ETHNIC BREAK-DOWN OF CHUKWUS TEAM VS GARBON

[Talk IT]

Its amazing that a Northern coach like Abdulahi can find north talent good enough to almost win the u-17 WC while his southern couterpats only find token Northern players for their teams

Actually, the more relevant question is why the young prospects from the North have generally failed to make the transition that many of their Southern counterparts have made? The regional origin of Nigerian national coaches have nothing to do with why the likes of Aliyu-Dati, Haruna Babangida, Ibrahim Babangida, Rabiu Baita, Abubakar Balarabe, Hashimu Garba, Abubakar Musa, Suleiman Mohammed (who even failed trials in South Africa) has not made the successful transition to the senior level -- both at club and intenational levels.

And btw, Westerhoff did NOT "find" Tijani Babangida.

Gotti,

For every Northern player that couldn’t make that “transition”, 10 southern ones also fail to make the grade too. We could go through a whole slew of great southern hopes who didn’t make it either?? However, because southern players get to go out for trials in large numbers, they are more than likely to get picked up…It thus becomes a numbers game.

And you may ask how come a large number of southern players get to go overseas?? It’s simply because of access!

Access to the coaches, access to the NFA, access being on highly visible team or areas. The southern players get most of the easy access to the channels that can get them noticed. As an example, the easiest way for a player to get noticed is through one of the junior national teams. If the coaches and the NFA are primarily selecting southern players, those are the people who get visibility and expose to the next level game and ultimate will get noticed by scouts from all around the world.

Westerhoff may not have found TJ, but he certainly had a lot to do with his career move overseas.

Solowe
You have finally given a more detailed explanation to your assertion but is still lacking logic and sound argument. Nigeria does not have a scouting system that you say discriminates against northern players. There is a local league and northern clubs are well represented. If there is a good northern player, surely he will be playing for one of the northern clubs and winning everyone over with his performance in the local league. Or are you also saying northern coaches in the northern clubs also discriminate against northern players?

The only area where your argument can slightly stick is the area of international age grade competitions which is normally dominated by southern coaches. But then again there are many southern players who have made it into europe without first advertising themselves in an age grade competition with nigeria. Some of these include:

Utaka
Martins
Aiyegbeni
Okocha
Enyeama
Ordia
Amokachi
Yekini
Makinwa
Agali
Taribo
and many more.

IMO, the reason for the shortage of norther talent has nothing to do with discrimination. Northerners may not just be cut out to be talented footballers just like asians. Just because nigeria is one country doesn't mean we are all cut out from the same rock. Someone mentions that northerners dominate long distance races in nigeria, i guess southern long distance runners are also discrimated against right? Our factors like culture, environment and gene plays a major part in the kind of sport a people will be good at. Does black dominance in sprint have anything to do with discrimination against white sprinters? Or will an average yoruba man be a better swimmer than an average Ijaw man? Having said that, it doesn't mean there are no northern talent out there. Its just that they are few and far between compared to what you have in the south. Maybe it make economic sense for the scouts to concentrate more in the south.

To the person who tried to separate Niger Deltans into different languages, i say eat you sucks. We niger deltans may speak different variants of a broad language, but we were all cut from the same rock so we are one.

[1naija]

And of course it fails to explain why the Sudanese, Kenyans, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Nigeriens, Tanzanians, Malawians, etc, who have presumably not been held down by Southern Nigerian coaches (and who love football just as much as Nigerians) have not been able to take their own chances and "excel" thereto.

I fail to see your point.

[JACKAL]

I guess that explains why Kenyans, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somilians, South Africans, Tanzanians, Malawians, Sudanese, etc, do not get to go overseas in large numbers?!

I am with 1Naija on this one. You missed the road here. What does this have to do with Nigerias export of players.


This could be either a useful exercise in seriously examining the socio-cultural factors that stunt the development of Northern talent (which to his credit is what Waka seeks herein), one of churlish ethnic-baiting (Abubakar's regular forte) or simply one of the many conspiracy theories that regularly drive Nigerian public discourse.

I have learned one thing on Cyber Eagles; we all speak from where what our expereinces teach us.

As has been said before, one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter

[color=#][/color]

[JACKAL]

Solowe,

Allah Godiya! Your write-up has giving me an impetus to dust up the one or so page interview I did with Coaches Ben Duamlong, Zakare Baraje and Amokachi of Nasarawa United on this very subject. Hopefully, I will get it done along with pictures this weekend.

Gadfly,

i am waiting for you oooo! Please come share with us !!

[Gotti]

And of course it fails to explain why the Sudanese, Kenyans, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Nigeriens, Tanzanians, Malawians, etc, who have presumably not been held down by Southern Nigerian coaches (and who love football just as much as Nigerians) have not been able to take their own chances and "excel" thereto.

I fail to see your point.

1NAIJA/SOLOWE:
It doesn't surprise me that both of you failed to see the point staring you in the face: if your contention is that the predomination of Southern Nigerian football players abroad is solely (or even primarily) because the allegedly Southern-dominated Nigerian football establishment has not granted a "fair chance" to footballers of Northern origin, then what explains the absence of those aforelisted peoples who have presumably not been denied a "fair chance" by Southern Nigerian coaches, scouts and sundry administrators?!

[1naija]

And of course it fails to explain why the Sudanese, Kenyans, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Nigeriens, Tanzanians, Malawians, etc, who have presumably not been held down by Southern Nigerian coaches (and who love football just as much as Nigerians) have not been able to take their own chances and "excel" thereto.

I fail to see your point.

1NAIJA/SOLOWE:
It doesn't surprise me that both of you failed to see the point staring you in the face: if your contention is that the predomination of Southern Nigerian football players abroad is solely (or even primarily) because the allegedly Southern-dominated Nigerian football establishment has not granted a "fair chance" to footballers of Northern origin, then what explains the absence of those aforelisted peoples who have presumably not been denied a "fair chance" by Southern Nigerian coaches, scouts and sundry administrators?!

GOTTI, Maybe that's Solowe's contention, but it's definately not my contention. My contention is that Northern Nigerian players are not given a fair chance by southern coaches to compete for a spot on the Super Eagles team, which has nothing to do with the number of Nigerians, Malawians or ethiopians playing abroad.

[Cristao]

only one way to settle this .. solowe et al should come up with a list of northern players that would make the current team ... no wonder it is said u cant please everybody ...

[bakana]

1naija/Solowe, maybe the average northern player does not have exactly same the opportunity to showcase his talent as the average southern kid, but saying its discrimination would be an overstatement. The old 2nd div. was divided into north and south primarily to give northern teams a chance in the hitherto southern dominated 1st div. but that has changed nothing, at most a flow of southerners up north and you're talking primarily of southerners refused by southern teams. There are some genetic, environmental and first and foremost social factors responsible, eg. sports is seen as activities for rascals, in the core north, most boys there marry and bear kids very early, infact a 28yr old single guy is frowned at, you telling someone you're a footballer is almost equal to saying ' I'm irresponsible'. Everyone of us here played football at school in fact I remember my cousin refusing point blank to go to one of those 'Jakande' schools in Lagos because there was no football field there. The disparity in educational opportunities hence SE 8) opprtunities should thus not be a suprise to anyone here. To cut a long story short the absence of nothern players in SE has little to do with discrimination and more to do with all the ills that are symptomatic of nigeria today.

[anointed]

While I am a huge fan of Garba Lawal and have always been a staunch advocate of his inclusion on our national teams, I would venture to say almost everyone agrees that Garba is a spent force and is at the twilight of his career. However, the NFA and our coaches will continue to invite him because they have no other Northern players to fill that ethnic quota.

His inclusion at this stage of his career proves what I have been criticizing about Nigeria’s team selections and our need to ethnically balance our teams at all cost. This shows that we are either deliberately excluding players from the north or doing a very poor job discovering them.

For those who are so inclined, here is the ethnic breakdown of Chukwus team Vs Gabon


IGBO
Austin Ejide (Etoile du Sahel/TUN) ..should not be on the team anymore
Chidi Odiah (CSKA Moscow/RUS)..We will see what all the noise is about
Celestine Babayaro (Newcastle/ENG)...we should be done with cele by now
Christian Obodo (Fiorentina/ITA)...Yujams wife
Ifeanyi Ekwueme (Aris Salonika/GR)...Chukwus love child
Nwankwo Kanu (West Bromwich Albion/ENG)....Common on !! ??
John Utaka (RC Lens/FRA)

YORUBA
Taye Taiwo (Olympique Marseille/FRA).. So much hype...he better perform
Seyi Olofinjana (Wolverhampton Wanderers/ENG)
Yusuf Ayila (Dynamo Kiev/UKR) We sill see what he is made of
Obafemi Martins (Inter/ENG)

NIGER DELTA
Vincent Enyeama (no club)
Joseph Yobo (Everton/ENG)
Ifeanyi Udeze (PAOK Salonika/GRE)
Obinna Nwaneri (Esperance/TUN) ..should be a started over Enakahire
Joseph Enakarhire (Sporting Lisbon/POR)..should not be on the team
Wilson Oruma (Sochaux/FRA)..we should be done with him by now
Austin Okocha (Bolton Wanderers/ENG)
Julius Aghahowa (Shakhtar Donetsk/UKR)
Osaze Odemwingie (Lille/FRA),
Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Portsmouth/ENG)...fair weather player..he should score in this one.

NORTHERNGarba Lawal (Santa Clara/POR)

You guys must be silly!!! how could you place JayJay Okocha as not being an IBO Person??? What's wrong with You people. can somebody pls translate the word OKOCHA and tell us what it means??? Even Nduka Ugbade that i once met in Isreal spoke the IBO languge better and more fluently than myself yet they say he's not IBO. Even OLISEH whose younger bro's name Is Azubuike is still considered a non-IBO.. moreover their parents who I know one on one spoke IBO. This is senseless. The fact is that the IBO's are the lost tribe of the jews they migrated to other places in Nigeria, and still maitain their language and culture. Pls let's be realistic here OK?? Eve Keshi whose middle name is OKechukwu is still grouped on this site as a NON- IBO are there no people with common sense in this forum??? These people who geographically are in the delta area of Naija are IBOs please and only speak IBO language, though with a different dialect This response of mine is by no means intended to cause trouble or clain players but C'mon MY PEOPLE let the "TRUTH BE TOLD"

Okocha may not have been clssified Ibo but the list only said he's from Niger Delta. As for Ugbade, he speaks Yoruba just like the late Claudius Eke aka Jegede Sokoya who prolly speak better Yoruba than a lot of Yorubas on this board like Jimi. I also speak Hausa too. And do yo remember that Bisi Olatilo, late Bola Ige, Chukwuemeka Chikelue are polyglots sort of.

What should we infer from this? Does being "passport American" make anyone Americans ? Does Keshi's "bearriful" accent make him American despite living in CIV, Belgium and France b4 1994? And is Owomoyela Nigerian or German? Medeleine Albright nko? Czech or American?

We could on and on. I guess it's only in Nigeria that we give damn about these things.

[anointed]

1Naija,

I guess Musa is wiser (and any coach too should be) than using the same yardstick to pick players for the national team and Dolphins. I believe Musa knows player who are goof for Dolphins but may not be good for the NT.

In fact I feel you need to go back to the drawing board on ur views relating to ethnicity especially if you still feel Rotimi Sunday and Bola Bello are from the North. Don't feel bad cos I used to thing Ejide was Yoruba cos a teacher in my high schl days used to be Mr Ejide Fayan.

And BTW, I guess by now everyone knows ur impression of AO; you should know when to sing the recessional hymn.

[Schillachi]

While I am a huge fan of Garba Lawal and have always been a staunch advocate of his inclusion on our national teams, I would venture to say almost everyone agrees that Garba is a spent force and is at the twilight of his career. However, the NFA and our coaches will continue to invite him because they have no other Northern players to fill that ethnic quota.

His inclusion at this stage of his career proves what I have been criticizing about Nigeria’s team selections and our need to ethnically balance our teams at all cost. This shows that we are either deliberately excluding players from the north or doing a very poor job discovering them.

For those who are so inclined, here is the ethnic breakdown of Chukwus team Vs Gabon


IGBO
Austin Ejide (Etoile du Sahel/TUN) ..should not be on the team anymore
Chidi Odiah (CSKA Moscow/RUS)..We will see what all the noise is about
Celestine Babayaro (Newcastle/ENG)...we should be done with cele by now
Christian Obodo (Fiorentina/ITA)...Yujams wife
Ifeanyi Ekwueme (Aris Salonika/GR)...Chukwus love child
Nwankwo Kanu (West Bromwich Albion/ENG)....Common on !! ??
John Utaka (RC Lens/FRA)

YORUBA
Taye Taiwo (Olympique Marseille/FRA).. So much hype...he better perform
Seyi Olofinjana (Wolverhampton Wanderers/ENG)
Yusuf Ayila (Dynamo Kiev/UKR) We sill see what he is made of
Obafemi Martins (Inter/ENG)

NIGER DELTA
Vincent Enyeama (no club)
Joseph Yobo (Everton/ENG)
Ifeanyi Udeze (PAOK Salonika/GRE)
Obinna Nwaneri (Esperance/TUN) ..should be a started over Enakahire
Joseph Enakarhire (Sporting Lisbon/POR)..should not be on the team
Wilson Oruma (Sochaux/FRA)..we should be done with him by now
Austin Okocha (Bolton Wanderers/ENG)
Julius Aghahowa (Shakhtar Donetsk/UKR)
Osaze Odemwingie (Lille/FRA),
Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Portsmouth/ENG)...fair weather player..he should score in this one.

NORTHERNGarba Lawal (Santa Clara/POR)

You guys must be silly!!! how could you place JayJay Okocha as not being an IBO Person??? What's wrong with You people. can somebody pls translate the word OKOCHA and tell us what it means??? Even Nduka Ugbade that i once met in Isreal spoke the IBO languge better and more fluently than myself yet they say he's not IBO. Even OLISEH whose younger bro's name Is Azubuike is still considered a non-IBO.. moreover their parents who I know one on one spoke IBO. This is senseless. The fact is that the IBO's are the lost tribe of the jews they migrated to other places in Nigeria, and still maitain their language and culture. Pls let's be realistic here OK?? Eve Keshi whose middle name is OKechukwu is still grouped on this site as a NON- IBO are there no people with common sense in this forum??? These people who geographically are in the delta area of Naija are IBOs please and only speak IBO language, though with a different dialect This response of mine is by no means intended to cause trouble or clain players but C'mon MY PEOPLE let the "TRUTH BE TOLD"

I noticed this was your first post, so you didn't see it fit to post on this forum at all until someone classified Okocha as a Niger-Deltan? Chei... Naija...

[1naija]

1Naija,

I guess Musa is wiser (and any coach too should be) than using the same yardstick to pick players for the national team and Dolphins. I believe Musa knows player who are goof for Dolphins but may not be good for the NT.

In fact I feel you need to go back to the drawing board on ur views relating to ethnicity especially if you still feel Rotimi Sunday and Bola Bello are from the North. Don't feel bad cos I used to thing Ejide was Yoruba cos a teacher in my high schl days used to be Mr Ejide Fayan.

And BTW, I guess by now everyone knows ur impression of AO; you should know when to sing the recessional hymn.

What the heck are you talking about? Who said anything about Rotimi Sunday being from the North? And what proof do you have that Bola Bello is not from the North?

How would know whether a Northern player is good for the National team if you don't give him a chance to compete with his peers? When Opabumni was drafted into the National team, what special qualification did he have that Sulieman Mohammed didn't have?

I am not advocating for a quota system in the National team like Onigbinde implemented. All I am saying is that no coach should decide on the competence of any player based on what part of the country he is from, just like you just did above. You've already decided that no Northern player is good for the Super Eagles without seing them in a single pickup game. Imagine if you were looking for a job and someone made similar assesment of your own skills without even interviewing you.

[anointed]

1Naija,

I guess Musa is wiser (and any coach too should be) than using the same yardstick to pick players for the national team and Dolphins. I believe Musa knows player who are goof for Dolphins but may not be good for the NT.

In fact I feel you need to go back to the drawing board on ur views relating to ethnicity especially if you still feel Rotimi Sunday and Bola Bello are from the North. Don't feel bad cos I used to thing Ejide was Yoruba cos a teacher in my high schl days used to be Mr Ejide Fayan.

And BTW, I guess by now everyone knows ur impression of AO; you should know when to sing the recessional hymn.

What the heck are you talking about? Who said anything about Rotimi Sunday being from the North? And what proof do you have that Bola Bello is not from the North?

How would know whether a Northern player is good for the National team if you don't give him a chance to compete with his peers? When Opabumni was drafted into the National team, what special qualification did he have that Sulieman Mohammed didn't have?

I am not advocating for a quota system in the National team like Onigbinde implemented. All I am saying is that no coach should decide on the competence of any player based on what part of the country he is from, just like you just did above. You've already decided that no Northern player is good for the Super Eagles without seing them in a single pickup game. Imagine if you were looking for a job and someone made similar assesment of your own skills without even interviewing you.

1Naija,

How many Dolphins players have been capped?

I don't see why he should cap any players because they are Northerners.

I know of Chinwo and Rotimi Sunday, but there may be more.

Sorry I misunderstood you here.

However I stand by my other points. Bola Bello is from Kogi.

[wesley]

I'M NOT HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU DID. HOW CAN YOU DISRECT A WHOLE COUNTRY LIKE THAT "IT'S NOT GARBON BUT GABON "

[JACKAL]

Solowe,

Oh my Solowe!

What can I say. But THANK YOU!!!

Now, I see a lot of you just jumping up and polluting ("tusa") the air with your insults and ignorant rants.

Let me tell you, there is no smoke without fire.

This is a legitimate problem. Some of you try to claim that there are few northerners playing professional soccer abroad and this is why there has been less of them in the team. My goodness!!! What happened to Mohammed Musa (T&T U-17)? What happened to Ibrahim (Ibro) Ndalla? What happend to Aliyu Datti? Guys, please stop the break-dance!

In the last 3 years Chukwu & his Southern cronies have taken the great SE through a high degree of experimentation with new players everyday. How they have not been able see the talents of the Mohammed's and the Ndalla's of this world really beats me.
Are they not supposed to be the same Nigerians like Ekwueme (the clubless man) and Chukwudi Nworgu (the great trialist).

Somebody even had the liver to argue that the majority of Musa Abdullahi's T&T team were southerners due to lack of talents in the North. Insults!!! Did Coach Musa pick his team? Was it not the southern mafias that picked that team? They were so desperate to put in the like's of Eromoigbe (a 37 years old man) in the place of budding young Northern talents. Thank God for Coach Musa Abdullahi. He had the guts to include some 4 northerners in that team. See what all these boys have done with themselves.

There is a problem in Nigeria and we must all admit it.

Buran Uba!

Abu,

My main man. How you dey ! Please tell them about the North and how there are a lot of kids who want to contribute their share to the Nigerian dream. ... If only they were given a fair chance to develop and compete !

[JACKAL]

Please note, I am not singling out Chukwu here, I am actually accusing all southern Coaches and the NFA and our entire soccer establishment of this charge

Solowe, is Onigbinde one of the southern coaches? I think he re-introduced tribalism into the National team selection. Do you agree?

1Naija,

For the life of me, I will never understand your obsession with Onigbinde.

Yes Onigbinde is a southern coach and he is part of the group I am refering to in my initial post, however, I will not go as far as to call him or any coach a tribalist.

[Maigida]

For starters, aren't the following players from the North? That is, weren't they born, bred and learned their football in the North? So what is this about the north not developing players?

Layiwola Olagbemiro
Felix Owolabi
Rashidi Yekini
Benedict Akwuebu
James Obiora
Celestine Baba
Bala Ali
Solomon Abwo
............

I know it is a dificult thing to do but lets do away with associating a player with his father's birthplace and instead place him where he was born and grew up.

[Hard Man]

2 things guaranteed to get folks hot under the collar:

religion

and

tribalism.

This thread is a reflection of human nature.

[General Trousers]

Gotti put up a good list

Aliyu-Dati - Belgium 1st Division
Haruna Babangida - Spanish 2nd Division
Ibrahim Babangida - ???
Rabiu Baita - Belgian 1st Division
Abubakar Balarabe - ???
Hashimu Garba - ???
Abubakar Musa - ???
Suleiman Mohammed - ???
Abdul Razak Mohammed Ekpoki - Slovenian 1st Division
Sunday Ibeji (Lobi Stars) - Slovenian 1st Division
Robert Akuraye (Lobi Stars) - UAE
Abdul Sule - Denmark
Sulieman Musa - Russian 1st Division

Its amazing that a Northern coach like Abdulahi can find north talent good enough to almost win the u-17 WC while his southern couterpats only find token Northern players for their teams

Actually, the more relevant question is why the young prospects from the North have generally failed to make the transition that many of their Southern counterparts have made? The regional origin of Nigerian national coaches have nothing to do with why the likes of Aliyu-Dati, Haruna Babangida, Ibrahim Babangida, Rabiu Baita, Abubakar Balarabe, Hashimu Garba, Abubakar Musa, Suleiman Mohammed (who even failed trials in South Africa) has not made the successful transition to the senior level -- both at club and intenational levels.

And btw, Westerhoff did NOT "find" Tijani Babangida.

[ikenga]

While I am a huge fan of Garba Lawal and have always been a staunch advocate of his inclusion on our national teams, I would venture to say almost everyone agrees that Garba is a spent force and is at the twilight of his career. However, the NFA and our coaches will continue to invite him because they have no other Northern players to fill that ethnic quota.

His inclusion at this stage of his career proves what I have been criticizing about Nigeria’s team selections and our need to ethnically balance our teams at all cost. This shows that we are either deliberately excluding players from the north or doing a very poor job discovering them.

For those who are so inclined, here is the ethnic breakdown of Chukwus team Vs Gabon


IGBO
Austin Ejide (Etoile du Sahel/TUN) ..should not be on the team anymore
Chidi Odiah (CSKA Moscow/RUS)..We will see what all the noise is about
Celestine Babayaro (Newcastle/ENG)...we should be done with cele by now
Christian Obodo (Fiorentina/ITA)...Yujams wife
Ifeanyi Ekwueme (Aris Salonika/GR)...Chukwus love child
Nwankwo Kanu (West Bromwich Albion/ENG)....Common on !! ??
John Utaka (RC Lens/FRA)

YORUBA
Taye Taiwo (Olympique Marseille/FRA).. So much hype...he better perform
Seyi Olofinjana (Wolverhampton Wanderers/ENG)
Yusuf Ayila (Dynamo Kiev/UKR) We sill see what he is made of
Obafemi Martins (Inter/ENG)

NIGER DELTA
Vincent Enyeama (no club)
Joseph Yobo (Everton/ENG)
Ifeanyi Udeze (PAOK Salonika/GRE)
Obinna Nwaneri (Esperance/TUN) ..should be a started over Enakahire
Joseph Enakarhire (Sporting Lisbon/POR)..should not be on the team
Wilson Oruma (Sochaux/FRA)..we should be done with him by now
Austin Okocha (Bolton Wanderers/ENG)
Julius Aghahowa (Shakhtar Donetsk/UKR)
Osaze Odemwingie (Lille/FRA),
Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Portsmouth/ENG)...fair weather player..he should score in this one.

NORTHERNGarba Lawal (Santa Clara/POR)

You guys must be silly!!! how could you place JayJay Okocha as not being an IBO Person??? What's wrong with You people. can somebody pls translate the word OKOCHA and tell us what it means??? Even Nduka Ugbade that i once met in Isreal spoke the IBO languge better and more fluently than myself yet they say he's not IBO. Even OLISEH whose younger bro's name Is Azubuike is still considered a non-IBO.. moreover their parents who I know one on one spoke IBO. This is senseless. The fact is that the IBO's are the lost tribe of the jews they migrated to other places in Nigeria, and still maitain their language and culture. Pls let's be realistic here OK?? Eve Keshi whose middle name is OKechukwu is still grouped on this site as a NON- IBO are there no people with common sense in this forum??? These people who geographically are in the delta area of Naija are IBOs please and only speak IBO language, though with a different dialect This response of mine is by no means intended to cause trouble or clain players but C'mon MY PEOPLE let the "TRUTH BE TOLD"

I noticed this was your first post, so you didn't see it fit to post on this forum at all until someone classified Okocha as a Niger-Deltan? Chei... Naija...

My man chill out... I'm no stranger to this site aight Matter of fact we started this site years ago. It just happened that I was away for a minute and lost my senirity in this site. FYI i was a Papa member of this site at one point. I bet U never been to this side during that era...So relax yaself homeboy.

[JACKAL]

And of course it fails to explain why the Sudanese, Kenyans, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Nigeriens, Tanzanians, Malawians, etc, who have presumably not been held down by Southern Nigerian coaches (and who love football just as much as Nigerians) have not been able to take their own chances and "excel" thereto.

I fail to see your point.

1NAIJA/SOLOWE:
It doesn't surprise me that both of you failed to see the point staring you in the face: if your contention is that the predomination of Southern Nigerian football players abroad is solely (or even primarily) because the allegedly Southern-dominated Nigerian football establishment has not granted a "fair chance" to footballers of Northern origin, then what explains the absence of those aforelisted peoples who have presumably not been denied a "fair chance" by Southern Nigerian coaches, scouts and sundry administrators?!

Gotti,

Sorrry, but you are still comparing apples to Oranges here.

The ability of the players to travel overseas in those countries you mentioned is not directly influenced by Nigerian coaches, southern or otherwise.

[JACKAL]

For starters, aren't the following players from the North? That is, weren't they born, bred and learned their football in the North? So what is this about the north not developing players?

Layiwola Olagbemiro
Felix Owolabi
Rashidi Yekini
Benedict Akwuebu
James Obiora
Celestine Baba
Bala Ali
Solomon Abwo
............

I know it is a dificult thing to do but lets do away with associating a player with his father's birthplace and instead place him where he was born and grew up.

Maigida,

Thanks for the list. Actually that list is a lot more extensive than that....You should include Segun odegbami, Godwin Odiye etc...

That list includes some of the bigest names in Nigerian soccer.....and it ultimately begs the question; If ethnicity is not a factor, how came all of these great players who got their football education in the north, are recognized ad given and oppurtunity to play on the National level while players of original Northern decent dont get the same oppurtunities??

[Jiggerman21]

Perhaps the same argument can be applied to the Education problem as well. Is this a problem of talent or just a matter of interest and neglect?