African football may have lost its grip on world glory but African footballers are currently on the rise with world-class performances to be reckoned with. The like is Mohammed Salah, Hakim Ziyech, Sadio Mane, and Nigerians particularly like Wilfred Ndidi, Simi Nwankwo, Paul Onuachu, Odu Robert to mention a few, who have taken their respective leagues by the storm have definitely put Africa players on the radar.
In attendance at Emmydinho Scouting Program was Marco Floreale, Sporting Director and CEO ‘The Game of Two Halves’ based in the United Kingdom who spoke to Sports247 discussing the future of African football based on the talents that were discovered at the program.
“From what I’ve seen in the past couple of days, we have an opportunity we need to maximize, African football is on the path to greatness,” Marco said. “We’ve had the likes of Roger Milla and George Weah but in the last 5-6 years it hasn’t quite gotten to where it should be.”
“With what I’ve seen, and the talent available, the work ethic, the hunger, I’ll say in the future, the next ten years I’ll be very surprised if an African country can’t get to the semi-final of the World Cup,” Marco said.
Quizzed on why European clubs now have a sort of shift to picking more players from the academy as compared to buying every time Marco said “the main reason is due to freedom of movement. Brexit for instance has affected England. What African players need to do now is to get into mainland Europe as there are better ties with countries like Belgium and Germany which puts those players in a better academic environment and then in a couple of years they will get to England. They can go straight to England but it will be harder.”
