Why An Ex-Player Has Not Become NFF President

•Ex-Super Eagles Player, TIJANI BABANGIDA

Coming across a legend is always a thing that gladdens the heart as people of legendary status can never be forgotten. Few days ago, City People caught up with a big fish in the Sporting world who is an Ex-Super Eagles player, Tijani Babangida. TJ as he is sometimes called is a household name during his active football career in the 90s and early 2000s. He is a right winger who is known for his remarkable pace on the field of play. His playing style was sometimes compared to that of legendary Dutch footballer, Marc Watching him on the field of play is always a thing of joy to football loving Nigerians.

Babangida is an accomplished footballer with a trailblazing career which saw him play in clubs like VVV-Venlo, Roda JC, Ajax, and Vitesse. He was a core member of Atlanta 96 squad who won the football event at the Olympics games. He was also among the France 1998 squad that took the world by storm.

At 49, Babangida still looks fit and agile as though he is not ageing at all. Of course, he is the current president of the Nigerian Footballers’ Union. In a chat with the Ex-Footballer, he took time to talk about the Footballers’ union, the many changes facing Nigerian Football, and how to get the country’s football back on the right track. Below are the excerpts, read and enjoy!

Why is it difficult for the Eagles to have a proper right winger like we used to have back then?

Well, many people can call it an olden days football. But if you see any club that wants to play positive football, like in Holland, if you see Ajax , they are still using wingers. If you see Barcelona, they are still using wingers. If you see Arsenal and Manchester United, they all have to come with wingers. For modern football, all the concentration goes in the middle where everything is choked up. So you have to open it to the winger and the crosses come up. So I believe you have to know how you should go with the system and then not to put the player that is playing on the right side too deep to come from outside collecting the ball and making pull outs. Of course without the pull outs, football the can be very boring.

What have you been doing ever since you retired from playing professional football?

Right now, I’m the president of the Nigerian Players’ Union . So we are working on the welfare of Nigerian players.

For how long have you been the president?

2 years.

So how has it been running the affairs of Nigerian Footballers?

The system is not helping and there are lots of things to do politically. Politics has come into it at the expense of the players. I hope very soon, it would be fine.

Why is it hard have Nigeria’s ex-football players as NFF President?

It is the system. The system is not favourable. I don’t see an ex player becoming NFF President except if the system is changed.

What are ex players doing to assist their younger generations of footballer plan well ahead of retirement?

We want to bring all experience gathered abroad back to Nigeria in order to help our younger ones who are playing so that they won’t find themselves hopeless after their football career. By trying to do so, we discovered that there’s a lot of politics between the players union and the federation. The federation sees us as rivals to them. And it’s not working well. You find it difficult to even address the welfare of Nigerian players because of the politics issue.

What is your take on the present state of the Super Eagles of Nigeria as they didn’t qualify for the 2022 world cup in Qatar ?

That shows we are not doing well and it’s very unfortunate that Nigeria is not in the world cup. Nigeria is the giant of Africa. It’s very unfortunate and that’s how it is.

What do you think could be done to return Nigerian Football back to the good old days?

By concentrating more on the youth football and trying to see that we have a system in the national team. We also need to bring in the right coaches that would be able to bring out the best from our players. There are a lot of issues about that.