Ex-junior international, Emeka Amadi, in this interview recounts how, as goalkeeper of the Flying Eagles, his team, with less than 15 minutes to regulation time, staged a dramatic comeback from 4-0 deficit and went ahead to beat Russia in the semi-final match at the Saudi ’89 FIFA U-20 World Cup, in what is today globally referred to as the Damman Miracle.
Amadi who is currently goalkeepers’ trainer with the U-17 national team, the Golden Eaglets; also spoke on his career fulfillment as the first black goalkeeper to play in Germany’s top League; his dream to raise quality goalkeepers for the national team among others. Excerpts!
How would you compare your experience as a goalkeeper with that of coaching? Which one comes with more tension?
Definitely, I experience more tension now as a coach than when I was playing as a goalkeeper. When I was keeping, I was like an actor, trying to do what my coach told me to do. But I’m now a coach, I cannot get on the pitch to do what I expect my goalkeepers to do, rather my quality or rating as a coach depends on how much my goalkeepers are able to demonstrate what I teach them. In other words, I would be judged as a coach based on the performance of the goalkeepers I train. So, I face more tension now as a coach than when I was playing.
Talking about experience, are there certain things you know now that you didn’t know or you were not taught as a goalkeeper?
Yes, as a goalkeeper, the older you are, the more experienced you get. I know more now about goalkeeping than when I was a player. I played under many coaches and at many competitions in different countries and acquired a lot of experiences. I’ve trained as a coach and undergone several courses in goalkeeping; so all these experiences that I’ve garnered over the years are what I try to impact to my goalkeepers at training to make them better goalkeepers and even future trainers because I expect them to transfer whatever they learn from me now to the goalkeepers that would come after them.
Can you recall any particular situation in your playing days as a goalkeeper that you made a mistake that could have been avoided if you knew what you know now as a coach?
Actually, the techniques I used when I was keeping for Enugu Rangers were different from the techniques I used when I playing in Germany. When I arrived in Germany, I started learning new techniques. The problem in Nigeria is that we don’t have goalkeeping departments where the goalkeepers are taught the basics in goalkeeping. In Africa, we have the talent but lack the basics. It was when I got to Germany that I started learning the basics in goalkeeping and that is what I’m trying to teach these young boys now so they can become better goalkeepers.
To what extent are the goalkeepers under your watch catching up with what you have been teaching them?
Actually they’re doing very well. They’re all talented young goalkeepers and from what I’ve seen, they‘re very willing to learn.
Which, among the young goalkeepers under your tutelage, do you think has the brightest prospect to keep for the senior national team?
We have a lot of young goalkeepers in the present U-20 and U-17 national teams that are doing well. The most important thing is that we have to keep training them. We need a goalkeeping training institution where these goalkeepers should undergo periodic training whenever they’re on break from competitions. In Germany where I live, they have a lot of young talented goalkeepers who go for refresher courses during the holidays to acquire more training. They receive training from a pool of goalkeeper trainers largely made up of ex-internationals who impart the wealth of experiences they acquired in their active days to the younger goalkeepers. That’s why you always have good goalkeepers coming out from Germany and other European nations that have similar training programs. I’m part of the program in Germany and I have a similar dream to train young goalkeepers in Nigeria. It is something that is possible but I need sponsors to executive the program successfully. I’ve been looking for sponsorship for the program in the last three years and I’d be very glad if a company can volunteer to sponsor the program; so that the kids can come and enjoy free accommodation and feeding during the training period. We need money to bring some coaches from abroad that would work with some coaches in Nigeria to train the kids.
Vincent Enyeama has kept for Nigeria for more than a decade. Does it bother you that there’s no particular young and upcoming goalkeeper being groomed to succeed him in the national team?
It’s also in line with what I’m saying. You can never know something unless you give it a try. That Enyeama is still keeping for the national team means that he’s still and there’s nothing anybody can do about that. But we have to give other upcoming goalkeepers a chance to prove themselves. What I mean is that we have to invite a lot of goalkeepers to the camp of the national team and see which of them has the qualities to would step into Enyeama’s shoes. If at the end of the day, it is Chigozie Agbim that has the best qualities to succeed Enyeama, then he should be there, but if another goalkeeper proves to be better, then let him take over. We need to give other young and upcoming goalkeepers a chance to prove themselves. We need to encourage young talented goalkeepers to grow. We must not insist on winning all the time. That’s the essence of developmental competitions like U-17 and U-20 tournaments. You talked about Enyeama keeping for Nigeria for more than a decade; if one goalkeeper continues to keep for a long time, the other goalkeepers would relax and you cannot get the best out of all of them. There’s a need to rotate the goalkeepers rather than stick to one person. If there’s keen competition among the goalkeepers, everybody would sit up. For instance, here in the U-17 national team, during the qualifiers we used to change the goalkeepers not because any one of them didn’t do well. We did it to encourage them to grow and get mature; for them to fight for the number one shirt. We have to encourage the upcoming goalkeepers to get the best among them. – Culled from The Sun.
