Manu Garba: A coach with Midas touch

[Mirror]

After leading the Golden Eaglets to the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, Coach Manu Garba has every reason to feel proud of his boys as the victory has once again brought him to the fore of world football as a coach with Midas touch.

The Golden Eaglets beat defending champions Mexico 3-0 in Abu Dhabi to win a fourth U-17 World title for Nigeria. An own goal from Erick Aguirre and two strikes from Kelechi Iheanacho including a fine free kick from captain Musa Mohammed sealed victory for Manu's boys.

After this win Nigeria is now the most successful team in the history of the U-17 World Cup with four titles (in 1985, 1993, 2007 and 2013) and Garba was quick to tell the world about the motivating force behind the victory. He affirmed that the disappointment of not winning the African title earlier in the year (after losing to Ivory Coast in the final) weighed on the team but they believed they were capable of winning the World title.

"We put the events of the silver medals from Morocco into perspective and decided to learn from that experience. We came into this competition in UAE determined to succeed and l think we deserved to win. We were the most consistent team, most entertaining side and we scored the highest number of goals in the tournament," Garba said.

Garba was part of the coaching staff that won the 2007 African U-17 Championship in Togo and FIFA World Cup of the same year in Korea and he says he believes that this team is stronger than the 2007 team that won the World Cup in Korea.

Also on his philosophy about the round leather game, the highly travelled coach believes he is an apostle of "Total Football'. "Football is meant to be enjoyed and that is my philosophy. I like the way football was played by Brazil in the olden days and most recently, the way Spain and to a larger extent, Barcelona play.

Football is about keeping ball possession and it is only when you have ball possession that you can attack. So, if you are not technically good to control the ball and keep possession of the ball, you cannot play in this team. That is my philosophy right from the time we started," he said. From the onset of his assignment to tune up the U-17 national team two years ago, Garba has shown that he is not a naïve man.

He is a serious man and understands the freedom, the fitness and intelligence, the 90-minute commitment, needed to make it work. He also knows the dangers and challenges of using a highly intellectualised system, where the comfort of set positions is totally thrown out the window, are doubled with such young players. "It's not been an easy philosophy to pass on to these young boys," admitted Garba, who played in the first Nigerian team to reach a FIFA final when he won the African U-20 championship of 1983.

"They have no league experience. They are amateurs," he insists of his side who spent two weeks in Dubai prior to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in UAE which they won. "They play for local teams, or at their secondary schools, but it is this youth that can make them very adaptable to new ideas," he adds, a tone of warning building in his voice.

"I give my players a special freedom, a freedom to express themselves," he continued, conjuring the spirit of the Rinus Michels, the late coach of Ajax and Holland, who is credited with founding, or at least refining, Total Football. "When we have the ball, we all attack. When we don't, we all defend.

Take a chance; go forward, another man will cover you. All my players have the freedom to go anywhere, and it's a responsibility they understand. Think Barcelona, think Spain, think entertaining, think passion and possibility."

No wonder many soccer pundits refer to the soft spoken soccer tactician as a coach with the Midas touch and also have the lethal capability of bringing out the best from his team. Today, Garba and his lads have etched their names in the sands of history as he successfully guided the team to another victorious outing at the FIFA U-17 World Cup by winning the trophy a record 4th time. The Eaglets, from the blast of the first whistle in the UAE, confirmed that they are capable of ruling the world and they did achieve their mission with an 3-0 whitewash of defending champions, Mexico.

Prior to Friday's final against the South Americans, the Golden Eaglets, under their current handlers, played a total of 48 matches; won 43, drew 4 and only lost once. They scored a total of 218 goals and conceded just 53. However, while the statistics looks very encouraging, Garba admitted that the final match would not be a one-way traffic for Nigeria since the Mexicans would be looking to revenge their 6-1 defeat in their Group F cracker. And really the Mexicans did fight back.

"Mexico would be looking for revenge but we are going to win this match because we want to set the record as the best team in the world at this level," Garba explained. "We respect Mexico for what they have been able to do at this World Cup but our prayer is that God will crown our efforts at the final." For Garba, winning the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup will go down in history as the greatest achievement he has attained as a coach.

And as much as his players have shone on the pitch during the just concluded FIFA U-17 World Cup, he has forever established a fearless ideology into the lives of these young promising soccer stars.

That much has been proven in an already remarkable coaching career. Underpinned by a Bachelor of Arts degree, gleaned some years ago at the University of Maiduguri, Garba has always been meticulous in his planning, provoking continued success at agegroup level which is worthy of emulation.