₦airaland Forum

I've always thought this girl was the most beautiful in that house. Shame she left on the first week.

Ihedioha's people will soon come here and claim the real owners of those railings took them away.
Okorocha didn't pay them so they came and collected back their metal rails.

TheSuperNerd:
The only thing Pepe showed at the AFCON was his ability from Setpieces. Aside that, he flopped big time no doubt at Afcon 2019.

Leao's stats for that amount is really something. Well it is because it is Ligue 1 and strikers no dey much for market again.

I think Pepe deliberately played below 70% at the AFCON to avoid injuries. If he had coped an injury that will that for him.
He's managed by a willy buisness man agent like Jorge Mendez,you shouldn't expect any less. This is one of the reasons big names hardly do well at Afcons.

Danielnino00:
This is the jersey of a 2nd division club in Tunisia.. not made by Nike... but I thought they had copyright policy in place to prevent things like this.

Won't be surprised if they don't anyway...Aba and Chinese boys made plenty replica even before the official launch..


this jersey will forever remain popular sha ..

If only we played quality football to match with the jersey.

Something is wrong with Ihedioha. That edifice was a sight to behold. What kind of nonsense is this?

charlesemeka85:
Reports from France suggest that Nigerian international striker, Henry Onyekuru is on his wy to Monaco from Everton for a fee of 10 million euros

In a space of 2 months he has gone from a medical away for €35M deal to Bayern Munich to €10M Monaco deal.
I should tweet Colin Udoh for an explanation.

andrew444:
Nigerian league players doesnt even know how to lie, can you imagine you knowing he made his league debut 2003, i wont even doubt anything you are saying.

The lie no rhym at all, you made a league debut back in 2003 and you are 25 in 2013, how does that make sense?

Lol, this is funny bro

That's the thing. People always ask where those Keshi boys are but they haven't considered the fact they were given the chance quite late in their careers.

timay:
Something tells me the work permit shit is a lie.
Everton doesn't want him yet. With all the club appearances even in the Champions league over the past 3 yrs, I believe he should be more than qualify.


He would probably get loaned again. His handlers are just using it as a way of not letting his value drop.

Everton is about to sign Moise kean from Juve , for 27.5 million. If they needed Onyekuru, he should have been staying cos it's not as if they don't need a Striker.

Of course the whole gambit about work permit is nonsense. Nigeria is in the top 50 FIFA ranking and Onyekuru whose official age is 22 just made the country's Afcon squad on the back of a successful campaign with Galatasaray in Turkey an EU country. In addition to his successful spell in Belgium.

The guy over qualifies for a work permit. His agents are withholding information. I don't think Everton see him as a prospect in their future. Granted his agents are quite brilliant, they know how to play the propaganda game having linked him to PSG and greasing Colin Udoh's palms to announce he was a medical away from signing for Bayern Munich.

jihday:
Mba was 25 then, 6 months after he was poor at the confederation cup barely a year after he couldn't make the world cup party and nobody batted an eye lid

Because you want to win an argument, you now believe the official age of a Nigerian player.
Sunday Mba made his league debut with Enyimba back in 2003. If he was 25 and 6months in 2013, it means he was 15 when he was with Enyimba. Does it even make sense to you?

tbaba1234:
Ozornwafor has not even played one season but i believe he will do well.

Azango is not doing well at Gent
Lokosa? Tunisia? Let us see his development.

Etebo is one of the few local players in recent times that has risen but there are far too many failures.

How many of these players with AFCON gold are still around?

The league should be producing players that can serve for a few years.

Most of those guys were not exactly teenagers when they conquered Africa. The likes of Egwuekwe, MBA and Uzoenyi were close to 30 if not more back in 2013. They were basically discovered in late in their careers, yet they added to our Afcon gold collection.
If the previous national team coaches had believed in them earlier than Keshi did, who knows what would have been?
How is it the players fault that he was discovered late?

Truidstar:
To compare odey and lokosa to Finidi and Amokachi is an INSULT. Finidi strolled from the sharks of port harcourt into Ajax first team without trials same as Amokachi into club brugge. Nigeria was dripping with quality back then. We don't have that now. Let's face the facts, our league is dead.

I'm not comparing these players. I hope you don't have comprehension problem. I'm just asking what would have been if Lokosa and Odey scored 17 goals durring Finidi's era when the top scorers in the league had no more than 9goals a season.

tbaba1234:
How many NPFL players are making similar progression though? very few.

The academy guys are also securing the bigger moves but it is much harder to make the first team of big teams.

Ipalibo has been in Villarreal youth sides for a few years now. We have a few boys who have played for Porto with no chance at first team football. How many NPFL players get signed to such teams??

The point is that the players rising to the top for the most part are not NPFL players. They are players picked from academies. Odey is the only NPFL player on a positive trajectory at the moment.

Is Ozornwafor not on a positive trajectory? How about Philip Azango at Gent. Jnr Lokosa is doing well at Esperance playing in the Caf finals. Etebor is on to something at Stoke City.

For what it's worth, the league have been serviceable. None of the national teams with a make up of NPFL players have been disgraced out of a competition, rather they have delivered Afcon gold, Chan silver and Olympic Bronze.
Only God knows what we can achieve if there was real investment in our league.

Funny that AKA's new hit song "Jika" is 100% Nigerian tune.
He can't hate Nigeria and copy Nigeria at the same time.

tbaba1234:
Well, our standards are not particularly high. Are Nigerian players not going to India?

I am not even talking about those in the National team. I understand Villarreal signed a few Nigerian academy players recently. Porto and other Portuguese teams have Nigerians in their ranks. Feirense youth team has 3-4 Nigerians straight from Nigerian academies.

Onyekuru did not play for the national team, neither did Dennis Bonaventure. Ejuke was part of the 2016 under 17 but that team did not go far. I do not think his progress can be attributed to the national team.

James Ibekeme is joining a La liga side this season if reports are believed but he never played in the league. Straight from academies.

The NPFL and LA Liga have a partnership, no surprises if we get to see a few more players head to Spain from Nigeria. It also makes sense Villarreal will try to explore the Nigerian market to find the next Chukwueze. Not because of the NPFL vs academy dichotomy you're pushing out but because of the success of Chukwueze.

Bonaventure moved to Zorya fc of Ukraine from an academy. Hardly an earth shattering move to reckon with. Players move from the NPFL to Ukraine on a regular.

Onyekuru was at Qatar before moving to Eupen which is about one of the smallest teams in Belgium. Didn't Joseph Akpala go from Insurance to Standard liege?
James Ibekeme has been playing low league football for a while in Portugal before signing for Zaragoza in Spanish div 2. How sure are you that Ibekeme didn't play in the NNL before leaving Nigeria? Do you mind tell me why he didn't move to a LA Liga team from a Lagos academy?

My point still stands, that academy players from Nigeria bounce around buffer teams in Europe before getting decent moves. Some get totally lost and disappear off radar durring these transitions.

I repeat, the ones who get big moves used the national age grade team's platform.

somehow:
Handlers and coaches caused tthis. never ready to try new faces because their own job not safe either.

Then comes the administrators who are largely bereft of ideas. most are political jobbers.

Then comes the money part, people hardly retire from the NPFL because its like a life pension to them. Their ages remain same almost every season with the hope of moving abroad not to improve but to earn huge pay.

We have raw talents in the league but we wants to spend time nurturing when they can just scout from foreign leagues? makes the job easier for them.

Lastly, most runners of Academies operate solely to move their players abroad for financial gains and not because of the league (Since the league not even ready to absorb younger legs) .

That's the exactly the case. They are set up buisnesses exclusively to send players abroad and earn dollars. The funny thing is that only but a few have actual contacts or partnership with geniue foreign agents. Most of these academies have not managed to secure deals for their players in years. The ones who ship players on regular have partnerships with some clubs directly.
The government must start investigating the activities of these academies because most of them are operated by scammers who scam the parents of these desperate boys.
The are all over the place on Facebook.

tbaba1234:
That's the thing.. The league had better quality then. Odey failed several trials abroad before getting the FC Zurich deal. Lokosa also failed several trials and it took Rohr's recommendation to get him his Esperance deal.

There is a huge gulf in the quality coming out. What about Mba and Oboabana who were given national team boosts, where are they now?

Academy players are securing better deals without national team support.

Better deals? You're saying this as if academy players are securing deals with the Barcelonas and Bayern Munichs. The academy players start their careers in countries like Slovakia, Bosnia and Latvia. A few land in div2 clubs in Portugal, some in Turkey, Belgium and scandanavia, the rest in Asia. These are the same countries NPFL players get signed to as well because basically they all have the same set of agents. Fact!

Guys like Chukwueze, Osimhen, Iheanacho, Success and Nwakalis got big moves to Europe using the national team platform. Chukwueze would have still been at Umuahia with his friends if he didn't get a break through with the national team U17s. At best, he will be at Tresin in Slovakia if he didn't get picked up by Abia warriors.

tbaba1234:
In the past, you can argue 90% but that trend is changing rapidly. Our national team is dominated by under 17 players who never played in the league and players from the diaspora.

The quality produced by the league has dropped drastically. Can you compare the likes of Odey and Lokosa to Finidi George, who went straight to a champions league winning side or Amokachi. Look at our performances in Africa.

Coaching is one problem but i do not think scouting is properly done either. Academy players have achieved more success in recent years than NPFL players.

Finidi and Amokachi had the benefit of national team exposure which aided their transition to Europe. If Odeh and Lokosa came into limelight during Finidi's era, you bet they would have got a look in by Westerhoff and probably get signed by the likes of Ajax from Mfm and pillars.
I speak with confidence because they scored about 17 goals apiece, I'm sure neither Finidi nor Amokachi scored as many times.

andrew444:
Lol

I just modified because there was typo error, hope you understand i said arsenal is leaving zaha to sign pepe

Are you sure nacho played like pepe? Pepe is a winger ooo

Let me hear from you

At the U17s Iheanacho played from the right wing, always running from right to left just like Pepe . I recall watching him against Mexico where he piped them real hard.

BascoVanVeli:
So crap that we won silver in both those competitions and mind u I always said that those were not our best legs. If we have better coaching for our players they won't make some of the primary school mistakes that they make. If the league is poor it all should fall on the administration. This beating up on people who need our help thing is very shady. The cry should be for the players not about the players. We can't send every player abroad and even in these big nations players do fall through the cracks (Mahrez, Griezmann and Kante come to mind) so we have to improve our league and not condemn the only people doing any thing good for our local football.

Exactly. Add the Olympic bronze medal Siasia won at Rio Olympics with the team made up of NPFL/NNL made players. Atleast 99.5% of that Rio team passed through the NPFL/NNL at a point.

Talents in the Nigerian league are in their raw form. I don't expect to see a world class player in the NPFL but if you're looking for coach able talented players, you will find them, if you have a keen eyes.
Hacks like Colin Udoh have no right to deride NPFL players as if its their fault the Nigerian system is disorganized.

andrew444:
Wow so Arsenal is leaving to zign zaha for Nicolas Pepe

Come to think of it, Iheanacho played alot like Nicolas Pepe at U17s. Almost identical skill set and good shooting ability.
What happened to that guy?

Humility017:
until then.... but for now Colins article is too notch...
if I have my way that league will be overhauled and restructured

It will sound top to you, no surprises.

Nigeria can afford to ban anything because they produce nothing. There's nothing we have that other countries will ban.

So he's from Adamawa? I have always thought Panam Percy Paul was from Plateau state.

If Valentine Ozornwafor steps up at Galatasaray within the next 2years, Colin's article would have been discredited in one hit.

BascoVanVeli:
I have so much respect for Colin Udoh but this is a poor and boring article. Were we winning all continental competitions when we had the likes of Jay Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh and Rashidi Yekini in our league? He is simply overlooking the real problems and stating the obvious.

Mark my words, the league will continue to produce quality players no matter if the coach uses them or not.

True words. Very lazy article by Colin Udoh. His interpretation about the league leaves a lot to be desired from a veteran journalist. He wrote like a baby in the industry.

But there are many church channels on satellite TV. If you are against circular TV shows like Big brother, you can simply block the channel and watch dove TV.
If you want the government to impose what the people should watch, that policy might come back to bite you in the future.

Jesse Jagz was the first artist I heard talk about Royal Niger company. Dude was deep as Bleep

Earthquake2:
What striker do we have that has lit up the world stage?

Good question.

Earthquake2:
Hamburg signs Xavier Amaechi for 2.5 million

Good news for SE

Hamburg were relegated last season.

Didn't Boko Haram choose him as their negotiator before he became president.

I don't think Yekini made alot from football. While at Victoria Setubal, he was their best player but the least paid in the team. Yekini had just basic education and probably didn't surround himself with smart people who will advice him on good investment opportunities.

Kingosytex:
Wizzy has a better chance of achieving that

I used to believe that. But truth is that most of his songs are freestyles, they lack real content.
I give Burna an edge due to his own unique sound which he has stuck to over the years, Nigerians didn't like it, until recently.