Renowned sports facility expert and consultant, Ebi Egbe, has explained reasons why it has remained difficult for home-based Nigerian players to make the Super Eagles team.
Egbe, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Monimitchelle Sports facility company, stated that the standard of football played in the local games are poor and not good enough to match the high standards of the foreign-based players in the Super Eagles.
” I tell you, the players in the local leagues are half baked. That’s why no foreign coach would take the risk of playing a home-based player, for instance in the defence line or even lead the attack of the team.
” You would see that any local based footballer who has been scouted or deemed talented would be transferred firstly, to an African country, particularly, North Africa for him to horn his stuff. From there they would move him to Europe,” he explained.
The awards winning sports facility expert explained further that some of the reasons for the poor quality of the local players include bad playing facilities and pitches. Adding that when a player plays regularly on rubber synthetic pitches, they not only suffer wear and tears to their ligaments and other parts of their bodies, the irregular and unnatural movements of the balls would militate against quality and eye-catching performances.
Egbe pointedly advised the government and stakeholders to invest in top-class playing surfaces such as the 100 per cent hybrid pitches with zero undulated surfaces. Adding that to get quality performance, the players need to be able to exhibit their talents on pitches that are beautiful to the eyes and health-friendly.
Monimitchelle presently have in its credits pouch, the construction of several world-class football pitches including the Enyimba International Stadium, Aba, Kakanda stadium, Katsina, Aper Aku Stadium, Makurdi, Onikan Stadium, Lagos, amongst many others.
