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3. AGE GRADE FOOTBALL OBSESSION AND DISTRACTION.
If there is any malady affecting African soccer today, it is the obsession with age grade soccer. From the 1980s, it became very obvious that African teams were thoroughly excited whenever they won an Under 17 or Under 21 FIFA world cup or an Olympic soccer tournament. The problem with these victories is that because they have been almost always won with over aged players, they give an excessively over-hyped appearance of soccer talent development that is often just a mirage.
The truth is that even a mere 2 year advantage over genuine under 17s can create a great overestimation of the offending player's capabilities, and many African countries have been guilty of exceeding this 2 year excess! That even genuine under 17 talents may fail to achieve their potential at senior level is worthy of note.
The nations that have been winning the world cup know that the only sure way to know a truly exceptional player is to pit that player against senior level footballers. That is why the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney would probably never have had to play in an under 17 FIFA World Cup.
It is conceivable that when a top European cub signs an Under-17 star from Africa (usually at a 'safe' price, they watch him closely for signs that he is significantly above the claimed age. If this seems to be the case, he must either meet and exceed the standard for the suspected real age or be placed into a sort of sandbox that guarantees that he will only play as an irregular sub until he is sold to a side of lesser standing. This may be why many of Africa's so called foreign based professionals are either reserves at grade A teams or playing regularly or otherwise for grade B and C clubs in Europe.
It actually appears that FIFA have settled into patronizing African nations with these age grade competitions which are distracting them from focusing on developing their senior national teams and top professional soccer clubs, which is what the European and South American nations with solid soccer development programs do.
African soccer nations must pay more attention to soccer at senior level so that there is no incentive for over aged African players to deceive themselves and their countries by performing only apparently amazing feats in junior FIFA competitions only to fail to shine where it matters most, at the senior World Cup.
The next point is quite relevant to this one.
