17th February, 2012
Patrick Paschal, a member of the Dream Team that won football gold medal at the Atlanta ‘96 Olympics, says Jude Aneke, the highest goal scorer in the Nigeria Premier League, NPL with 20 goals in the colours of Kaduna United last season failed to sign for Genk FC of Belgium because he was not good enough.
Aneke, who is back to the NPL wearing the jersey of Warri Wolves, complained that the Belgian club undervalued him, a situation that made his agent reject the financial terms of the contract.
Paschal, however, told P.M.Sports that corruption on the local scene does not bring out the best in Nigerian players, stressing that most times, the results of league games do not reflect the efforts of the players.
He said a player may be the leading scorer on the local league and yet not good enough to merit a football contract abroad.
“I believe Aneke was not good enough that was the reason he failed. It is a shame that the highest goal scorer in Nigeria only went to Belgium and came back empty handed,” Paschal said.
“Our league must reflect the qualities of our players and that can happen when the referees become fair in all the matches. You can’t give a team an unjust penalty and a striker scores the disputed penalty, at the end of the league he sees himself as the highest goal scorer and you expect the player to be exceptionally gifted to secure a contract abroad. It will not happen because it is no longer possible to fool European club officials again.”
—Francis Achi/Abuja