Rangers defender, Leon Balogun has come out to blast the Nigeria Football Federation over the quality of infrastructure provided for the Super Eagles. He recently revealed that the non-payment of match bonuses is nothing to write home about.
According to him, the fact is that our pitches, accommodation and personnel need to improve for Nigeria to compete favorably on the continent and across the globe.
Leon Balogun added that the earlier Nigeria can become the home of possibilities for players, the quicker we can get the next Messi from our nation.
His words, “You hear about other players, and why can’t they perform in the Super Eagles? We have to be honest, the infrastructure, we are not being provided with the best minerals to do our job.”
“It starts with pitches or it starts with accommodation but it goes on to pitches and all these kinds of things.”
“If you say you want to see the next Messi coming out of Nigeria or the next Cristiano Ronaldo or whatsoever, if you want to see us so then you need to make sure that back home in Nigeria we have the best possibilities.”
“Like why don’t we have a base in Nigeria where we meet up like St. George’s park in England? We don’t really have something like that.”
“About the bonuses, it’s not even a secret, I’ve read something recently where people in charge contradict themselves saying things have been paid then they admit they haven’t been paid.”
“And as I said I’m always quite outspoken, probably I know if some people hear that they might come after me but I don’t care because that’s just how it is.”
“I think it’s also a matter of the culture, it’s a cultural thing to show respect in this kind of thing, also that’s something where I clash probably because I’m not afraid to speak my mind even if it’s with the coach or the manager if I feel like something is wrong I might at one point just talk about it and then it’s always like this boy is a troublemaker.”
“I’m not a trouble maker, because at the end of the day I stand in for my teammates, I do that with pleasure and if I have to take the fall well, I probably did in the past.”
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