John Terry’s attempt to buy Chelsea should inspire ex-Super Eagles to get involved in Nigerian football

Chelsea legend John Terry is reportedly teaming up with a consortium called ‘True Blue’ in an attempt to purchase a 10 per cent stake in the club for £250 million. 

It is not clear how much Terry’s stake is in the bid but his attempt to be involved in rescuing the club he loves in their trying times should speak to former Super Eagles players.

Most foreign professionals tend to delve into either coaching or administration (sometimes both) after their active playing careers but that is not the case for most ex-Nigerian players.

Very few retired Nigerian players move into coaching, and even fewer (truthfully none) are involved in the administrative aspect of local club football, which should be a cause for concern.

They say charity begins at home so let us start with the Nigeria Professional Football League where two of the 20 teams this season are privately owned and the other 18 controlled by their respective state governments.

Granted, that is a bad ratio but none of the two privately owned football clubs, MFM FC and Remo Stars have any ex-Super Eagles publicly involved in the administration of the clubs.

If former Nigerian players cannot even be involved in the day-to-day running of NPFL clubs, how can we expect them to ever get into influential positions in the national teams and the NFF by extension?

Ajax legend Edwin Van Der Sar has been involved in the running of the club since 2009, rising through the ranks all the way to the CEO position and currently performs Director of Football duties, a role that was only recently vacated by another Ajax legend, Marc Overmars.

Cameroon and African football legend Samuel Eto’o currently calls the shots in his country’s FA and although the Nigerian football landscape is significantly different from Cameroon’s, the most important difference between Eto’o and ex-Nigerian internationals is interest.

At the risk of generalisation, most Nigerian footballers do not appear to be interested in football administration whether at the club, national team or even federation level.

There is a need for ex-internationals to be more intentional about being in positions of authority in Nigerian football, only then can true change be achieved.

If not, Nigerian football will continue in this cycle of mediocrity it has been in for the last few decades, change starts with more ex-Super Eagles following John Terry’s footsteps.