Why you can succeed in football as a youth – Garba

Yusuf Yahaya Garba, 27, is from Minna , Niger State. The Federal University of Science and Technology Minna trained geographic technologist says football is his passion. In this interview, Garba speaks about being a football administrator and how one can succeed in a football career.

What motivated you to become a football administrator?

My journey into sports administration wasn’t really by chance at all. I have two uncles who have worked for the better part of their life as football administrators at both the state ministry of sports and the Nigerian Football Federation. So while I was at the university, I worked as a volunteer at a charity organization called the John Utaka Foundation as a Media Officer intern which was quite an experience for me. I was later appointed the communication manager of that foundation, founded by Ex Nigerian Super Eagles international footballer Mr John Chukwudi Utaka. It was founded to support young underprivileged Nigerians through education and sports which are critical to children’s development.  A lot of times we see young talented footballers without a good platform to showcase their skills. Our organization has been at the forefront by providing an enabling platform for these young talents to come to showcase their skills.

What are your other endeavours?

Well, I am a digital marketing strategist, photographer, drone pilot, and an advocate for good trouble, necessary trouble. Currently, I’m working on my football management agency, I  also volunteer at a community NGO called the Lintricia Ndajiwo Foundation where we have been working to eradicate street begging by young children in Nigeria by giving them scholarships and sending them to school.

I’m also a member of the Chatham House Future Conversations Community, a community of young and enterprising youth leaders from across the world where we hold conversations on issues and solutions concerning our world.

What have you been able to achieve over the years?

We have been breaking new ground in sports development in Nigeria. over the past three years, our football academy has selected young talented youths across Nigeria and given them an enabling platform by training and mentoring them. In 2018, our academy selected 22 young players for international football trials in France where we played against the U19 team of Montpellier Herault FC, Nimes Olympic, and Olympic Lyon football club of France. That same year in August our team represented Nigeria at a charity World Cup for underprivileged children in Bulgaria called Satuc Club World Cup where we won the tournament. We have been to turkey for match trials where we played against other teams. We have players in Europe in 5 leagues from Turkey to France, Spain, and even other African countries. Overall, we run a free establishment with the only requirement that only the best are selected.

What is your advice to Nigerian youths on finding prospects in businesses?

The key to success in anything you do is to find what you are good at and work towards marketing that. What is important for us to understand is right now all the information man needs to be successful can be found online. Nigerian Youths have to stand up and build their own pyramids and write their own hieroglyphs if they want to be successful. What I notice is that majority of Nigerian youths are not leveraging the power of social media to make money and some businesses still do not have a social media presence.

Social media is a two-edged sword which if properly utilized can help many businesses and people get wider outreach and reach potential customers. I also advise that youths should key in on the various governments’ entrepreneurship initiatives that are currently rolled out.

What are your plans for the future?

Nigeria has huge capabilities and an abundance of talented football players but the lack of enabling platform is making it hard for these players to succeed. Lack of good infrastructures like training pitches and poor handling of players by inexperienced coaches and massive corruption by local football bodies have further destabilized this young player in their mission to progress.

My dream and belief are to create a pathway and a road map to successfully make football as a career a possibility for the millions of young dreamers we have in Nigeria. In the future, I hope to work at CAF and FIFA to create a real difference in this underutilized sector in my country Nigeria and Africa as a whole.