Nigerian Football Needs Revolution To Reclaim Glory – Shehu Sani

Senator Shehu Sani, a social activist and politician, has declared that Nigerian football requires a radical revolution to recover its golden days when the very mention of the Super Eagles caused dread in many African teams.

According to the Senator, Nigerian football has lost its historic style, from age-grade teams to the Super Eagles, due to an overreliance on foreign-based Nigerian players.

“We must make radical changes in what we are doing now with our football otherwise we might become the laughing stock of other African countries who are investing and developing their leagues and football architecture. We have to return to the streets and schools which used to be the conveyors of our national teams,” the Kaduna-born activist told Completesports.

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“Our Super Eagles lost in the final of AFCON 2023 playing defensive football which is new to us. Nigeria has always been a team that uses skills and speed to wear down our opponents before finishing them but the reverse is the case now as other African countries are the ones showing us how to play good football. We must go back to our old traditional style of play to dominate Africa again.”

“I also want to advocate for the NFF to engage six coaches in six zones of the country to select talents and build a team from each zone to come and play each other in Abuja for the national senior coaches to harness the players picked from play-offs. By so doing, we won’t be over depending on foreign-based players.”

He congratulated President Bola Tinubu for recognising the Super Eagles players and personnel for their silver medal performance at AFCON 2023.

“The awards will prompt them to greater performance and encourage the other national teams to be good ambassadors,” he said.

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli