As did Peter Rufai, a.k.a. Dodo Mayana, Super Eagles safe hands, Vincent Enyeama, will someday retire from active football. When that day comes, who has been prepared to step into his shoes?
That is the issue occupying the mind of former national football team goalkeeper, Joe Erico.
For this reason, he has tasked the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the League Management Company (LMC) to follow their proposal that will help discover great goalkeepers like Ike Shorunmu, Rufai and Enyeama for the senior national football team in future.
He said: “When the league started, the NFF had a blueprint for feeders and youth team programmes which was in existence then and no longer present today.
“From all I gathered, the LMC (officials) are thinking towards that line of creating the enabling environment to discover future stars, but the problem they will always face is that of finance
because our football is not yet independent like in other parts of the world. Our clubs still run to the government to buy plasters and other common things.
“Should Enyeama leave today, I can bet you we have hands like Daniel Akpeyi, Dele Alampasu and thousands of goalkeepers waiting to replace him.
“We can’t stop producing world class goalkeepers in this country; all we need do is to catch them young.”
The country is blessed with world class goalkeepers as good as Enyeama, but they have been left undiscovered, Erico said.
Enyeama, 32, who recently had his 100th international cap for the Super Eagles, made his international debut in 2002 against Kenya, won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations title and has played at three World Cup finals.
Erico, popularly called Jogo Bonito in his active days, pointed out that while the former Enyimba man is doing well with Lille FC of France, the sorry state of the Nigerian league is the reason more goalkeepers have not been discovered like it happened in the past.
“No doubt, Vincent (Enyeama) is doing very well at the moment, but I have always insisted that the country is blessed with over a million Enyeamas; all that needs to be done is harness and groom them to stardom. We need people to do that.
“Then we had a league that was very competitive and monitored day in day out. It was quite interesting, enterprising and problem-free which made people come out to watch and discover talents.
“Today, it is no longer of passion but that of materialism. But the truth is that great goalkeepers will never stop being there for us; the question is that of packaging,” he added.
