There Are A Lot Of Big Players But They Need Opportunities To Come Out – Hon Mailantarki

Former Member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki has said Nigeria, especially the northern region is a hub of many sporting talents who are yearning for an opportunity to manifest.

He made this known when he spoke to press in Lagos as his pet project Mailantarki Care Academy are currently partaking in a scouting program.

The soft spoken administrator gave reasons why most Nigerian players based in the diaspora are mainly form the other parts of the federation and not the North.

“Well, when you look at the statistics, you’ll realize football is a game of population. And if you look at the Nigeria factor, you’ll realize from 95 to 99 percent of players that are playing in Europe or any other league are from the  southern part of Nigeria.

“Looking at that, it is clear that something is wrong. Maybe the method of recruitment or access to international scouting or because of huge challenges in security. So, it restricted getting players from the North.

“I thought of it all and looked at the statistics and I think something must be done and won’t rely on government to do it alone.

“We have to involve ourselves in identifying those youth from the North so that we can all explore them and give equal opportunities as other part of the country. That is what really motivated me to form the Mailantarki football Care Academy in Gombe.

“As we all know, Gombe is like the Brazil of the North. There are a lot of big players but they need opportunities to come out.

“We came up together with the former national coach, Manu Garba who is our technical director and some other people who are very active in the game of football to form this academy.

“We believe we have them (young players) in large numbers and they can be able to compete and bring out those that does not even have the opportunity to play in this kind of environment, He concluded.”