Having Europe Based Players is Now a Curse in Disguise – Afcon
I usually don’t talk about my first ever passion in life. But today I take an exception.
The African Nations Cup Tournament is on, and my team the Super Eagles of Nigeria are not performing particularly well. Many people are putting all the blames on the coach. I feel the problem is much more deeper than many think.
There is a general perception that for a country to be recognised as a favourite for the nation’s cup That team needs to have an array of high profile European based players, and teams with pre-dominantly home based players grown from the countries domestic leagues are considered as minors. I have often wonder how close the perception is to the reality.
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Ever wonder why the West African region considered by many as the power house of African Football where 80% of the High profile players in Africa come from (Producing players like Didie Droba, George Weah, Jay Jay Okocha Emmanuel Adebayo, Michael Essen lists goes on). Yet the last time a country from West Africa won the Nations cup was 16 years ago when Nigeria won it in 1994. Ever since neither of Senegal ( with their failed golden generation) Ghana, Ivory Coast, or Nigeria have lifted Afcon inspite of producing some of the best players in the world.
Ever wondered why the nations cup in recent times have been dominated by countries with strong domestic leagues which produce 80% of their players? South Africa in 1996, Egypt in 1998, Tunisia in 2004, Eygpt in 2006 and again in 2008.
Do you see a trend? With the exception of Cameroon every country that have won the nations cup in the last 16 years are countries with strong domestic leagues where 80% of national team players come from their local league. The big* countries with their “big” European based stars who make up 95%-100% have all fumbled and wumbled ™.
The problem is simple to understand. Football is a team sport and it require that players most have played together for a long period of them. The players know each other, off the pitch there still maintain a close bound and friendship which is always important for team spirit and cordination. The advantage you get in a team composed largely of players from the domestic league is that your national team players are easier to assemble and train for longer period of times without any limitations.
Compare to countries where over 95% of players play abroad were its not always easy to get clubs to release players even for major Tournaments the required 2 weeks FIFA rule which require that clubs to release a player to his country 2 weeks before every major competition is never observed and players arriving 3-2 days to a championship is the norm. In such a sinerio what you have are 11 super star strangers on the pitch. There all come from different style of football, and are required to gel in such a short period of time? No football doesn’t work that way. It is a team sport and there is no miracle that any coach can perform which would make 22 players suddenly develop a rhythm after playing together for just 3 days it just doesn’t work that way with football. The result is a situation where so called “smaller” team (small because majority of their players play in their domestic league.) start to upset the Bigger teams.
There was a time in African football where it was an advantage to have Big* players in Europe. This was a time when the profile of african players is not as big as it is now. Were many african players always warmed the bench or where just squared members and most play for smaller European teams (mostly in Belgium and france) Hence players can leave their club for weeks and would not be missed This players bring their experience to their country and use the African Nation’s Cup as a platform to further launch their careers in Europe. Times have changed friends. African players are now hot cakes and clubs want to hold on to them as for as much as possible many are now the backbone of their teams in Europe who are always very reluctant to let them leave for a long period . making them less and less available for their national team.
Take a look at the trend in the on going Nations Cup in Angola
Mali: The country with the best mid field in Africa on paper based the number of High profile Europe based players in their midfield. Yet the likes of Barcelona’s Seydou Keita, Juventus midfielder Momo Sissoko, Real Madrid’s Mahamadou Diarra and Seville striker Frederic Kanoute could not safe them. They didnt even make it past the first round.
Ivory Coast: On paper the most complete African team and the Tournament favourites. Players like Manchester City’s Toure joined by his brother Yaya from Barcelona, as well as Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou, Arsenal’s Emmanuel Eboue and Pompey striker Aruna Dindane to mention a few. There were roundly beaten in the quarter finals by Algeria a nations with very average players many of whom play in their domestic league or lower division teams in france.
Cameroon: Another huge african country with driss Carlos KAMENI (Espanyol) one of the best goal keeper in spain Alexandre SONG (Arsenal FC), Jean II MAKOUN (Lyon) Samuel ETO’O (Inter Milano) Enoh EYONG (Ajax Amsterdam) all top players playing in many big leagues in Europe. The 100% Europe based Cameroonian team They were beaten comprehensively by an Egyptian side largely made up of home best players
Nigeria: Another country that took 100% foreign based players to Angola were on the ropes for most of their time in their quater final game against Zambia they barely held on with the skin of their teeth and had to result to penalties to win their game
The they say facts speaks for themselves. The problem of Nigerian team goes beyond just the Coach. Amodu may not be the best coach in the world. But given the situation I think he has done a good job qualifying the team to the World Cup in South African and taking them to the Semi Finals of the Nations Cup in Angola where there are about to meet Ghana. We should all praise him for that. However to other to ever make an impact in Afcon we need to put our house in order and fix our domestic leagues so that we can produce a team largely based on home based players who have time to get to train and know each other. Add one or 3 experience players from Europe and you have a killer recipe for Afcon.
Blaming the coach is really just trying make him a scape goat for a much more bigger problem. Many people say that Samson Siasia is the best coach we currently have, forgeting that on 2 occassions when he took laurels for the nations he used players who have been playing together for over a year. In 2005 he took a bunch of largely unknown players to the Under 21 Tournament in Holland and there got to the finals losing to Argentina (Inspired by a little guy called Messi). What many didnt know is the fact that Siasia boys had been playing together for clsoe to 2 years preparing for the championship same thing in the olympic were he took roughly same players and got a silver. However when the same coach hastily drafted to a the U21 team in just less then 4 months to the championship? his boys failed. why? lack of consistency.
I end my rather long post with this saying