Emeka Ezeugo: "My goal is to take a team to the pinnacle of the game"

*Emeka Ezeugo is a former Nigerian International football player and the current coach of Mohammedan Sporting (Bangladesh).

Your team Mohemmedan Sporting finished in a credible position last year, how was the feeling among the camp?

Yes ,we did finish strong in the 2nd round. In fact, if we had won all matches which was possible for us, we would have won the league. Credit goes to the players, they worked pretty hard like they’ve never done in their entire career and when one works hard, the fruit of the labour doesn’t mature until after the end of 4 or 5 months.

It was an entirely new orientation, something they’ve never done before. The players enjoyed winning when it became a habit. Encouragement never came from the officials and they are still not happy that the team got the 3rd position, a position they’ve not seen in about 9 years. The officials love the mess and disorganization in the club because it pays them.

What are Mohemmedan Sporting’s goals for the next season?

The team has no goal. It’s a rudderless ship. They do not plan, it’s always a fire service approach. The series of officials they have had lately (in more than a decade) has driven away all their fans. The teams who want to win the league secured their players two months ago. No official has the interest of the team at heart. I openly challenge all of them, past and present. Let them show up for a television debate on what they have done for the club lately and I will dress them down.

It’s a joke, a circus. I am challenging anyone who thinks that I have said the wrong thing for a debate on television for all the people of Bangladesh to witness. A section of the media has protected these bunch of people for a long time. The fans are fed up.

From the President to the smallest fan, everyone of them contributed their bit in destroying the club. The pillar of Mohammedan are the fans and the day they decide to rise against the officials, that is the day corruption will stop and the days of glory will return. The fans are the most powerful base of the club.

There was also quite a bit of confusion regarding your coaching license. How did that get sorted out?

There’s a section of football people in Bangladesh who are so hell-bent on running me down. I don’t have an AFC License, so what? Who knows Asia in football? I began coaching professionally in South America. I have a coaching license from Holland and I mean from their football Association, KNVB. It can’t get any bigger. I also have a coaching license from the United States. Besides, Beckenbaur won the 1990 World Cup without a coaching license and Klinsman got a bronze in 2006 without a license. All the coaches you have here with all their papers that they procured in a two week’s course means nothing if that is all that excites you people.

Where is Bangladesh and Indian football since they began employing low grade European, Asian and and South American coaches at club and national team levels? A lot of people running football in this country are not happy that I reached the pinnacle of the game. They can all hug a transformer and char to ashes.

Yes, from the humble background of this continent I went on to play in the World Cup and the Olympics, played in Europe, South America, North America, Africa. I am the only man who has done that and so many people are not happy about that. Even the media was constantly asking me when I will resign in the first round of the league when we were not doing well. That’s how cynical people are here.

My coaching stint in Bangladesh or India can only enrich your football. But there are a few in the media at club and national team levels who are running the game down. I have seen it all, fame, fortune, stardom, whatever. All I do is sit down and watch the meaningless drama and pettiness that exists in your football and feel sorry for you all. I have been here for 8 months and there has not been a single Bangladeshi man or woman from the football family of this country who thinks I can make a valuable contribution to your football. It’s such a shame! If you don’t appreciate good things, good things will never happen to you or come your way. It’s a cardinal rule of life. People of Bangladesh and India look down on me because I played in their country.

I walk on the street of any South American nation, people run to me and shake hands, shouting, ‘Maestro.’ Here you people don’t even have an atom of respect for me.

You have played in and coached clubs all over the world, and more importantly for many years in the sub-continent. How do you rate the players and the facilities in the sub-continent and which team is the most promising among the lot in the sub-continent?

I’m not impressed with them. The non-entities that run our football have run the game down long time ago. There’s just no hope in sight. And I hate to be associated with failure. I am a winner, winning mentality is inborn and it comes naturally to me. I hate failing but people nowadays cultivate failure as a habit.

The facilities in Asia are better than Africa. Perhaps Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and South Africa are the exceptions. South Asia should try to borrow a leaf from Spain. Size-wise, you look alike. The problem in South Asia is that they are yet to learn that football is played round the year. How can you compete with the rest of the world when you play for only five or six months and lose all your fitness for the rest of the year?

The most promising teams around are Dempo and Salgoacar. There’s a bit of professionalism there. I’m at Mohammedan Sporting now, I planned to take them to Europe or South America for preseason but can you imagine what the officials might say when I suggest that? Corporations are putting their money in meaningless ventures. Airtel is looking to take young players to Old Trafford, so what? The same invited Dwight York, Bryan Robson and later Quinton Fortune here. What impact has that created and what mileage did they garner? A bunch of people who know nothing in sports business and its marketing angle get together and cook up some rubbish and no one tells them that won’t fly. What a bunch of bulls***!

What would your advice be to budding youngsters from the sub-continent?

Youngsters, there’s no short cut to success. If you plan on cutting corners, you’ll get nowhere fast. Hard work is the key but you must work hard and work smart as well. Nothing great comes easy. The culture of laziness thrives here too. When players from this region train for 45 minutes, they start complaining.

Which stint did you enjoy the most as a player? And what was the motive behind changing so many clubs?

Everywhere I went to play, I had a blast. I don’t know any other way. It’s one short life to leave. I was always looking for a fresh challenge. I was a student of the game as a player and I am still a student of the game as a coach. Once I stay where I can no longer learn, I look a fresh location where I can learn. Once you stop learning: you’re done, you’re finished.How did you feel during your first ever outing with the National team and later in the 1988 Olympics which ended in a disaster?

Wearing my country’s colour was the greatest honour I could ever dream of and I did it in the Olympics and the World Cup. Nothing compares to that.

We took a risk in a very tough group and it didn’t go well for us. Against Brazil, the score was 0 – 0 till the 75th minute when our German coach encouraged us to be adventurous and look for a winner and we let our guard open and Brazil exploited that and won. C’est la vie.Later, the Nigerian team you were in created history when they became the 1st Nigerian side to qualify for the World Cup. And you guys went one better and topped the group that also had Argentina. If it wasn’t for a certain Roberto Baggio, you’d have been in the quarters. How was the feeling in the dressing room throughout the World Cup?

Yes, that Nigerian team rose to No. 5 in the FIFA World Ranking too.

We were dynamite, a bunch of grossly talented players that respected no one on the pitch. We went to Bucharest and beat Romania with Hagi, Popescu etc. We were that good. Had we a more experienced tactician, we would have won the Cup.

Everyone feared us but our coach didn’t think we could beat Bulgaria 3 – 0 in our first game. As the hammer of my team, I could have put Baggio in my pocket but our inexperienced tactician gave a grown man’s role to a rookie and Baggio killed us. If we had gone through, it would have been to the final all the way. The dressing room was riotous. We were a noisy bunch who respected one another. We were so hungry to cut all big teams to size.

You have also mentioned about how coming from India helped you lose fears and walk up to any of them? How exactly did the players and yourself react to the whole situation? Did coming from India also have its share of disadvantages?

Coming from India was such a disadvantage. I had to earn my respect in a very short period. I was a versatile player. I am the only player who played for Nigeria in all positions except in the goal in world-class matches. I was on fire, playing like I was possessed and some players thought I played under some influence. They quickly learned that I wasn’t superhuman. Of course, I helped reinforce the belief that I was from outer space to gain advantage that I really enjoyed.

What are your goals in the footballing world?

My goal is to take a team to the pinnacle of the game, help the game game grow in a willing nation. I have all it takes but there are too many short-sighted football administrators and little minds who have eyes but can’t see. I have the edge, rebellious colour that world-beaters have to change an ordinary team to an extraordinary one. I graced all schools of thought in the game and my wealth of knowledge and experience is so vast, second to none. I don’t need to watch a video to know how I will play a South America, European, North America, African and Asian teams to learn how to beat them.