Don’t jeopardise your son’s career, Ugbade warns Ihenacho Snr

Don’t jeopardise your son’s career,
Ugbade warns Ihenacho Snr
on december 01, 2013 at 11:12 am in sports
Nduka Ugbade is a legend in world football. As a
starry-eyed youth, he led a group of unsung
Nigerians to lift the first FIFA JVC U-16 World
Championship in 1985 in China. Ugbade grew to play
for Nigeria in the Flying Eagles and the Super
Eagles. His only regret to date is that he was
prevented from being the first Nigerian to go to all
the FIFA World Cups in his active days.
Today, however, Ugbade remains the only Coach in
the world to have won the FIFA U-17 World Cup as
a player and as a coach. He spoke with Jacob Ajom
about the Eaglets’ triumph in the United Arab
Emirates. Excerpts.
You were the first man to lift the FIFA U-17 World
Cup trophy as a player, and today, as a coach, you
were part of the crew that groomed a set of players
to win the cup for Nigeria for the fourth time. How
did you feel after your boys won the trophy in UAE?
Wonderful, wonderful. It was awesome, a feeling I
cannot easily explain. It was an amazing feeling. But
I give thanks and glory to God who made it possible
for this achievement to come through. And I must
also thank the Nigeria Football Federation for giving
me the opportunity to serve my country in another
capacity. I am happy.
How was it possible for you and your colleagues in
the technical crew led by Manu Garba able to mould
a near perfect team that conquered the world?
It is the science of the game. It is the new thing
blowing across the continent; education and I hope
we will build on it through football education to be
able to meet up with the demands of modern
football.
In the African championship the Eaglets ended up
with a silver. How was it possible for you to
conquer the world in the UAE?
We learnt a lot from our defeat in Morocco. It taught
us that no matter how good you are, you can still be
beaten. The head coach, Manu Garba must be
commended because he was hard on the boys. He
warned against any slip. Every opponent was
accorded equal respect and our approach was such
that we never considered a match was won until the
final whistle. We also put in a lot of hard work and
the level of commitment and dedication was high on
the part of the boys.
After the UAE triumph, football agents, guardians,
parents have been running heads over heels in a
bid to either sell or take control of these boys. What
is your view or advise to your players?
It was expected. But my advise to parents and
guardians of these players is that they should take
it easy. They must look before they leap so that
they can get the best deal for their wards.  They
must be very very careful in what they are doing or
trying to do.
We just heard Kelecchi Iheanacho is going to
Manchester City. What is your take on this?
I don’t know, the family should decide. But I learnt
the boy does not want to go to City. I learnt he is
interested in going to Portugal. The only thing I want
to say is that the guardians or father should be
careful so as not to jeopardise his son’s career.
It was reported that you, together with the Golden
Eaglets head coach, Manu Garba have been
upgraded to handle the Flying Eagles. Can you
confirm this?
I don’t know. It is only the Nigeria Football
Federation that can confirm or deny that. For now, I
am still an assistant coach with the U-17 team. I
am a professional coach, if the NFF deems it fit to
promote us the chief coach , Manu Garba is there,
when they speak or contact him first then he will
contact us.