Coach of the Nigeria U20 team who are through to the final of the ongoing Africa Games in Rabat Morocco says in few years time Nigerians will appreciate the work he did with the team.
Paul Aigbogun made this known in a chat with Owngoalnigeria.com ahead of their gold medal match against Burkina Faso at the Africa Games later today.
The coach was heavily criticized over the poor performance of the team at the U20 World Youth Championship but according to the soft spoken coach some players are already benefiting from the experience.
” I understand we want to win at all times but sometimes it’s not always possible. Nobody goes into a tournament without the intention of winning but it’s unfortunate that we can only have one winner meaning others should count the gains in other areas”, Aigbogun told Owngoalnigeria.com.
” Valentine Ozornwafor was unknown before he joined us. Ikouwem Udoh is now at Maccabi Haifa, Tom Dele-Bashiru has made his first team debut for Watford, Nnamdi Oforborh was a regular for Bournemouth during pre season and he did well. Kingsley Michael made his debut for Bologna in the Serie A, the experience of playing at the U20 World Cup helped their confidence.
” At the Africa Games, I’ve seen players who were not that good when they first came to us and now they are playing very well. You look at Success Makanjuola who is heading to Leganes and it’s easy to tell that Nigerians will appreciate my team in few years time.
‘Unlike other U20 teams we had to build from the scratch because the last U17 team didn’t qualify for any major tournament. It’s not an easy task but it has taught me a lot about the system which will be useful going forward “, he concluded.
