THE REAL REASON WE ARE NOT WINNING THE U-20 WC

[Man Ataye]

There is a big giant hole in our football : Between U17 football and adult league football.

So between the ages of 18 - 21 these young players have nowhere to play or go. There is no Junior league in Nigeria to develop players. They are too old for Academy football and too young for full league football.

So We need U-18 to U-19, U-20 to U21 Leagues to get the best players ready for adult level football.

4 years is a long time to go without consistently playing competitive football.

You make a very valid point bros, personally its pretty odd that the NPFL itself has an U15 competition, but not one for U19 or U21. Its about time we create a viable structure to football progression than this hit or hope strategy with academy players with the main aim of getting a club abroad.

He does have a silid point.

[txj]

We still have secondary schools

Secondary is not the same as pro or semi ranks.... When you are in school you only train for 4 hrs a week... Youth league train full time like pro teams.. beside you are supposed to out of secondary school by the age of 18. you cant be in school and be training 12 hr a week and play games on the weekend.

Those hours were long enough to produce the likes of Henry Nwosu, Stephen Keshi, Peter Nieketen, etc

Its not how long they train, but how well.

I expect 18-21 year olds to be affiliated with clubs...

The NFF cannot run a proper league. Now you expect them to add a youth league?

It's not the absence of an 18-21 youth league that's slowing us down atm. It's the poor foundational training at crucial levels of the game that is affecting the development of our young players.

Also, the NFF needs to harness the energy at the academies- true academies, and help streamline them to work as they should, rather than just be conduits for selling players...

Txj,

He has a point. Hours of training matter and not hours training under a games master but one training under a professional coach. The Nwosus, Keshis, etc. did not do much at the U20 level and cannot even be said to have achieved as much as the U20s today. Thus, using them as example will not be the better option.

Its ultimately the quality of training...

[Enugu II]

We still have secondary schools

Secondary is not the same as pro or semi ranks.... When you are in school you only train for 4 hrs a week... Youth league train full time like pro teams.. beside you are supposed to out of secondary school by the age of 18. you cant be in school and be training 12 hr a week and play games on the weekend.

Those hours were long enough to produce the likes of Henry Nwosu, Stephen Keshi, Peter Nieketen, etc

Its not how long they train, but how well.

I expect 18-21 year olds to be affiliated with clubs...

The NFF cannot run a proper league. Now you expect them to add a youth league?

It's not the absence of an 18-21 youth league that's slowing us down atm. It's the poor foundational training at crucial levels of the game that is affecting the development of our young players.

Also, the NFF needs to harness the energy at the academies- true academies, and help streamline them to work as they should, rather than just be conduits for selling players...

Txj,

He has a point. Hours of training matter and not hours training under a games master but one training under a professional coach. The Nwosus, Keshis, etc. did not do much at the U20 level and cannot even be said to have achieved as much as the U20s today. Thus, using them as example will not be the better option.

Its ultimately the quality of training...

Txj,

It is never one variable bros. It is both hours trained and the quality. Although, Klinsmann appears to rank amount of time over quality (see below).

This idea that it always has to be one factor just is a nonstarter. Life is not about one factors. Those who created practice makes perfect know exactly what they talked about. What JACKAL says about hours of training matter and in fact is a critical aspect of Klinsmann's programming of the Academy system and not just the quality. Read Klinsmann's ideas below:

Klinsmann addresses culture, style, youth development in first remarks as coach
https://sbisoccer.com/2011/08/klinsmann ... e-new-york
By: Michael N. | August 1, 2011 12:52 pm ET

By MIKE NASTRI

NEW YORK — The U.S. Soccer Federation did not just hire the 35th head coach in national team history, but it perhaps altered the direction of the entire national team program.

Jurgen Klinsmann, the first foreign-born U.S. national team coach in 16 years, touched on a few topics during his first press conference since being hired to replace Bob Bradley on Friday, but he frequently emphasized the culture and direction of soccer in the United States.

Klinsmann mentioned numerous times that "it's important to understand your [U.S.] culture." And after living in the United States for the past 13 years, Klinsmann feels he is ready to incorporate more of this country's melting-pot society into the U.S. team.

"There's so much influence from the Latin environment that has to be reflected in the national team," Klinsmann said.

This Latin influence could mean a bigger role in the national team for multi-national Americans such as Jose Francisco Torres and Edgar Castillo. Also, this Latin infusion will certainly have an affect over one of the Klinsmann's most difficult tasks: finding a style of play for the national team.

"One of my challenges will be to a way to define how the U.S. team should represent it's country," Klinsmann said. "And what should be the style of play? Is it more pro-active and agressive kind of forward thinking style of play or is it more of a reactive style of play? That comes with the obviously the players you have at your disposal, but also with the people that your surrounded with.

"I think it is important over the next three years that I have a lot of conversations with people involved in the game here to find a way to define that style. What suits us best? What would you like to see?"

Style of play was not the only big question that U.S. fans were pondering for which Klinsmann didn't have clear answer. He said that he has only had contact with a handful of U.S. players and hasn't picked his squad for the Mexico friendly yet. That announcement will come Wednesday. Also, Klinsmann hasn't picked a full-time staff yet.

"I want to see what's out there," Klinsmann said. "There are a lot of good, highly qualified coaches in the U.S. that I might not even know. So, I need to talk to people and understand what's out there."

The former VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich star will accomplish this task by trying out different assistant coaches ahead of World Cup qualifying in June. Then he will pick a permanent staff based off his experience with these assistants. However, Klinsmann did make individual reference to two current figures in the U.S. system.

"I want Claudio [Reyna] very close to me in terms of helping in his new role as Technical Director of Youth Development," said Klinsmann, whose previous coaching stints were with the German national team and Bayern Munich. "He will always be part of the staff. He will sit with us coaches on the table, so I can tell him how I look at the game. As well as Tab Ramos, who is the U-20s coach for right now. I want his perspective and information on what's going through at training at the 20s and the U-17 level."

The youth system and staff will be a huge emphasis for Klinsmann. He was nearly hired two different times in the past five years, most recently after last year's World Cup. But, the sticking point between Klinsmann and U.S. Soccer was the amount of control over that very youth system. This time around, Sunil Gulati and Klinsmann have seemingly put that conversation to rest.

"Between us [Klinsmann and Gulati] there has never been an issue about so-called control," Gulati said. "Jurgen's comments previously were about being able to incorporate that into a piece of paper. So, the understanding about how we were going to move forward and collaborate has been clear for many years."

With those "power" concerns put to rest, expect Klinsmann to make some changes to the U.S. youth system. Some of the changes he briefly touched on include making youth teams' style of play and culture reflect that of the senior team and to continue to build on the growing academy system currently in place. Klinsmann pointed that the biggest difference between the game in this country and any of the top 10 soccer nations is the amount of time youth players spend field.

"This is what is really missing compared to the leading soccer nations around the world, the first 10-12 nations around the world, is the amount of time kids play the game," said Klinsmann. "If you have a kid that plays in Mexico 20 hours a week, and maybe four hours of organized soccer but 16 hours of unorganized soccer just banging the ball around in the neighborhood, but if he gets up to 20 hours it doesn’t matter how he plays it, with his dad or with his buddies in the street, this will show later on with his technical abilities, with his passing, with his instinct on the field and all those things, and I think that’s certainly an area where a lot of work is ahead of us."

These changes Klinsmann hopes to make will only become palpable if he is able to stay past his current contract, which Gulati revealed runs through the 2014 World Cup. Gulati and Klinsmann certainly see eye-to-eye on a lot of strategies and outlooks, but that won't matter if Klinsmann can't get results on the field.

The German is replacing one of the more successful U.S. coaches in it's history. While unpopular among groups of fans, Bradley took the United States to it's highest-ever finish in a FIFA tournament and won the 2007 Gold Cup and its group at the 2010 World Cup. Klinsmann has to meet or exceed the results of his last two predecessors in Bradley and Bruce Arena, otherwise, his big ideas may never come to fruition.

[txj]

There is a big giant hole in our football : Between U17 football and adult league football.

So between the ages of 18 - 21 these young players have nowhere to play or go. There is no Junior league in Nigeria to develop players. They are too old for Academy football and too young for full league football.

So We need U-18 to U-19, U-20 to U21 Leagues to get the best players ready for adult level football.

4 years is a long time to go without consistently playing competitive football.

YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT U17 & ADULT LEAGUE?


I'd worry about the years BEFORE U17. If these years are put to good use, you won't have to worry about the years after that. The real problem is that Nigerian football has no structure. It's very much like Nigerian farming that shuns cultivation but simply wants to go into the forest to harvest what grows wild.

In the US, they start at age six or slightly under, progressing thru high school and college under well known structure (though it's still evolving). Nigeria needs also to do the same, and I don't mean simply come up with the blue print some other country has laid down. There's nothing Nigerians love more than to copy others blindly. Nigeria may choose to place heavy emphasis at the elementary and high school levels because these are the places where talents have been traditionally harvested. That means more than just scouting them but giving them the structure and resources needed.
Bell

That is the crux of the matter.

Nigerian players are largely self formed. Those young players who go thru youth clubs, schools or our club system do not get proper modern training and nutrition.

That is why we produce players like Utin, or clones of him going back to the earliest U17 teams. Players without a proper understanding of the modern team game. And therefore players who are already well formed, cannot be trained and are overaged anyways...

But we used to have a structure that worked, but all that has decayed or become outmoded.

BUT, we now have academies. However, many of these are primarily oriented towards international transfer of players. Many are only academies in name. But they do not have to be like the Man City academy.

What they need are functional structures. And especially, the support of the NFF in creating a super structure for youth football, where players can go from schools to academies and then on to clubs.

Especially, we need the NFF to provide technical support in terms of training of coaches, monitoring of compliance, setting standards for record keeping, promoting competitions, etc. All focused on FUNCTIONAL structures...

If you get it right before the U-17 level, most everything else will fall in place in terms of talent development...

The idea of a U18-20 league badly misses the point.

[chief nfachairman]

There is a big giant hole in our football : Between U17 football and adult league football.

So between the ages of 18 - 21 these young players have nowhere to play or go. There is no Junior league in Nigeria to develop players. They are too old for Academy football and too young for full league football.

So We need U-18 to U-19, U-20 to U21 Leagues to get the best players ready for adult level football.

4 years is a long time to go without consistently playing competitive football.

You make a very valid point bros, personally its pretty odd that the NPFL itself has an U15 competition, but not one for U19 or U21. Its about time we create a viable structure to football progression than this hit or hope strategy with academy players with the main aim of getting a club abroad.

We have pro 1, pro 2, pro 3, Amateur 1, Amatuer 2, State Leagues etc.

Premier league and pro 1 teams also have feeder teams.

[wale1974]

I wonder why Germany, Croatia , France and England are not winning the u20 . It is what it is, it's a developemental tournament not one you have to start 5 leagues to win. There're teams who rarely qualify but will beat the perennial qualifiers at senior level no sweat.

But France and England already did Nah.......Slow down before you reply next time.

[Orion]

I wonder why Germany, Croatia , France and England are not winning the u20 .

All those countries have won the cup. It took England some time to win it because they never really took it seriously until recently when they decided to rebuild from the bottom. Croatia won it when they were still part of Yugoslavia.

[bret- hart]

I wonder why Germany, Croatia , France and England are not winning the u20 . It is what it is, it's a developemental tournament not one you have to start 5 leagues to win. There're teams who rarely qualify but will beat the perennial qualifiers at senior level no sweat.

All of those nations you listed have all won the U20 you ape. Gosh! can you try not being an imbecile for 1 day.

[txj]

We still have secondary schools

Secondary is not the same as pro or semi ranks.... When you are in school you only train for 4 hrs a week... Youth league train full time like pro teams.. beside you are supposed to out of secondary school by the age of 18. you cant be in school and be training 12 hr a week and play games on the weekend.

Those hours were long enough to produce the likes of Henry Nwosu, Stephen Keshi, Peter Nieketen, etc

Its not how long they train, but how well.

I expect 18-21 year olds to be affiliated with clubs...

The NFF cannot run a proper league. Now you expect them to add a youth league?

It's not the absence of an 18-21 youth league that's slowing us down atm. It's the poor foundational training at crucial levels of the game that is affecting the development of our young players.

Also, the NFF needs to harness the energy at the academies- true academies, and help streamline them to work as they should, rather than just be conduits for selling players...

Txj,

He has a point. Hours of training matter and not hours training under a games master but one training under a professional coach. The Nwosus, Keshis, etc. did not do much at the U20 level and cannot even be said to have achieved as much as the U20s today. Thus, using them as example will not be the better option.

Its ultimately the quality of training...

Txj,

It is never one variable bros. It is both hours trained and the quality. Although, Klinsmann appears to rank amount of time over quality (see below).

This idea that it always has to be one factor just is a nonstarter. Life is not about one factors. Those who created practice makes perfect know exactly what they talked about. What JACKAL says about hours of training matter and in fact is a critical aspect of Klinsmann's programming of the Academy system and not just the quality. Read Klinsmann's ideas below:

Klinsmann addresses culture, style, youth development in first remarks as coach
https://sbisoccer.com/2011/08/klinsmann ... e-new-york
By: Michael N. | August 1, 2011 12:52 pm ET

By MIKE NASTRI

NEW YORK — The U.S. Soccer Federation did not just hire the 35th head coach in national team history, but it perhaps altered the direction of the entire national team program.

Jurgen Klinsmann, the first foreign-born U.S. national team coach in 16 years, touched on a few topics during his first press conference since being hired to replace Bob Bradley on Friday, but he frequently emphasized the culture and direction of soccer in the United States.

Klinsmann mentioned numerous times that "it's important to understand your [U.S.] culture." And after living in the United States for the past 13 years, Klinsmann feels he is ready to incorporate more of this country's melting-pot society into the U.S. team.

"There's so much influence from the Latin environment that has to be reflected in the national team," Klinsmann said.

This Latin influence could mean a bigger role in the national team for multi-national Americans such as Jose Francisco Torres and Edgar Castillo. Also, this Latin infusion will certainly have an affect over one of the Klinsmann's most difficult tasks: finding a style of play for the national team.

"One of my challenges will be to a way to define how the U.S. team should represent it's country," Klinsmann said. "And what should be the style of play? Is it more pro-active and agressive kind of forward thinking style of play or is it more of a reactive style of play? That comes with the obviously the players you have at your disposal, but also with the people that your surrounded with.

"I think it is important over the next three years that I have a lot of conversations with people involved in the game here to find a way to define that style. What suits us best? What would you like to see?"

Style of play was not the only big question that U.S. fans were pondering for which Klinsmann didn't have clear answer. He said that he has only had contact with a handful of U.S. players and hasn't picked his squad for the Mexico friendly yet. That announcement will come Wednesday. Also, Klinsmann hasn't picked a full-time staff yet.

"I want to see what's out there," Klinsmann said. "There are a lot of good, highly qualified coaches in the U.S. that I might not even know. So, I need to talk to people and understand what's out there."

The former VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich star will accomplish this task by trying out different assistant coaches ahead of World Cup qualifying in June. Then he will pick a permanent staff based off his experience with these assistants. However, Klinsmann did make individual reference to two current figures in the U.S. system.

"I want Claudio [Reyna] very close to me in terms of helping in his new role as Technical Director of Youth Development," said Klinsmann, whose previous coaching stints were with the German national team and Bayern Munich. "He will always be part of the staff. He will sit with us coaches on the table, so I can tell him how I look at the game. As well as Tab Ramos, who is the U-20s coach for right now. I want his perspective and information on what's going through at training at the 20s and the U-17 level."

The youth system and staff will be a huge emphasis for Klinsmann. He was nearly hired two different times in the past five years, most recently after last year's World Cup. But, the sticking point between Klinsmann and U.S. Soccer was the amount of control over that very youth system. This time around, Sunil Gulati and Klinsmann have seemingly put that conversation to rest.

"Between us [Klinsmann and Gulati] there has never been an issue about so-called control," Gulati said. "Jurgen's comments previously were about being able to incorporate that into a piece of paper. So, the understanding about how we were going to move forward and collaborate has been clear for many years."

With those "power" concerns put to rest, expect Klinsmann to make some changes to the U.S. youth system. Some of the changes he briefly touched on include making youth teams' style of play and culture reflect that of the senior team and to continue to build on the growing academy system currently in place. Klinsmann pointed that the biggest difference between the game in this country and any of the top 10 soccer nations is the amount of time youth players spend field.

"This is what is really missing compared to the leading soccer nations around the world, the first 10-12 nations around the world, is the amount of time kids play the game," said Klinsmann. "If you have a kid that plays in Mexico 20 hours a week, and maybe four hours of organized soccer but 16 hours of unorganized soccer just banging the ball around in the neighborhood, but if he gets up to 20 hours it doesn’t matter how he plays it, with his dad or with his buddies in the street, this will show later on with his technical abilities, with his passing, with his instinct on the field and all those things, and I think that’s certainly an area where a lot of work is ahead of us."

These changes Klinsmann hopes to make will only become palpable if he is able to stay past his current contract, which Gulati revealed runs through the 2014 World Cup. Gulati and Klinsmann certainly see eye-to-eye on a lot of strategies and outlooks, but that won't matter if Klinsmann can't get results on the field.

The German is replacing one of the more successful U.S. coaches in it's history. While unpopular among groups of fans, Bradley took the United States to it's highest-ever finish in a FIFA tournament and won the 2007 Gold Cup and its group at the 2010 World Cup. Klinsmann has to meet or exceed the results of his last two predecessors in Bradley and Bruce Arena, otherwise, his big ideas may never come to fruition.

I believe I did not say it is SOLELY the quality of training.

If you understood this, there would be no need for the copious literature overload...

[Enugu II]

We still have secondary schools

Secondary is not the same as pro or semi ranks.... When you are in school you only train for 4 hrs a week... Youth league train full time like pro teams.. beside you are supposed to out of secondary school by the age of 18. you cant be in school and be training 12 hr a week and play games on the weekend.

Those hours were long enough to produce the likes of Henry Nwosu, Stephen Keshi, Peter Nieketen, etc

Its not how long they train, but how well.

I expect 18-21 year olds to be affiliated with clubs...

The NFF cannot run a proper league. Now you expect them to add a youth league?

It's not the absence of an 18-21 youth league that's slowing us down atm. It's the poor foundational training at crucial levels of the game that is affecting the development of our young players.

Also, the NFF needs to harness the energy at the academies- true academies, and help streamline them to work as they should, rather than just be conduits for selling players...

Txj,

He has a point. Hours of training matter and not hours training under a games master but one training under a professional coach. The Nwosus, Keshis, etc. did not do much at the U20 level and cannot even be said to have achieved as much as the U20s today. Thus, using them as example will not be the better option.

Its ultimately the quality of training...

Txj,

It is never one variable bros. It is both hours trained and the quality. Although, Klinsmann appears to rank amount of time over quality (see below).

This idea that it always has to be one factor just is a nonstarter. Life is not about one factors. Those who created practice makes perfect know exactly what they talked about. What JACKAL says about hours of training matter and in fact is a critical aspect of Klinsmann's programming of the Academy system and not just the quality. Read Klinsmann's ideas below:

Klinsmann addresses culture, style, youth development in first remarks as coach
https://sbisoccer.com/2011/08/klinsmann ... e-new-york
By: Michael N. | August 1, 2011 12:52 pm ET

By MIKE NASTRI

NEW YORK — The U.S. Soccer Federation did not just hire the 35th head coach in national team history, but it perhaps altered the direction of the entire national team program.

Jurgen Klinsmann, the first foreign-born U.S. national team coach in 16 years, touched on a few topics during his first press conference since being hired to replace Bob Bradley on Friday, but he frequently emphasized the culture and direction of soccer in the United States.

Klinsmann mentioned numerous times that "it's important to understand your [U.S.] culture." And after living in the United States for the past 13 years, Klinsmann feels he is ready to incorporate more of this country's melting-pot society into the U.S. team.

"There's so much influence from the Latin environment that has to be reflected in the national team," Klinsmann said.

This Latin influence could mean a bigger role in the national team for multi-national Americans such as Jose Francisco Torres and Edgar Castillo. Also, this Latin infusion will certainly have an affect over one of the Klinsmann's most difficult tasks: finding a style of play for the national team.

"One of my challenges will be to a way to define how the U.S. team should represent it's country," Klinsmann said. "And what should be the style of play? Is it more pro-active and agressive kind of forward thinking style of play or is it more of a reactive style of play? That comes with the obviously the players you have at your disposal, but also with the people that your surrounded with.

"I think it is important over the next three years that I have a lot of conversations with people involved in the game here to find a way to define that style. What suits us best? What would you like to see?"

Style of play was not the only big question that U.S. fans were pondering for which Klinsmann didn't have clear answer. He said that he has only had contact with a handful of U.S. players and hasn't picked his squad for the Mexico friendly yet. That announcement will come Wednesday. Also, Klinsmann hasn't picked a full-time staff yet.

"I want to see what's out there," Klinsmann said. "There are a lot of good, highly qualified coaches in the U.S. that I might not even know. So, I need to talk to people and understand what's out there."

The former VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich star will accomplish this task by trying out different assistant coaches ahead of World Cup qualifying in June. Then he will pick a permanent staff based off his experience with these assistants. However, Klinsmann did make individual reference to two current figures in the U.S. system.

"I want Claudio [Reyna] very close to me in terms of helping in his new role as Technical Director of Youth Development," said Klinsmann, whose previous coaching stints were with the German national team and Bayern Munich. "He will always be part of the staff. He will sit with us coaches on the table, so I can tell him how I look at the game. As well as Tab Ramos, who is the U-20s coach for right now. I want his perspective and information on what's going through at training at the 20s and the U-17 level."

The youth system and staff will be a huge emphasis for Klinsmann. He was nearly hired two different times in the past five years, most recently after last year's World Cup. But, the sticking point between Klinsmann and U.S. Soccer was the amount of control over that very youth system. This time around, Sunil Gulati and Klinsmann have seemingly put that conversation to rest.

"Between us [Klinsmann and Gulati] there has never been an issue about so-called control," Gulati said. "Jurgen's comments previously were about being able to incorporate that into a piece of paper. So, the understanding about how we were going to move forward and collaborate has been clear for many years."

With those "power" concerns put to rest, expect Klinsmann to make some changes to the U.S. youth system. Some of the changes he briefly touched on include making youth teams' style of play and culture reflect that of the senior team and to continue to build on the growing academy system currently in place. Klinsmann pointed that the biggest difference between the game in this country and any of the top 10 soccer nations is the amount of time youth players spend field.

"This is what is really missing compared to the leading soccer nations around the world, the first 10-12 nations around the world, is the amount of time kids play the game," said Klinsmann. "If you have a kid that plays in Mexico 20 hours a week, and maybe four hours of organized soccer but 16 hours of unorganized soccer just banging the ball around in the neighborhood, but if he gets up to 20 hours it doesn’t matter how he plays it, with his dad or with his buddies in the street, this will show later on with his technical abilities, with his passing, with his instinct on the field and all those things, and I think that’s certainly an area where a lot of work is ahead of us."

These changes Klinsmann hopes to make will only become palpable if he is able to stay past his current contract, which Gulati revealed runs through the 2014 World Cup. Gulati and Klinsmann certainly see eye-to-eye on a lot of strategies and outlooks, but that won't matter if Klinsmann can't get results on the field.

The German is replacing one of the more successful U.S. coaches in it's history. While unpopular among groups of fans, Bradley took the United States to it's highest-ever finish in a FIFA tournament and won the 2007 Gold Cup and its group at the 2010 World Cup. Klinsmann has to meet or exceed the results of his last two predecessors in Bradley and Bruce Arena, otherwise, his big ideas may never come to fruition.

I believe I did not say it is SOLELY the quality of training.

If you understood this, there would be no need for the copious literature overload...

Txj,

Here is why it was needed:

at the most basic level.
"ultimately he has only himself to blame"
synonyms: fundamentally, basically, primarily, essentially, at heart, deep down
"he gave two ultimately contradictory reasons"

[txj]

You sir, cannot be serious!!!

[Bell]

There is a big giant hole in our football : Between U17 football and adult league football.

So between the ages of 18 - 21 these young players have nowhere to play or go. There is no Junior league in Nigeria to develop players. They are too old for Academy football and too young for full league football.

So We need U-18 to U-19, U-20 to U21 Leagues to get the best players ready for adult level football.

4 years is a long time to go without consistently playing competitive football.

YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT U17 & ADULT LEAGUE?


I'd worry about the years BEFORE U17. If these years are put to good use, you won't have to worry about the years after that. The real problem is that Nigerian football has no structure. It's very much like Nigerian farming that shuns cultivation but simply wants to go into the forest to harvest what grows wild.

In the US, they start at age six or slightly under, progressing thru high school and college under well known structure (though it's still evolving). Nigeria needs also to do the same, and I don't mean simply come up with the blue print some other country has laid down. There's nothing Nigerians love more than to copy others blindly. Nigeria may choose to place heavy emphasis at the elementary and high school levels because these are the places where talents have been traditionally harvested. That means more than just scouting them but giving them the structure and resources needed.
Bell

That is the crux of the matter.

Nigerian players are largely self formed. Those young players who go thru youth clubs, schools or our club system do not get proper modern training and nutrition.

That is why we produce players like Utin, or clones of him going back to the earliest U17 teams. Players without a proper understanding of the modern team game. And therefore players who are already well formed, cannot be trained and are overaged anyways...

But we used to have a structure that worked, but all that has decayed or become outmoded.

BUT, we now have academies. However, many of these are primarily oriented towards international transfer of players. Many are only academies in name. But they do not have to be like the Man City academy.

What they need are functional structures. And especially, the support of the NFF in creating a super structure for youth football, where players can go from schools to academies and then on to clubs.

Especially, we need the NFF to provide technical support in terms of training of coaches, monitoring of compliance, setting standards for record keeping, promoting competitions, etc. All focused on FUNCTIONAL structures...

If you get it right before the U-17 level, most everything else will fall in place in terms of talent development...

The idea of a U18-20 league badly misses the point.

I'M LARGELY IN AGREEMENT WITH YOUR VISION


Two things: Nigeria badly needs a developmental structure and it doesn't necessarily have to mimic what some other countries have done. Per what I think you're hinting at, I'd propose a structure where promising youths are identified and brought together to receive formal training, but maintain the current school and playground system.

What I propose, to some extent at least, should be done with the girls also. A number (say four to 10) of centers should be set up around the country where promising kids are brought and spend up to eight weeks during the long holidays. School dormitories and upgraded fields can be used. Kids outside this structure can be brought in to replace those in the system who have failed to live up to expectations. During the school year, they can return to their own schools and participate in the normal soccer activities. Each center must receive top level coaching but I'm open whether they should all play to the same system.

At the end of high school, it would be clear which ones have what it takes to proceed to the next level and which ones should pursue the academic route. While in this structure, I'd encourage these kids to participate in playground plays because it provides a free environment that allows the individual to further explore his potentials.

This structure offers the formal training of the academies, avails the kid to participate in the school structure and allows him (her) the freedom found only on the playgrounds. Academies alone are too structured.

The cost? It can be that expensive. I bet there are individual Nigerians, not to mention businesses, who would volunteer to sponsor one or two kids until the NFF can fully bear the costs. I'm sure there are some in this forum who can do it. Nigeria needs to be creative when the conventional approach doesn't work.

(The highlighted text above is just to remind people that Nigeria may actually be better organized 50 years ago than today.)
Bell

[txj]

There is a big giant hole in our football : Between U17 football and adult league football.

So between the ages of 18 - 21 these young players have nowhere to play or go. There is no Junior league in Nigeria to develop players. They are too old for Academy football and too young for full league football.

So We need U-18 to U-19, U-20 to U21 Leagues to get the best players ready for adult level football.

4 years is a long time to go without consistently playing competitive football.

YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT U17 & ADULT LEAGUE?


I'd worry about the years BEFORE U17. If these years are put to good use, you won't have to worry about the years after that. The real problem is that Nigerian football has no structure. It's very much like Nigerian farming that shuns cultivation but simply wants to go into the forest to harvest what grows wild.

In the US, they start at age six or slightly under, progressing thru high school and college under well known structure (though it's still evolving). Nigeria needs also to do the same, and I don't mean simply come up with the blue print some other country has laid down. There's nothing Nigerians love more than to copy others blindly. Nigeria may choose to place heavy emphasis at the elementary and high school levels because these are the places where talents have been traditionally harvested. That means more than just scouting them but giving them the structure and resources needed.
Bell

That is the crux of the matter.

Nigerian players are largely self formed. Those young players who go thru youth clubs, schools or our club system do not get proper modern training and nutrition.

That is why we produce players like Utin, or clones of him going back to the earliest U17 teams. Players without a proper understanding of the modern team game. And therefore players who are already well formed, cannot be trained and are overaged anyways...

But we used to have a structure that worked, but all that has decayed or become outmoded.

BUT, we now have academies. However, many of these are primarily oriented towards international transfer of players. Many are only academies in name. But they do not have to be like the Man City academy.

What they need are functional structures. And especially, the support of the NFF in creating a super structure for youth football, where players can go from schools to academies and then on to clubs.

Especially, we need the NFF to provide technical support in terms of training of coaches, monitoring of compliance, setting standards for record keeping, promoting competitions, etc. All focused on FUNCTIONAL structures...

If you get it right before the U-17 level, most everything else will fall in place in terms of talent development...

The idea of a U18-20 league badly misses the point.

I'M LARGELY IN AGREEMENT WITH YOUR VISION


Two things: Nigeria badly needs a developmental structure and it doesn't necessarily have to mimic what some other countries have done. Per what I think you're hinting at, I'd propose a structure where promising youths are identified and brought together to receive formal training, but maintain the current school and playground system.

What I propose, to some extent at least, should be done with the girls also. A number (say four to 10) of centers should be set up around the country where promising kids are brought and spend up to eight weeks during the long holidays. School dormitories and upgraded fields can be used. Kids outside this structure can be brought in to replace those in the system who have failed to live up to expectations. During the school year, they can return to their own schools and participate in the normal soccer activities. Each center must receive top level coaching but I'm open whether they should all play to the same system.

At the end of high school, it would be clear which ones have what it takes to proceed to the next level and which ones should pursue the academic route. While in this structure, I'd encourage these kids to participate in playground plays because it provides a free environment that allows the individual to further explore his potentials.

This structure offers the formal training of the academies, avails the kid to participate in the school structure and allows him (her) the freedom found only on the playgrounds. Academies alone are too structured.

The cost? It can be that expensive. I bet there are individual Nigerians, not to mention businesses, who would volunteer to sponsor one or two kids until the NFF can fully bear the costs. I'm sure there are some in this forum who can do it. Nigeria needs to be creative when the conventional approach doesn't work.

(The highlighted text above is just to remind people that Nigeria may actually be better organized 50 years ago than today.)
Bell

What you describe above existed under Isaac Akioye, but is long since dead. In fact I know a few people who participated in this.

Having said that, things have changed since Akioye’s days. The school sports system is not as strong. Players now have the option of Europe at early levels.

More importantly, we now have academies. Whatever new structure that emerges must recognize these realities.

[Man Ataye]

How did we do in Toulon???

[zee]

You sir, cannot be serious!!!

And you think that anyone takes your ITKs serious?

[bushboy]

Bump