Following the success of Nigeria's Golden Eaglets, which won the
2013 and 2015 Fifa U17 World Cup back to back and we saw some of these
enterprising youngsters display unbelievable raw skills. We all extrapolated
that by 2018 - 2022 Nigeria would have developed such a formidable national
team that can compete for the world cup in Qatar 2022.
Considering that these guys where truly young, not like before when
Nigeria fielded over aged players. These players were truly under seventeen as
confirmed by the MRI scan. So, we felt that most of them that shone like
million stars in the Fifa cadet tournament will be an instant hit at top flight
football and quickly grow to become worldclass stars..., Nigeria next big stars
playing for Barcelona like Emmanuel Amunike or Juventus like Sunday Oliseh, PSG
like Austin Okocha or Arsenal like Nwankwo Kanu... But today we see must of
these players struggling to make first team shirt in some lower clubs.
Let us take a look at 10 of these players we had high expectations
for, but who rather are struggling before our very eyes.
1. Kelechi Iheanacho was Nigeria's golden boy, named Caf most
promising player of Africa after he won the Fifa U17 world cup with
Nigeria's Eaglets; where he won Fifa
Golden ball and Fifa Silver boot.
Everyone expected him to instantly turn out a world-class star of
high reckoning, perhaps without exaggeration, in the class of Messi or Ronaldo.
Iheanacho immediately got a good signing to a top flight
millionaire club, Manchester City and our hope got even higher that he will
develop in the next two years or so. Pellergrin gave him playing time and he
seems to be improving. But when Pep Guardiola took over Man city, he declared
him surplus.
Iheancho signed for Liecester city in 2017 and most football
analysts felt it was a good move for him to resuscitate his game and play more
regularly. But that didn't happen as Iheanacho continued to struggle and now relegated
to the bench of a lower team like Liecester city. Nobody could yet explain what
is happening to this Nigeria's golden boy.
2. Victor Osimehin: Has a similar story like Iheanacho. Named Caf
youth player of the year 2015 after he won Fifa U17 World cup same year...where
he won Fifa golden boot as well as Fifa silver ball. Osimehin was expected to
replicate his goal scoring prowess at the big stage.
Bundesliga contender Vfl Wolfburg quickly signed him...and in his
first season he made 12 appearances without scoring a goal. Disappointed
Wolfburg loaned him out to a Belgium side Charleroi. Both injury and loss of
form keep Osimehin on the bench. He is gradually picking up his form again. In
2018, he scored 8 goals in 16 appearances for the Belgium side.
Most Nigerian football fans were disappointed the way his career is
going, but still nurse a kind of hope that Osimehin will soon break out of the
duldrum to show the kind of striker he is.
3. Isaac Success is one player we have high hopes to become one of
the next world class striker. He was the first choice striker, the one expected
to shine for Nigeria's eaglets in 2013 Fifa U17 World cup, but he was sidelined
by injury after two games.
Success was the first player to sign professionally for Udinese,
among the all conquering golden eaglets of 2013. He later signed for Granada CF
but injury greatly hampered his development and progress in the game.
When Success signed for the Premier league side Watford in
replacement of fellow Nigerian striker
Odion Ighalo, who moved to China, everyone thought here was the
opportunity for Success to bring his game to the spotlight. but he struggled
all the way, scored just 4 goals in 49 appearances for the Premiership side and
was given away on loan to Malaga.
4. kelechi Nwakali ingenius way of controling the midfield as the
captain and playmaker of Nigeria's eaglets that won 2015 Fifa U17 World cup,
where he also won the golden ball award, caught the interest of one of the
world's biggest player's agency Stellar Group. Nwakali was immediately signed
to Arsenal youth team.
Everyone ecpected he would quickly move to Arsenal main team in the
next one year or two, but his progress have been very slow and disappointing.
He has been on loan to MVV Maastricht anf VVV Venlo in the Eerste Divisie and
Eredivisie respectively.
Nwakali again signed on loan for FC Porto on July 18, 2018, most
Nigerian fans hope that he could break into Porto first team, but again he was
demoted to Porto B team to everyone's
disappointment.
5. Taiwo Awoniyi was quick to get out of the shadows of Isaac
Success dominance of the striking role in the all conquering 2013 golden
eaglets. And when Succes got injured in the second game of Fifa U17 World Cup,
it became a great opportunity for Awoniyi to shine and he did that in style
leading the team to win the trophy.
Awoniyi was signed by Premier League high flyers Liverpool, but
haven't been able to break into the main team. Awoniyi's style of play has been
compared to that of Rashidi Yekini, Nigeria's all-time highest goalscorer, but
he has been struggling to prove his striking prowess at the big stage.
Awoniyi has been on loan for the last four years...from Frankfurt
to NEC, Gent and now on his second coming to Royal Excel Mouscron. Awoniyi's progress
have been slow and disapointing to most Nigerian fans.
Muhammad was the captain of both the victorious golden eaglets in
2013 and the flying eagles of 2015. He played a peculiar style only a player
with excessive stamina could sustain... going to join attack, fortified the
middle and back defending in one continuing move for 90 minutes. Something more
hypotense than what we saw Brazilian Roberto Carlos play in his time.
You cannot blame anyone who felt Muhammad will be an astonishing
world class star. Of course, it was rumoured that both Barcelona and PSG showed
intitial interest, but Muhammad was to sign for İstanbul Başakşehir.in 2015.
But then Muhammad began to blow hot and cold in his game, started
to loose such effectiveness associated to his defending... In other words, he
began to make costly mistakes in crucial games. He was then offloaded on loan
to Bulgarian First League club, Lokomotiv Plovdiv till the end of 2018.
Injury was one of the bane of Muhammad. His game began to go down
when he started nursing a reocurring knee injury. The question remain can we
again see the best of Musa Muhammad as he just signed a new contract for HNK
Gorica.
7. Junior Ajayi: A very skillful and intelligent youngster, who can play both as
attacking midfielder or an outright striker. Ajayi creativity and confidence
with the ball can captivate any coach at first sight. Ajayi eye for goal as
well as defy assists make him such an outstanding talent everyone expected to
make it into top flight football in Europe. He contributed in no little measure
to Nigeria's Dream team bronze medal at Rio De Janeiro
Since then, Ajayi couldn't attract any top club from Europe. He
only signed and became first choice striker for Cf Sfixen in 2016/ 17 and in
2018, he sign for Al Ahly in Egypt But his game hasn't gone beyond African
shore and his popularity is fast fading away.
8. Umar Sadiq showed so much promise that he will turn out a world
class striker. Towering over 6. 3 ft tall and
galup speed like an Ostrich, Sadiq quickly caught the interest of many
top agencies from Abuja fc to Spezia Calcio in Italian Seria B and then caught
the interest of Roma on loan in Italian Seria A, where he scored 2 goals in
seven appearances. Roma decided to sign him for $5.2 million in 2016.
Sadiq spearheaded the attack of the bronze medal winning Nigeria
U23 Dream team, where he scored 4 goals in six appearances. Most Nigerian fans
expected the Rio De Janeiro Olympics to launch Sadiq to greater performances,
but his game began to drop due to reoccurring knee injury.
Roma had to loan him back to several Seria B teams: Bologna,
Torino, NAC Breda, Rangers and his game hasn't resuscitated since then. Still
struggling in Seria B team, Perugia, where he has just scored one goal in six
appearances.
