Don't Dump Education, Amunike Advices Budding Talents

Golden Eaglets’ Head Coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, has told aspiring youngsters desirous of playing football not to abandon their education, adding that playing football without education  is like drinking tea without sugar.


Throngs of Nigerian kids have been showing their velvet skills at the NFF/ FIFA Goal Project Pitch in Abuja in the last few days as the Golden Eaglets’ technical crew continued their search for more talented stars to beef up the team ahead of the 2015 FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be be held in Chile between October 17 and November 8.

Yet Amuneke, the 1994 African Footballer of the Year, has described some of the lads as non-starters even as he advised them to take another route to greatness.

“It is not compulsory you play football and I’m being honest with what I’m saying because we can see that some of you don’t have the talent to play football at all,” Amuneke, one of the few Nigerian coaches with the high profile UEFA Pro- License Certificate, told the lads. “In fact, it would be good if some of you can face your education squarely.

“Again, for those of you who can play football, you still have to go to school so that you can be useful when you can no longer play football and that is the truth we owe you people,” he added,
Incidentally, the current Golden Eaglets are made up of  some school boys who recently wrote the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) .