Former Golden Eaglets captain, Nduka Ugbade, Wednesday hit hard on the Ghana’s Under-17 chief coach, Paa Kwesi Fabian, who openly expressed his suspicion for the authenticity of the FIFA’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan conducted on his players during the CAF Under-17 African Youth Championship in Morocco.
He has called on CAF to ask Fabian to explain the veracity of his claim in other not to bring the game into disrepute because of his apparent ignorance. Ugbade who skippered the Golden Eaglets to win the inaugural Under-16 World Cup at China’85 said such action was necessary so that CAF would not become a laughing stock in the eyes of the world, adding that Fabian should silently mourn his failure to qualify the Black Starlets for the World Cup.
“That Kwesi was quoted to have said that the Nigerian team at the last CAN Under-17 Tournament in Morocco was too old was nothing but arrant nonsense,” Ugbade said in his characteristic blunt manner. “What rubbish is that other than for lack of knowledge and education?
“Is it because the Golden Eaglets defeated the Black Starlets 6-1 which ultimately accounted for their inability to qualify for the World Cup or sheer jealousy and envy?
“All the players that featured for Nigeria against Ghana in Morocco were certified okay at a reputable hospital as such there was no basis for Fabian to be casting aspersion on the team now because some players can no longer compete for us at the World Cup,” he noted.
Ugbade, a graduate of football science, said it was necessary for Fabian and his ilk to be cognisant of the fact that there could be marked growth of the bone as a result of physiological changes due to diet and training regimen hence Nigeria should not be castigated for doing the right thing by ensuring that the MRI Test was conducted on the World Cup-bound Golden Eaglets.
Ugbade added: “ I think Fabian has suddenly woken up to the reality that Ghanaians would never forgive him for failing to qualify them for the Under-17 World Cup because he had boasted he had the best team in Morocco only for them to be beaten 6-1 by Nigeria in their first game.
“This was the same man that admitted in Morocco that the Golden Eaglets were the best team after their 6-1 loss to us and why is he changing the goal post now? This is what can be regarded as a conscientious stupidity.”
He advised Nigerians not to lose sleep over Fabian’s faux pas since it took the coaching crew almost two years of sound coaching to have raised such a formidable team as such their peculiar growth in stature over the period was expected.
