opinion
Jones Usen, a popular broadcaster with the FRCN at a time, and self styled 'man with the golden voice' called the golden eaglets the beautiful ones after their exploits of 1985 in far away Asia.
Those young boys dazzled and glittered in China and made our heads swell with pride as they delighted the world with skilful and purposeful football. In celebrating our moments of euphoria, Jones had declared 'the beautiful ones have now been born'.
It was the maiden edition of a tournament that has since discovered many football super stars. It was also our first exploit on the international stage and it was a performance that stunned the whole world especially the sponsors who did not expect an African country to win and wondered how they would recoup their sponsorship funds.
For us as Nigerians and Africans, it was a beautiful moment as everybody thought we had entered the world stage. And Pele, the same acclaimed Pele, endorsed the boys when he said they would rule the world if they could be kept together for a few years to mature as a unit.
But what happened after the euphoria? The vultures took over- in the name of greed, ethnicity, self- centredness and bad administration.
Everybody, including those who had never succeeded in anything in their lives, had an opinion. By the time the under -17 boys had become under 21, it was a different team; infused and diffused by additions and subtractions that were based on everything but merit.
The result was that we lost all the good things that should have accrued to Nigeria as a result of that ground- breaking feat.
Prodigies have to be handled well, or they will self destruct which is what happened when many of these boys signed all kinds of one sided agreements with clubs that exploited rather than nurtured them.
Many say the reason we did not benefit was because the boys were closer to 25 than 17. But that, even if it was true, was only half of the story. Whoever said 23, 24 year olds can not be kept together and nurtured both mentally and technically?
What is worse is that we had two other opportunities to get it right and build on the foundation of our young talents. Each time we have short changed ourselves. Will we be fourth time lucky?
Those young boys dazzled and glittered in China and made our heads swell with pride as they delighted the world with skilful and purposeful football. In celebrating our moments of euphoria, Jones had declared 'the beautiful ones have now been born'.
It was the maiden edition of a tournament that has since discovered many football super stars. It was also our first exploit on the international stage and it was a performance that stunned the whole world especially the sponsors who did not expect an African country to win and wondered how they would recoup their sponsorship funds.
For us as Nigerians and Africans, it was a beautiful moment as everybody thought we had entered the world stage. And Pele, the same acclaimed Pele, endorsed the boys when he said they would rule the world if they could be kept together for a few years to mature as a unit.
But what happened after the euphoria? The vultures took over- in the name of greed, ethnicity, self- centredness and bad administration.
Everybody, including those who had never succeeded in anything in their lives, had an opinion. By the time the under -17 boys had become under 21, it was a different team; infused and diffused by additions and subtractions that were based on everything but merit.
The result was that we lost all the good things that should have accrued to Nigeria as a result of that ground- breaking feat.
Prodigies have to be handled well, or they will self destruct which is what happened when many of these boys signed all kinds of one sided agreements with clubs that exploited rather than nurtured them.
Many say the reason we did not benefit was because the boys were closer to 25 than 17. But that, even if it was true, was only half of the story. Whoever said 23, 24 year olds can not be kept together and nurtured both mentally and technically?
What is worse is that we had two other opportunities to get it right and build on the foundation of our young talents. Each time we have short changed ourselves. Will we be fourth time lucky?
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