Nigeria unfair to me, Odiaka cries out By Victor Enyinnaya Ex-international, Monday Odiaka has described his generation of footballers as a wasted one. Odiaka, who was a key member of the bronze winning Flying Eagles squad at the 1985 FIFA U-20 World Cup held in the old Soviet Republic, lamented in an exclusive interview with Newswatch Sports that despite his contributions and that of his teammates to make the country proud at the international scene, they are yet to be considered worthy in the scheme of football administration in the country. The former ACB Football Club of Lagos forward, who made the headlines with his 15seconds fastest goal scored at the 1985 World Cup in the Flying Eagles 2-0 win over Canada, which incidentally eteched his name as the only Nigerian footballer in the Guinness Book of World Records, said that the country has not been fair to him and his teammates. “It is curious but true that nobody has cared to remember me or my other colleagues that equally did this nation proud in one point or the other. I have what it takes to be fixed somewhere in the national scheme of things, but no because one does not have godfather among the people running the affairs of the game in this country today. I did the country proud and now there is nothing to show for it,” he said. Currently head of competitions, National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF), Odiaka admitted that he and his colleagues are facing enormous challenges to keep body and soul together in a country they laid their lives for and regretted that the administrators of football in the country have been left in the hands of those, who have not contributed anything to its growth. “Look at me; the only Nigerian player whose name is in the Guinness Book of World Records. In a civilised country where things are done the way it should be, I know where I should have been in running of the country’s football today. Sadly, Nigerian football is being governed by people that have no track record of the development and growth of the sport. They have been reaping from where they did not sow. This has been the real dilemma of ex- players especially my generation that earned little or nothing from the game. We helped to lay the solid foundation being noticed in our national football today, which Stephen Keshi, a worthy product and ambassador of developmental football has rekindled since he took the mantle of leadership in the Super Eagles.”
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 09:42:46 +0000
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