New Telegraph

African teams’ll win the World Cup soon–Owo labi

…Says ‘big-man ‘ football ruining Eagles
…Rues ‘dead’ league

Ex-international Dr Felix Owolabi has predicted that an African team will win the FIFA World Cup soon given the performances of the squads from the continent at the 2022 edition of the tournament going on in Qatar. The former Shooting Stars player expressed delight at the progress made by teams like Morocco, Senegal, Ghana and Tunisia, which despite crashing out in the first round, had their head held up by beating the reigning champions France. Owolabi said the flair, doggedness and tactical competitiveness displayed by the teams from the continent underpinned the progress Africa and players from the region have made in the past years.

“The 2022 edition of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar has been unique in terms of the facilities on the ground; I am happy that African teams have been able to live up to expectations beyond the estimation and imagination of most Africans. I am overwhelmed by the performances of African teams and it tells us that it is now time for African countries, and various governments across the continent to fund sports, particularly football which has been the unifying factor,” he began.

“Football has gone beyond being just a pleasure, it is now a huge business. The performances of our players also showed that Africa has come of age and within the next few years, an African team will win the World Cup. For Tunisia to have beaten France, the reigning champions, is a big indication of the great thing about to happen to African football.

“It is now a challenge to us to build on this success and organise our football properly. The great thing is that most of the African players at the World Cup are playing in Europe where they are competing with these big stars and that gives us the level playing ground to say we can fight and beat any team. We have something to show that our investment in football especially exporting our players to Europe has not been in vain.” The Super Eagles are missing in action and the 1980 African Cup of Nations winner said Nigeria’s absence has not detracted from the glow and glamour with which Nigerians view the tournament.

He said even though most Nigerians would have wanted the Eagles to be on the show but they have adopted other African countries to enjoy the glitz which the tournament is known for. He said the Eagles would be gnashx to discard their lukewarm attitude to national team assignments. He said: “The Super Eagles’ absence in Qatar has not removed the flair and the appreciation of the tournament by the people of the continent or even Nigerians.

The magic of the World Cup is there, new players are coming up, new stars are being born, techniques, tactics, huge crowds all of these things associated with the tournament are being enjoyed by all despite our own team not making it. “The Super Eagles should have learnt their lesson by now that non-commitment to national duty and a nonchalant attitude has no place in modern football. Of course, maladministration was also part of the reasons our team is not in Qatar. A great lesson to anyone of them that will be invited for the next assignments is to know that playing for the national team is about identity and the vain pride should be cast away and concentrate on doing their best for their fatherland.

Take, for example, Timothy Weah, who plays for the United States and had his falt h e r George Weah leave Liberia to celebrate his son; this shows the game has gone beyond the level with which our Super Eagles take it. It is so unfortunate that we missed this opportunity, the players didn’t fight for the jersey, they just found themselves playing for the country, and maybe that is why they don’t value the shirt that much. Look at what Bruno Fernandez of Portugal said when they defeated the Eagles 4-0; he lamented that the Nigerian team did not give them the stiff opposition they wanted, and they were so disappointed.

That tells you the kind of situation with our national team, they really need to wake up. Owolabi who also won a continental cup with Shooting Stars bemoaned the parlous state of the league, saying the poor performance of the national team is a reflection of the poor state of the Nigerian league.

“The development of any country’s football lies in the local league; if we don’t concentrate on making the league vibrant so that we can start producing quality players again, we are making a grievous mistake. The local league is what produced people like me, Segun Odegbami, and Austin Okocha. If we didn’t have a strong league then, we wouldn’t have been discovered. We have raw players here but we can finetune them to become world-beaters. We don’t need a Peseiro now, it is a good league that we should desire before a national team coach can come in to pick his players. Father Tiko, Clemens Westerhof made use of the local talent in 1980 and 1994 because we had a very good league, we have to go back to the formula that worked for us,” he said.

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