13th November, 2011
Former Super Eagles goalkeeper trainer, Joe Erico, has said the resuscitation of the senior national team goes beyond having former Eagles’ captain, Stephen Keshi as the coach of the team.
He said the team’s revival must be a collective effort of football stakeholders in the country.
Erico said that whoever is in charge of the Eagles would still fail if certain measures are not put in place to give the team their bearing.
He attributed the Eagles’ unimpressive outing in recent times to fielding of over aged players at the age grade competitions for the sake of winning laurels at the cadet championships.
“I must tell you that if certain things are not done by the Nigeria Football Federation and other stakeholders, the Eagles would not regain their lost glory regardless of whoever is in charge of the team as the coach.
“Most of our players end up their career for the national teams at the under 21 and 23 level because of the insincerity of our administrators,†he said.
Erico tasked Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, and other stakeholders to embark on grassroots football developmental programme to ensure that the players that are within the age bracket of FIFA age grade competitions are fielded for future international tournaments.
 “NFF and other stakeholders should start discovering players that their real ages fall into respective age grade teams.
“They need to go back to the secondary schools to discover talents for our junior teams and also organise many grassroots football competitions for them.
“People are commending Clemens Westerhof for that 1994 squad. Most of the players started from the nation’s youth teams from 1985 till early 1990s,” he said.
He, however, implored Stephen Keshi to look into the nation’s leagues to pick some good players for the Super Eagles.
He said some of the players that played in CAF’s continental championships have quality to excel in the Eagles.
By Olusegun Abidoye