The talk that everyone at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is a player’s agent, from the top bosses to the clerks and cleaners, has been buttressed by the latest move by the federation to get the Golden Eaglets to cede the power of attorney to them.
It has been alleged that the boys have got their parents to cede power of attorney to the NFF as they are still minors and cannot sign a professional contract until they are 18.
A top NFF executive, who has for donkey years dreamt of becoming a top-shot agent, is believed to be behind this latest drama.
This whole idea was even made official some years ago in another guise and was stepped down after serious resistance.
When you look at the players who have moved to Europe from the Golden Eaglets in the last few years, you can understand why the ‘big ogas’ now also want to be part of the action.
A roll call of Eaglets who have moved overseas is impressive – Musa Yahaya (FC Porto), Musa Mohammed (HNK Gorica), Dele Alampasu (Feriense), Isaac Success (Watford), Taiwo Awoniyi (Liverpool), Ibrahim Alfa (Ventspils), Chidiebere Nwakali (Kalmar), Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City).
And from the class of 2015 – Kelechi Nwakali (Arsenal), Victor Osimhen (Wolfsburg), Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal) as well as Kingsley Michael, Orji Okonkwo (Bologna).
But even as they want to do business with the Class of 2019, can you believe that each of these boys was sent back home recently from the U17 AFCON in Tanzania with a paltry 20,000 Naira for the three months they were in training camp?
