Read Why No Nigerian Player Has Won Africa’s Best In 17 Years

Seventeen years after Nwankwo Kanu was crowned CAF African Player of the Year, no other Nigerian footballer has ruled Africa again.

Being the most prestigious individual award in African football, almost two decades without the award is unacceptable.

In this regard, this writer seeks to understand why Nigeria’s stars continue to dim at the big stage.

On January 7, 2016, reactions trailed the crowning of Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as CAF African Player of the Year for the first time. However, while his rival and runner up on the night Yaya Toure vented his anger over his dream of a record breaking five CAF Africa Best player of the year award being shattered, Nigerians could only watch helplessly as the top player’s award eluded a player from the country for another year running.

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The decline in the nation most loved sport has left many baffled, reason being that the nation dominated this same CAF award at the early stage, raking in five awards from 1992 (inception) – 1999. The likes of the Nwankwo Kanu (1996, 1999), Rashidi Yekini (1993), Emmanuel Amunike (1994) and Victor Ikpeba (1998) have all walked home with the glamorous award.

Fast track to the 21^st century, the closest the country has come is a second place finish in 2013, when Chelsea star John Obi Mikel finished behind Yaya Toure.

But aside the player of the year award, Nigeria for the first time didn’t produce a player in CAF’s XI. How bad can it get?

Like we know, the African footballer of the year award is open to African players all over the world but in the last two decades, winners of the award are mostly players based in Europe and this is where many Nigerians ply their trade.

Yet, in over a decade, they have failed to match the performance of their counterparts from other countries and the reason for this isn’t farfetched.

Obviously, one major reason will have to be the quality of clubs that Nigerian players rush into Europe to sign contracts with. This totally affects their performance and as well as determine their output.

“When the right offer comes, then I’ll leave but not for me to partake in “SLAVE TRADE” football whereby players just go for the sake of they want to play abroad. For me, I’ll not be part of that” Heartland skipper Chinedu Efugh said in an interview with Naij.com

It is believed that many Nigerian players in their quest to land a contract outside the shores of the country jump at any offer abroad. This has contributed immensely to the decline.

Some football enthusiasts have also tied the nation woes in recent time to poor developmental programme by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

“We don’t have developmental programmes in this country and the administrators are not doing anything. The administrators should sit down and think about what I’ve said,” ex-coach Chief Adegboye Onigbinde said in a chat with Naij.com

According to him, this has hindered the nation’s football in areas of unearthing new talent that will be valuable asset to the senior national team.

The decline in the country’s performance at the big stage reflects in the nation 66^th placing in the latest FIFA ranking (14th in Africa) and the management have had their own fair share of blames. It is believed that the tussle for leadership and the politics in the football federation has deeply affected the growth of the game.

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However, Nigeria has continued to make giant steps at the junior level, winning the Under 17 FIFA World Cup back to back and winning the Under 20 and U-23 Africa trophies. This will be attributed to the abundance of individual skills.

The problem has however been how to translate these skills into solid team work at the senior level and with the likes of Aubameyang, Toure, Mane, Mahrez and several others doing very well week-in-week-out in Europe, Nigeria woes may likely continue if something isn’t done to restore the good old days.

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