Nigeria has once again won the Under 17 FIFA world cup for a record 5 times. It is quite a feat achieved by the country and it is worth commending. The country has failed to transit these worthy champions into our senior national team and the reason is based on our lack of adequate planning. Over the years, other countries of the world have developed a youth system that has made the transition possible and these youthful players have gone to represent their countries at the national team level and won laurels. Messi, Figo, Ronaldo, Dida, Angel De Maria, Cesc Fabregas and much more are household names for their countries.The same cannot be said of our players as only few lucky ones such as Kanu Nwankwo, Nduka Ugbade, Jonathan Akpoborie, Celestine Babayaro and Emmanuel Amuneke have been able to get to the pinnacle of their career. The factors responsible for our failure to transit include---- Signing of bad contracts by the players due to lack of proper guidance, placing money far above career, playing for unknown leagues that fail to develop their carers and potentials, failure of the football house to monitor the players efficiently and effectively, poverty, politics and favoritism. If all these vices are not checked, the growth of our youthful players will remain a dream and work in progress.
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