By

Engr. Dr. Sulaiman Musa FNS & Monday Ozoya  

 

As the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup unfolds in the United States, highlighting thirty-two elite club teams and drawing together an estimated 832 to 1,120 professional footballers under expanded squad regulations, the competition stands as a global celebration of high-performance football. Within this elite assembly, however, Nigeria’s representation is alarmingly negligible.

Only four Nigerian players, Zaidu Sanusi (FC Porto), Onuche Ogbelu (Espérance Sportive de Tunis), Sarki Rilwanu, and Udoh Joshua (Al Ain FC) feature among the tournament’s rosters. This constitutes less than 0.5% of total player participation in a competition that, by Nigeria’s population size, footballing heritage, and historic talent production, should include a far more robust presence.

In stark contrast:

 

- Brazil: 141 players  

 

- Argentina: 103 players  

 

- Spain: 54 players  

 

- France: 49 players

These figures expose a sobering reality: Nigeria, once celebrated for its footballing dynamism, now occupies a marginal position in the global club football hierarchy. This underrepresentation is symptomatic of broader structural deficiencies in Nigeria’s football ecosystem, including deteriorating domestic leagues, stagnating talent pipelines, and the absence of coherent international mobility strategies.

Legacy Without Leverage

Nigeria’s footballing past is replete with iconic milestones, including the Olympic gold in 1996, multiple FIFA U-17 World Cup triumphs, and the global recognition of the Super Eagles in the 1990s and early 2000s. Yet, this legacy has not translated into sustained institutional development. The country’s diminished global presence in elite competitions such as the FIFA Club World Cup demands critical interrogation.

Multiple systemic constraints inhibit Nigeria’s football advancement:

- Underperforming scouting and youth development systems

- Inconsistent league funding and weak governance frameworks

- Deficient domestic coaching infrastructure

- Lack of integration between grassroots football and professional pathways

By contrast, countries like Brazil and Argentina have institutionalised their football cultures through state-backed youth academies, international exchange programs, regulatory support for talent export, and comprehensive engagement with the global football economy (Darby, 2013; Poli et al., 2019).

Is Nigeria Still a Footballing Nation—or One Defined by Nostalgia?

This central question underscores a critical national dilemma. Without urgent reform, Nigeria risks transitioning from a historically influential footballing nation to one remembered primarily for past glories. The country's current trajectory reveals an overreliance on the emergence of individual talent rather than a strategic, institutionally supported pipeline.

Pathways to Repositioning Nigeria in Global Football

To restore Nigeria’s prominence in elite football, a multi-pronged strategy is essential:

1. Revitalise the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL): Prioritise structural reforms, financial transparency, and infrastructure investment.

2. Institutionalise Talent Migration Pathways: Develop ethical and monitored channels for the transition of youth players to international clubs and academies.

3. Forge Global Club Partnerships: Establish technical and developmental collaborations between Nigerian clubs and leading institutions from Europe, North Africa, and Asia.

4. Invest in Technical Capacity Building: Scale domestic capacity in coaching, data analytics, sports science, and high-performance conditioning.

5. Align Governance and Policy Frameworks: Integrate sport policy into national development plans and ensure oversight of regulatory bodies.

Conclusion

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup offers both a stark reflection and an urgent call to action. Nigeria’s limited representation signals not just an individual failure of player selection but a systemic underinvestment in the structures that support football’s long-term success.

 

To reclaim a position of influence in global football, Nigeria must move beyond the rhetoric of past achievements and invest in a sustainable, institutionally grounded football future.