Izuchukwu OkosiThe 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign will restart with Nigeria’s Super Eagles set to play home and away games against Guinea-Bissau on March 20th and 27th.
The Three-time African champions are currently leading the Group A of the qualifying series which was halted to have the five African representatives at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar prepare adequately with friendly games.
There has been widespread condemnation over the seeming lack of attention given by Nigeria’s foreign national team coaches to the local players.
This has always been the norm since the self styled ‘Dutchgerian’ Clemence Westerhof left his job in charge of the team.
The only exception where the national team had more than five home-based players at a major tournament was when the Eagles won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations under Stephen Keshi.
There could be a reason why it was comfortable for Keshi to trust the home-based players then, something Jose Peseiro might find almost impossible to do now.
The Nigeria Professional Football League were not abrutply ending or experiencing long periods of inactivity as is currently the case.
More worryingly is the fact that the NPFL clubs do not have player data and analytics.
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There is no statistical evidence to prove that the players supposedly considered good or better than the foreign-based are good enough for the senior national team.
It is an area that the Interim Management Committee (IMC) and the Nigeria Football Federation need to work on for the home-based lads to have a sense of belonging.
There are indeed great talents in the local league. Their crafts have to be developed for better chances in the national team.
Football has gone scientific and clubs in most parts of the world – and North Africa- have data base of players that aid coaches in doing their duties.
Local coaches in Nigeria and many parts of Africa can point to the successful World Cup in Qatar of Morocco under a local coach (Wahid Regragui) but the investment and sound management style of the Morocco Football Association impacted positively on their run in the Gulf.
Aside the great brand of football played in the English Premier League, the days of data and statistics are here to stay and most of the foreign coaches coming to work in Africa of late would be hard pressed to find the best possible solutions in making their jobs easier in otherwise poorly managed systems.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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