Parents whose Kid Play Football | How you can Harness both the Talent and Education

Sports Career Report states that 3 out of every 5 young footballers in Nigeria drop out of school to follow their football passion. But then, only 1 out of every 5000 eventually becomes successful playing top flight football abroad.

The statistics further shows that 7 out of every 10 ex-footballers in the country now live from hand to mouth, because they didn’t have the qualification or the necessary skill needed to transit into other careers after they retire from active football.

Parents are aware of these facts and even some ex-footballers wouldn’t allow their kids pursue just football career, but insist on education. Stephen Okogie, a member of Kogi state house of Assembly, passionately asked at a time, to help dissuade his son (Vitus) from dropping out of school to attend our scheduled trial camp in Lagos Nigeria.

Parents, whose kid is really talented and so passionate about pursuing a football career, should be handled with care. One of the young footballers I spoke with on phone, Umar Mohammed from Sokoto, told me he left home and dropped out of the University so he can pursue his dream career. Funny, he goes by hash tag: ‘#football maniac’ on his facebook and Twitter handle. I was alarmed at his decision.

Parents should help their kid choose the right path that could groom both his talent and education. The kid needs your support and you can help him choose schools that have pedigree in building up footballers. In Lagos for instance, we have schools known for groom football players: {gbobi College, St Finbas, Yaba tech, LASU… You can find more schools like that across the country.

Kwara State football Academy as well as PepsiFootball Academy operates full time Nigeria secondary school curriculum alongside their football training regime. You can support your child to gain admission into schools like these.

Some Universities and Colleges in the United States as well as Canada, offer Athletic Scholarships. If your kid is that good and a great football player, then you should support him towards gaining admission in any of the schools abroad. Ex-players like Peter Rufai, Uche Okafor, Chidi Nwanu, Mike Emenalo, Emeka Ezeugo… had benefited from such scholarships in the past years.

Football is a high paying career. Just imagine the kind of money Mikel Obi, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Obafemi Martins make each week; not even oil workers earn that kind of money. You never can tell, your son maybe one of those that could become successful in the lofty career.

Having said that, every parents should be able to advice their kid; football isn’t for school drop outs, not anymore. Smart players like Joseph Yobo, Vincent Enyema, Ogeniyi Onazi are all University graduates and also so doing well in their football career.

Indeed, education is vital in modern football. You’ll be requiring signing contracts and perhaps, calling to make public speech or appearances. Today footballers are role models and are often required to display astute intelligence.

Ex-footballers such as Segun Odegbami, Peter Rufai, Chidi Nwanu, Sunday Oliseh… could easily go into other careers because they went to school while playing professional football.