There are more Nwakalis, Osimhens waiting to be discovered, says Amuneke

There are more Nwakalis, Osimhens waiting to be discovered, says Amuneke

There are more Nwakalis, Osimhens waiting to be discovered, says Amuneke

Golden Eaglets coach, Emmanuel
Amuneke, believes Nigeria has no
business lamenting the dearth of quality
players for the national teams, saying
there are many talented stars waiting to
be discovered.
The Super Eagles have been criticised for
their recent performances, especially
during their 2016 World Cup qualifier
against Swaziland. The criticism has
been centred mostly on the lack of
quality stars in the national team.
But Amuneke argues that Nigeria has a
lot of talented players in the streets
waiting to be discovered.
Drawing from his team’s success at the
Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup,
Amuneke told The Guardian yesterday
that the Golden Eaglets were able to
dominate the world because he took the
pains to go round the country to unearth
talents that would have ended their
dreams of playing top grade football in
the streets if he had not given them the
opportunity.
The former Super Eagles winger
disclosed that he worked hard to instill
confidence in the Eaglets following the
criticism that trailed the team’s
performance at the Africa Youth
Championship in Niger.
He noted that players like Kelechi
Nwakali, Victor Osimhen and other
members of the team that won the U-17
Championship were written off by some
people before the world championship,
adding that hard work and hunger for
success were the secret of the team’s
sterling performance in Chile.
“Nigeria has abundant talents waiting to
be discovered. During the search for
players for the Golden Eaglets before the
U-17 championship, most of the players
in the team like Nwakali, Osimhen and
others were written off, but due to my
knowledge of grassroots football as a
former player, I took my time to instill
confidence in these players to bring out
the best in them.
The result at the end of the day was
victory,” he said.
The coach advised the parents of the
victorious U-17 team “to guide the
players to enable them get the right
direction in life.
“Winning the U-17 World Cup is not the
end of their career. They have to forge
ahead to build their career in football
and academics. The players should be
discouraged from falling on the hands of
bad agents. Most of the Eaglets have the
potential to be key players in the Super
Eagles team in future.”