safarigirl:
This thread has been on my mind for a while, but I chose to post it now because of the ignorance that was allowed to grace the Front Page titled 'Papa Eaglets and Nigerian Cheating'.

https://www.nairaland.com/2742884/papa-eaglets-cheating-culture


First off, I have come to realise that Nigerians hate themselves and hate to see or hear of any progress in relation to their country, so they choose to make unfounded accusations on a team of dedicated, hard working BOYS whose only crime was bringing rare glory to a nation in turmoil. Yes, the purpose of this thread is to tackle claims that Nigerian age grade players are far older than their peers.

The people who make these claims do so based on the sole point that the KIDS eventually fail to realise their potential and fall by the way as opposed to their peers. They then give examples of Stanley Okoro, Macauley Chrisantus and Sani Emmanuel.



Let me first point out the fact that Administrative Errors on the part of the NFF as far as monitoring the progress of these players is one reason why these players don't progress.

Another is the poor state of the Nigerian league and lack of world class academies. While the players from S/America and Europe remain home for at least 2 years, playing competitively in their leagues, Nigerian players are hurriedly shipped to Europe where these KIDS have to deal with culture shock as well as work to prove their mettle or get shipped off once again, they're given little opportunity to do this compared to their foreign counterparts, that is too much expectations on kids who less than a year ago, mostly played the game for the fun of it

There is also that poverty mentality. The truth is most of these kids are from poor homes, we just read of Osimhen who was a hawker before the WC, hence, their immediate need is to get the cash to help out family irrespective of the working conditions, and we know well how African families are; once one person makes some cash, the entire extended family will relax, afterall "our brother is a big footballer in Europe".
So, a child of 16-18 becomes the bread winner of at least 10 people at home, so he has to pay his bro's fees, but Uncle Mike's child too has a business he needs money for, all of that pressure can damage that focus and passion for footy, y'all saw how Adebayor's issues panned out, how much more a kid?

Thirdly, Contrary to what many prefer to lie about, no, Nigeria doesn't have a history of failed age grade players. One guy claimed that every member of England's U-17 team of '09 have good careers, but I checked and found that only Danny Welbeck and Victor Moses can be counted in that team.

Let us remember that Chrisantus and Stanley are 2 of hundreds of age grade players from Nigeria, remember players like Kanu, Enyeama, Yobo, Onazi, Mikel, Omeruo, Musa and most recently, Iheanacho all played age grade football and were active for as long as required.

Maybe we don't have Messi or Di Maria, but even if everyone goes back to check on their mates from Secondary School you'll find that everyone didn't progress equally, in fact, in some sets, the best student then is doing badly now compared to the average and even poor students.

That is life for you, people with potential will fall, nobodies will rise. The likes of Dangote, Osibanjo, Zuckerberg, Oprah probably weren't potential pace setters while in school, but look at them now.

Please, Nigerians, stop slandering your own. Sweden brought Berisha, Brazil brought Mosquito and Mexico had Ochoa 2 years ago, where are they now compared to Kelechi? Did 2 of them not have beards? What about the Mexican captain this year? He had a full beard, but did Mexicans call themselves age cheats? No sane father would stone his son in the market square because others are doing it.

Protect what little is left of our dignity as a nation. Cc Joseph1013, terzurum, icon4s, thegoodjoe, thesupernerd, blueto, bascovanveli

femi4:
In an attempt to discredit the ages of the nig u17 players, you start hearing propaganda like Taiye Taiwo twin brother is 39....bla bla. Meanwhile,

The Facts:

Taiye Ismaila Taiwo has no living twin, his half twin, who incidentally died while they were toddlers. Taiye Taiwo has two (2) elder brothers, an elder sister, a younger sister and a younger brother

In the words of Taiye “I don’t have a twin brother, I’ve never heard of any twin brother since I was young, my parents told me from my young days that my twin, who is a female, had died while we were toddlers. I therefore don’t know where or why anyone would cook up such lies about me.

My point is that if at all you want to discredit the age of any player, at least you should come out with concrete evidence and not lies

safarigirl:
This thread has been on my mind for a while, but I chose to post it now because of the ignorance that was allowed to grace the Front Page titled 'Papa Eaglets and Nigerian Cheating'.

https://www.nairaland.com/2742884/papa-eaglets-cheating-culture


First off, I have come to realise that Nigerians hate themselves and hate to see or hear of any progress in relation to their country, so they choose to make unfounded accusations on a team of dedicated, hard working BOYS whose only crime was bringing rare glory to a nation in turmoil. Yes, the purpose of this thread is to tackle claims that Nigerian age grade players are far older than their peers.

The people who make these claims do so based on the sole point that the KIDS eventually fail to realise their potential and fall by the way as opposed to their peers. They then give examples of Stanley Okoro, Macauley Chrisantus and Sani Emmanuel.



Let me first point out the fact that Administrative Errors on the part of the NFF as far as monitoring the progress of these players is one reason why these players don't progress.

Another is the poor state of the Nigerian league and lack of world class academies. While the players from S/America and Europe remain home for at least 2 years, playing competitively in their leagues, Nigerian players are hurriedly shipped to Europe where these KIDS have to deal with culture shock as well as work to prove their mettle or get shipped off once again, they're given little opportunity to do this compared to their foreign counterparts, that is too much expectations on kids who less than a year ago, mostly played the game for the fun of it

There is also that poverty mentality. The truth is most of these kids are from poor homes, we just read of Osimhen who was a hawker before the WC, hence, their immediate need is to get the cash to help out family irrespective of the working conditions, and we know well how African families are; once one person makes some cash, the entire extended family will relax, afterall "our brother is a big footballer in Europe".
So, a child of 16-18 becomes the bread winner of at least 10 people at home, so he has to pay his bro's fees, but Uncle Mike's child too has a business he needs money for, all of that pressure can damage that focus and passion for footy, y'all saw how Adebayor's issues panned out, how much more a kid?

Thirdly, Contrary to what many prefer to lie about, no, Nigeria doesn't have a history of failed age grade players. One guy claimed that every member of England's U-17 team of '09 have good careers, but I checked and found that only Danny Welbeck and Victor Moses can be counted in that team.

Let us remember that Chrisantus and Stanley are 2 of hundreds of age grade players from Nigeria, remember players like Kanu, Enyeama, Yobo, Onazi, Mikel, Omeruo, Musa and most recently, Iheanacho all played age grade football and were active for as long as required.

Maybe we don't have Messi or Di Maria, but even if everyone goes back to check on their mates from Secondary School you'll find that everyone didn't progress equally, in fact, in some sets, the best student then is doing badly now compared to the average and even poor students.

That is life for you, people with potential will fall, nobodies will rise. The likes of Dangote, Osibanjo, Zuckerberg, Oprah probably weren't potential pace setters while in school, but look at them now.

Please, Nigerians, stop slandering your own. Sweden brought Berisha, Brazil brought Mosquito and Mexico had Ochoa 2 years ago, where are they now compared to Kelechi? Did 2 of them not have beards? What about the Mexican captain this year? He had a full beard, but did Mexicans call themselves age cheats? No sane father would stone his son in the market square because others are doing it.

Protect what little is left of our dignity as a nation. Cc Joseph1013, terzurum, icon4s, thegoodjoe, thesupernerd, blueto, bascovanveli

Bollinger:
You'all can fool yourselves with patriotism all you like. The fact is we have been fielding over aged players in youth football. If you ever played the game, you'll know that there is no way you can have 11 players at that age playing at the level they are. One or two maybe, but not eleven. Look at your 16 year old brother and compare with these guys and it'll tell you everything you need to know. Worse is some of them will even claim 14. 14 for God's sake. Haba. No wonder when philip Osondu went pro, his club was expecting him to start growing taller as is expected of a 16 year old but my bro's was growing sideways. This was the best player in 1987 but what they did not know was that he was playing at his prime. They spent millions on him and got nothing in return. Nigerians, change your mentality.

safarigirl:
This thread has been on my mind for a while, but I chose to post it now because of the ignorance that was allowed to grace the Front Page titled 'Papa Eaglets and Nigerian Cheating'.

https://www.nairaland.com/2742884/papa-eaglets-cheating-culture


First off, I have come to realise that Nigerians hate themselves and hate to see or hear of any progress in relation to their country, so they choose to make unfounded accusations on a team of dedicated, hard working BOYS whose only crime was bringing rare glory to a nation in turmoil. Yes, the purpose of this thread is to tackle claims that Nigerian age grade players are far older than their peers.

The people who make these claims do so based on the sole point that the KIDS eventually fail to realise their potential and fall by the way as opposed to their peers. They then give examples of Stanley Okoro, Macauley Chrisantus and Sani Emmanuel.



Let me first point out the fact that Administrative Errors on the part of the NFF as far as monitoring the progress of these players is one reason why these players don't progress.

Another is the poor state of the Nigerian league and lack of world class academies. While the players from S/America and Europe remain home for at least 2 years, playing competitively in their leagues, Nigerian players are hurriedly shipped to Europe where these KIDS have to deal with culture shock as well as work to prove their mettle or get shipped off once again, they're given little opportunity to do this compared to their foreign counterparts, that is too much expectations on kids who less than a year ago, mostly played the game for the fun of it

There is also that poverty mentality. The truth is most of these kids are from poor homes, we just read of Osimhen who was a hawker before the WC, hence, their immediate need is to get the cash to help out family irrespective of the working conditions, and we know well how African families are; once one person makes some cash, the entire extended family will relax, afterall "our brother is a big footballer in Europe".
So, a child of 16-18 becomes the bread winner of at least 10 people at home, so he has to pay his bro's fees, but Uncle Mike's child too has a business he needs money for, all of that pressure can damage that focus and passion for footy, y'all saw how Adebayor's issues panned out, how much more a kid?

Thirdly, Contrary to what many prefer to lie about, no, Nigeria doesn't have a history of failed age grade players. One guy claimed that every member of England's U-17 team of '09 have good careers, but I checked and found that only Danny Welbeck and Victor Moses can be counted in that team.

Let us remember that Chrisantus and Stanley are 2 of hundreds of age grade players from Nigeria, remember players like Kanu, Enyeama, Yobo, Onazi, Mikel, Omeruo, Musa and most recently, Iheanacho all played age grade football and were active for as long as required.

Maybe we don't have Messi or Di Maria, but even if everyone goes back to check on their mates from Secondary School you'll find that everyone didn't progress equally, in fact, in some sets, the best student then is doing badly now compared to the average and even poor students.

That is life for you, people with potential will fall, nobodies will rise. The likes of Dangote, Osibanjo, Zuckerberg, Oprah probably weren't potential pace setters while in school, but look at them now.

Please, Nigerians, stop slandering your own. Sweden brought Berisha, Brazil brought Mosquito and Mexico had Ochoa 2 years ago, where are they now compared to Kelechi? Did 2 of them not have beards? What about the Mexican captain this year? He had a full beard, but did Mexicans call themselves age cheats? No sane father would stone his son in the market square because others are doing it.

Protect what little is left of our dignity as a nation. Cc Joseph1013, terzurum, icon4s, thegoodjoe, thesupernerd, blueto, bascovanveli

safarigirl:
This thread has been on my mind for a while, but I chose to post it now because of the ignorance that was allowed to grace the Front Page titled 'Papa Eaglets and Nigerian Cheating'.

https://www.nairaland.com/2742884/papa-eaglets-cheating-culture


First off, I have come to realise that Nigerians hate themselves and hate to see or hear of any progress in relation to their country, so they choose to make unfounded accusations on a team of dedicated, hard working BOYS whose only crime was bringing rare glory to a nation in turmoil. Yes, the purpose of this thread is to tackle claims that Nigerian age grade players are far older than their peers.

The people who make these claims do so based on the sole point that the KIDS eventually fail to realise their potential and fall by the way as opposed to their peers. They then give examples of Stanley Okoro, Macauley Chrisantus and Sani Emmanuel.



Let me first point out the fact that Administrative Errors on the part of the NFF as far as monitoring the progress of these players is one reason why these players don't progress.

Another is the poor state of the Nigerian league and lack of world class academies. While the players from S/America and Europe remain home for at least 2 years, playing competitively in their leagues, Nigerian players are hurriedly shipped to Europe where these KIDS have to deal with culture shock as well as work to prove their mettle or get shipped off once again, they're given little opportunity to do this compared to their foreign counterparts, that is too much expectations on kids who less than a year ago, mostly played the game for the fun of it

There is also that poverty mentality. The truth is most of these kids are from poor homes, we just read of Osimhen who was a hawker before the WC, hence, their immediate need is to get the cash to help out family irrespective of the working conditions, and we know well how African families are; once one person makes some cash, the entire extended family will relax, afterall "our brother is a big footballer in Europe".
So, a child of 16-18 becomes the bread winner of at least 10 people at home, so he has to pay his bro's fees, but Uncle Mike's child too has a business he needs money for, all of that pressure can damage that focus and passion for footy, y'all saw how Adebayor's issues panned out, how much more a kid?

Thirdly, Contrary to what many prefer to lie about, no, Nigeria doesn't have a history of failed age grade players. One guy claimed that every member of England's U-17 team of '09 have good careers, but I checked and found that only Danny Welbeck and Victor Moses can be counted in that team.

Let us remember that Chrisantus and Stanley are 2 of hundreds of age grade players from Nigeria, remember players like Kanu, Enyeama, Yobo, Onazi, Mikel, Omeruo, Musa and most recently, Iheanacho all played age grade football and were active for as long as required.

Maybe we don't have Messi or Di Maria, but even if everyone goes back to check on their mates from Secondary School you'll find that everyone didn't progress equally, in fact, in some sets, the best student then is doing badly now compared to the average and even poor students.

That is life for you, people with potential will fall, nobodies will rise. The likes of Dangote, Osibanjo, Zuckerberg, Oprah probably weren't potential pace setters while in school, but look at them now.

Please, Nigerians, stop slandering your own. Sweden brought Berisha, Brazil brought Mosquito and Mexico had Ochoa 2 years ago, where are they now compared to Kelechi? Did 2 of them not have beards? What about the Mexican captain this year? He had a full beard, but did Mexicans call themselves age cheats? No sane father would stone his son in the market square because others are doing it.

Protect what little is left of our dignity as a nation. Cc Joseph1013, terzurum, icon4s, thegoodjoe, thesupernerd, blueto, bascovanveli

TheGoodJoe:
Picture of the so called Papa Eaglets. Two years after the U17 in 2013.

Haters can only hate, while those with faith move mountains.

cc: lalasticlala.