Ex-Eagles Star Uwe Bemoans Lack Of Opportunity For Players At Grassroots

Former Super Eagles central defender and Germany-based Coach Andrew Uwe has expressed concern over the lack of opportunities for young Nigerian players at the grassroots level to excel in football, unlike in the past.

Uwe, who captained the Flying Eagles to bronze medal victory at the 1988 FIFA World Youth Championship in USSR, heaped praises on Nigeria’s past sports administrators for a good job by ensuring that a player like him from a poor background had opportunities to rise to excel at the youth level and moved up to the senior national team, Super Eagles, saying the opportunity he enjoyed in past is rare this time around.

“As a player from a poor background, I had bright opportunities; everything was provided both in the National Team and at the Club level in Leventis, where I once played, from dutiful referees, salaries, and kits all were available to players in our days.

“Coaches were hired on merit, players picked or selected based on national interest and purely on professionalism, which is absent in our system today,” Uwe said.

Uwe, now a German Elite License and UEFA B License coach who spoke to journalists on the sideline of the ongoing Gombe State Inter-Secondary Schools football competition, Principal’s Cup, where he hopes to scout emerging talents for a professional football career, said he determined to assist upcoming Nigerian footballers grow in their career.

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“I want to give back to society by sharing my experience, zeal and provide opportunities for them to excel the way I had it in the past.

“I came here with coach Ambrose to assist young football players in Gombe by watching the ongoing Principal’s Cup competition and look out for talents to assist grow in their career.

“We are also here to change the narratives that Nigerian youth players can’t play abroad unless they start from the national teams.

“Coach Ambrose and I will be here in Gombe for four days trying to assist these players in playing professional football abroad with the understanding of the organiser of the Principal’s Cup competition Inter-secondary Schools Athletics Championships, Hon. Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe, who I have known for a long time,” Uwe said.

Coach Henry Ambrose, who is also a former Nigerian international, corroborated Coach Uwe’s mission in Gombe, saying both of them share the same vision about Nigerian football and ways to bring back discipline in all sectors, which he said is lacking in the current system.