BY ONOCHIE ANIBEZE
He called to educate and possibly warn the football federation against hiring, as Technical Director, a 39 year old Belgian whose profile boasts of coaching in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.
But when told that the deal had been done and a contract would soon be signed with Tom Saintfiet, Finidi George was subdued and intimidating silence followed. Seconds ticked and this reporter thought he had lost the call from Spain.
Hello, hello! Still silence. A look on the phone showed it was still on. Hello, hello!! Silence. Finidi retired as one of the greatest right midfielders and was once rated the best crosser in Europe. He played for Ajax, Real Betis, Real Mallorca, Ipswich and retired with a return to Mallorca
"Hello, Onochie, I'm still here. I'm just disappointed. I thought that it hadn't been done. They may have their reasons but I thought we had gone beyond the stage where we could employ somebody like that as our Technical Director.
We have Nigerians who played top football in Europe who could do that job. If they gave the job to a senior foreign coach or retired coach with great pedigree then one can understand, not the man I heard of. He is 39. I'm even older than he is and I played for big clubs in different parts of Europe. I don't know his track record.
If it was in the 70s and 80s when we were still learning the basics that we hired such a person one can as well understand. But not now. We have guys who had gone to places and played big football, people with experience. We could have done better. I hope that it goes well with us."
This reporter cut: "Saitffiet could be young and with no intimidating profile but may be the emphasis of the federation could be on youth development and setting up a good technical structure in the federation.
He could, for example, draw programmes for youth development, insist on developing a playing culture in which all youth teams must be made to play a particular system which will make it easier for coaches at the senior level to adopt them when they graduate to senior teams .."
Finidi cut in to say "are we doing youth development in Nigeria? Don't defend them, Onochie. You know that we are not doing youth development. If we did you would see it in our football. It is not there. Which youth teams are you talking about? I wish them well and I hope they get it right."
Vanguard Nigeria