The debate about why players plying their trade in the Nigeria Professional Football League are not getting the attention of teams playing in Europe top five league namely France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Italy has been provided by a Nigerian intermediary.
Players from the NPFL the past few seasons have made moves to teams in other league but none has moved directly to a team playing in a top five European League since Taiye Taiwo moved to Marseille in 2005.
Yusuf Ibrahim who is a licensed intermediary said the situation has a lot to do with a decline in the quality of players playing in the NPFL as well as the ages of the players which is most times above what teams playing in major European leagues are looking for.
” We have to be honest with ourselves to get to the root of this issue. Most Nigerian teams don’t recruit young players of the age that will attract these teams. Most times what clubs do is exchange same players in different seasons without room for fresh talents. That is also a problem “, Ibrahim told Owngoalnigeria.com.
” The quality too is very low. Back then when you watch any NPFL game you can tell you’re watching the elite league of a country. These days most people sleep through games, it’s that boring. Also the local lads in the U20 and U23 teams were not up to the level of teams in Europe. It’s a sad situation “, he concluded.
