Chima Okorie: “Hopefully, in the next four-five years I will be able to produce some good footballers"

Newly minted TV pundit Chima Okorie has been most impressed with the ‘Blue Tigers’ who will figure in the final of the Nehru Cup against Cameroon at the Nehru Stadium in New Delhi tomorrow. The 43-year-old Nigerian striker who is Neo Prime’s football expert for their live telecast of the Nehru Cup, shared his views on the tournament in a freewheeling chat with www.sportskeeda.com today.

“For a team that is in a kind of transition from the old to the new, I am most impressed with India as they have several young players who have just come into the team but have come on fine as the tournament has progressed. They are certainly the players for the future,” says the burly Nigerian who terrorized the best of Indian club defences during his heydays in a nearly two decade playing career in India interrupted by a spell in Europe for outfits in England, Norway and Denmark.

Asked to pick out some of the players who have had a good outing for the hosts, Okorie rattles off a few names in the following order: the livewire Syed Rahim Nabi, Mehtab Hussain, the “engine” of the team (the terrier-like defensive midfielder was also picked out for special mention by Cameroon coach Emmanuel Bosso), the ever acrobatic Subrata Pal, Sunil Chetri, who has been “leading from the front and a source of inspiration to his teammates”, Robin Singh, who has “tried his best” whenever he was brought on, and promising Denzil Franco, the right-back who replaced the injured Nirmal Chhetri.

Okorie’s has some good words for the other teams in the tournament which has been dogged by heavy rains and a waterlogged pitch for the most part. He thinks Cameroon, the highest ranked side in the championship, displayed a good brand of football and were fit, strong and fast on the break. Last edition’s finalists Syria, who had a disappointing run this time around, were equally good, but their strikers let them down.

Nepal, he feels, showed that they had the heart as well as the will to fight and made it very difficult for the hosts in the pool match which ended in a goalless draw. Maldives too were a “well accomplished” side but were over-dependent on one man, their charismatic skipper Ali Ashfaq, who had to do all the hard work.

Asked to comment on the ‘passing and possession style’ being introduced into the national squad by new coach Win Kovermans, Okorie replies, “It is there, you can notice it…in patches.” He however adds that the foundations are being laid and the players would have to be confident and comfortable on the ball to make it work but with the required training and practice it can be made effective in due course.

However, Okorie avers that if he was the coach he would have preferred going in with a 3-5-2 instead of the 4-4-1-1 being currently tried out by the tall Dutchman with the ‘Men in Blue’. 3-5-2, in which the two wide men are the special cogs in the machine, gives you a lot of scope in midfield and is equally effective going forward or tracking back, he explains. “It can be successful if they (players) do what they have to do.

Everybody must be given a job description and they must implement it faithfully,” he stresses.

The goal scoring machine, who scripted many a memorable triumph for the teams that he turned out and has won almost all honours here, including the National Football League (the I-League’s predecessor) with Mohun Bagan in 1998, has however reserved his opinion on which Indian club will dominate the new season:

“The Kolkata clubs are very strong on paper as most of the stars have flocked there and the three teams (Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Prayag United) now boast of a galaxy of stars in their ranks. But the teams from Goa are also very good so it will be premature to write them off. Since I have yet to see the teams in action this season I will reserve my judgment till I at see them play at least a few matches,” he states.

Currently Okorie is involved with an NGO he has set up in the ‘city of joy’, Hridaya Family, a training centre where he teaches kids football for free. “Hopefully, in the next four-five years I will be able to produce some good footballers who will go on to excel,” he says enthusiastically.

His prediction for tomorrow’s title round clash is as patriotic as it can be, notwithstanding the huge difference in the rankings between the defending champions and their challengers (168 for India and 59 for Cameroon) and the physical and technical superiority of the visitors. “I will go with India to win!” he declares.