Joseph Yobo:Is he the right man for the job Assistant coach for the Senior national team,Super Eagles or not?
Joseph Yobo was a player of different positions on the field of play in his playing days from the striking position to the right back and the center back at his numerous club sides,He has been successful as a footballer having played at the World famous and competitive English premier league and even captained a team that has never relegated there Everton and also the captain of the national team that won the Afcon 2013,All these count for something and having been able to manage the excesses of players in the dressing room and then just recently,He was appointed by NFF as the assistant manager to Super Eagles and people say he isn’t ripe for the position simply because he has no UEFA Coaching license,Perhaps by logic and in an ideal world,They are right,But what of the tradition in the National team when the transition stage of transfer of players into coaching which started during Teslim Balogun’s era,To the Chairman’s era the person of Christian chukwu to Stephen Keshi’s era,Here is how the transition starts for players whom are interested in management,They are chosen to first be assistants to the main coaches of National teams and from there understudy go for a coaching course and when they emerge coaches,They will one day be named as coaches,Of course they enjoy the supports of people in the system,Where in the world will one excel if the system didn’t supports him ,This has been the tradition for long in NFF,People will say doesn’t the likes of Amunike,Finidi George and others deserve it,They do,But Yobo understands the lives of the players especially modern Nigeria players,Rohr is a great manager,But how well does he understands modern Nigeria players,We might say Yobo has no experience,But a Manager will start somewhere,Even Lampard who got the license still had to work with development team at Chelsea when he was in the process of getting it ,Zidane too had to play that role at Madrid,Have people forgotten Alou Cisse the current coach of Senegal to the world cup and final of Afcon,Who started as an assistant coach of Senegal Under 23 assistant coach and from there picked up and was appointed the main coach of the national team,Yes there is politics in NFF and also everywhere in the world,SUNDAY OLISEH once said that why African players who have the UEFA licence finds it hard to get jobs in Europe is that Europeans Prefers their own and no other,Tell me if that isn’t politics.
Disclaimer: This is my opinion feel free to agree or disagree.
Adeniyi Kolapo 