This Day (Lagos)
Reuben Buhari
9 July 2009
Kaduna — Former Nigerian international, Victor Ikpeba has said he sees the Super Eagles reaching the FIFA World Cup finals of South Africa with ease, given the new fighting spirit among players of the team. One of the good aspects of the team, he said, is the emergence of a new healthy struggle for places in the team. Ikpeba said these during a courtesy visit that he paid to Governor Namadi Sambo of Kaduna State at the weekend.
'The Prince of Monaco,' as he was known during his playing days, further asked Nigerians to be patient with the past poor performances of the team, as even some of the best footballing countries in the world sometimes suffer lapses in standard.
The visit was to sensitise the governor over the talent search programme of the former international, called "Open Trial." The programme is being packaged in conjunction with Daniel Amokachi, Tijani Babangida and a host of other former internationals that are indigenes of the state. The age grade cut-off for the programme membership is 16 to 20.
The former international and his team had earlier met with over 400 youths at the Kaduna Township Stadium that had come from all parts of the northern region of the country. Top talents at the screening, which would be done over four days, would be separated. After that, the programme is expected to move to other regions of the country.
Speaking further on why they decided to hold the trial, Ikpeba said: "Today, we have a whole load of youths in schools, streets, villages and the cities and so many other places with raw talent but are rotting away and not being discovered at the right time when they could be nurtured to reach a polished stage that could become global stars.And with them undiscovered their special skills and talent fail to blossom and therefore die and become lost to the country and the world.
"We believe that the kind of open trial that we are doing in this programme can create the next generation of Nigerian players, even social and political leaders. Some of the kids that would be discovered in this programme would be from humble backgrounds. These would be kids who naturally would not have the resources to go abroad to further polish and then showcase their skills in order to become superstars. They would not even have the wherewithal to go abroad to seek greener pastures for their game.
As a result of this, we have decided to bring the scouts here in Nigeria and gather the boys together to come and showcase their talent in front of the ones with the powers to give their ambition wings."
Going on to explain the difference between their programme and that which Mr. John Fashanu did, he said: "In our case, it is a real life show, and not a 'reality show', so with our own, nobody will be winning a prize. What they will be winning instead is a chance of a lifetime to have their skills and talents developed and enriched in order to take them to great global heights.
"The ones that would be chosen in the programme, will be abroad and trained both technically according to their talents, and educationally. We will be paying for all the costs; from flight tickets, accommodation, feeding to caring, and we will also protect them from signing contracts that will enslave them in their football careers."
The governor then promised to give the visitors all the necessary support, in line with the state's policy of developing its youth through sports.
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