Sports
Finidi’s Appointment Gets More Backing
A football enthusiast and business mogul in Rivers State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has expressed happiness over the appointment of Finidi George as substantive Head Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, not minding the long time frame it had taken the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to arrive at the decision.
Speaking exclusively to newsmen in Port Harcourt, Okonkwo maintained that the choice of Finidi was okay since it is in tandem with the yearnings of many Nigerian fans in settling with an indigenous seasoned coach to lead the Eagles.
According to Okonkwo, Coach Emmanuel Amuneke was earlier favoured by opinion poll to grab the Eagles plum job based on his wealth of coaching experience before it finally landed on the table of Coach Finidi George as endorsed by NFF, however, I believe that the choice of Finidi is still good for the country since both Finidi and Amuneke were great players of old and seem to have the good technical knowledge of the game. Hence, I wish Coach Finidi George good luck in his new national assignment”.
“Interestingly, Coach Finidi looks very humble and I have no doubt that there will be mutual understanding and show of respect between him and the players so that there won’t be friction in the course of carrying out his new assignment of leading Super Eagles team to glory”.
Continuing, Okonkwo who is known for his outspokenness urged the NFF board not to hesitate in providing enabling environment and good welfare package for Coach Finidi as it was done for the foreign coaches, so that he will be in good frame of mind to do his job effectively.
“Besides, I will also plead with NFF, as a matter of fact to refrain from interfering in Coach Finidi’s job, instead, he should be given a free hand to select the best of players whom he trusts that can deliver and by so doing, would be liable to account for anything that will stop the Eagles from winning or qualifying for the World Cup”.
“I want to suggest to Coach Finidi that if he is convinced that eleven (11) players from the same family can represent Nigeria and give us the needed victory, let him go on, instead of this idea of agitation and pandering to quota system in selection of players from different to satisfy quota system, which does not produce the expected good result at the end of the day” he stated.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor