Nigeria should learn from Spain – Onigbinde

[MrVan]

By KATE OBODO

Former Super Eagles coach, Chief Adeboye Onigbinde  has challenged African countries, especially Nigeria to learn  from the tactical and technical display put up  by the European champions, Spain in the interest of rapid football development.

Chief Onigbinde who was thrilled with the Spanish team setting new standards and recording great achievements with positive football, said there is the  need for  improvement if football must improve at the national levels.

Adegboye Onigbinde "In summary,  I would say that they (Spain) have a solid team, not a group of players. Amazingly, 11 players playing like one man. There are also several areas in the game which they changed," he said in a phone interview.

Continuing he said, "they were tactically and technically inclined, which have to do with the combination of the team. Physically and mentally, they were also  okay. One aspect that is neglected by coaches in the world is ability to have an intellectual fitness (football wise), ability to know the right time to do some changes where necessary which the Spanish coach exhibited.

Coming to Africa, especially Nigeria, learning from Spain will not start in a day. I started giving Spain respect when they won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. What people do not understand is that modern football has gone beyond using  formation system but also goes with a solid and combined team which Spain possessed in that competition.

"In a nutshell, Spain's solid team did not start in a day, that is why I have been talking about grass-roots development in our football. A well developed country should be able  to have her football well taken care of, especially at the grass-roots level. To achieve this, we have to start catching them young, if we really we  need improvement in our football.

At the Senior national team,  we  still  have a long way to go but then, Stephen Keshi is doing well, trying to  build a team with our local boys, but he still needs to do better  to be able to have a team that can take on  Africa  and the  world,"" he stressed.

Vanguard Nigeria