend to play elsewhere to get appropriate clearance of which the Sports Ministry will be part of the process.

The statement reveals that NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, has been communicated on the development.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/12/dalung-bars-nff-from-selling-under-23-eagles-players/[/b]

joseph1013:
I love this analysis and I thought to share


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svh5lMUfotc