By Terfa Alaghga
A former Super Eagles goal tender, Alloy Agu has identified culture as the tool lacking in the new generation set of players in Nigeria.
Agu made his view known in an interview with The Voicesports recently. He said, “the greatest difference between the players in our time and the players of these days is the culture which they lack and this includes, determination, resilience and doggedness in Nigerian football”.
The former BCC Lions FC of Gboko goal tender explained that before he went to play professional football abroad, he was already grounded and did not go there to learn how to play football but wondered why today, “at the age of 15 to 16, our Nigerian players leave for Europe to play football, so how would they learn the culture”?
He said because he had learned the culture before leaving the shores of Nigeria, where he developed it abroad, when he was appointed as goalkeeper coach of the senior national team, all the goalkeepers had issues but he was able to transform them. He maintained that, ”
I have transformed the goalkeeper department of the national team because it is a gift that comes from God”.
The Super Eagles goalkeeper coach who listed the goalkeepers he had transformed including Carl Ikeme, Akpeyi, Maduka Okoye, Ezenwa, Francis Uzoho, Vincent Enyeama to mention but a few, said, “I train my goalkeepers in such a way that when one is injured, he would have a better replacement for the team”.
