BUNMI Blair, a former Nigeria National ‎U-15/U-13 media officer, said he had applied for the vacant Nigeria National U-17 team job which was recently advertised by the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF.

The journalist-cum-football ‎coach who is currently with Nigeria National League, NNL team, FC Abuja, said he hoped to help produce players who are technically, tactically, psychologically and physically sound in line with NFF’s goal of winning the senior FIFA world cup by 2022.

The NFF had recently declared vacancies in the national U-17, U-20 and U-23 coaching positions and urged interested persons with minimum CAF-C certificates to apply.

Blair a graduate of Kogi State university Anyagba and also a CAF-B licensed coach said he was interested in the position of assistant coach of the National U-17 team.

“I see this as an opportunity to create a new set of world champions with the quality and specifications demanded of a footballer at the highest level. If we are passionate enough about our vision of reaching the FIFA world cup final by 2022, we must ensure our youth teams are tutored by coaches who are familiar, passionate and ready to learn new tricks involved in youth football development,” Blair said.

Blair, who celebrated his 34th birthday on August 2nd is well known for his match reading and analytical capabilities and is one of the 30 coaches who recently took part in the STAR/NPFL/Arsenal coaching clinic in Abuja.

“I try at every opportunity to improve myself, at the beginning of this year I was privileged to be a part of the LA LIGA/NPFL coaching clinic for youth team coaches where we learned how the Spanish team rose from their status as perennial underachievers at international competitions to becoming world champions.

In July this year, I was also privileged to be one of the 30 coaches in Nigeria who participated in the STAR/NPFL/Arsenal coaching clinic which emphasized on coaching philosophy or style of play as epitomized by Arsenal FC boss Arsene Wenger,” Blair added.

The radio OAP with top Nigeria radio stations, Cool-Wazobia-Nigeria Info FM, Abuja ‎had in the past helped shape talents like Taiwo Awoniyi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Clement Ogbobe, Chidera Eze and Club Brugge’s new boy Emmanuel Dennis Bonaventure.

He has also understudied several top Nigerian coaches like Emmannuel Amunike, Manu Garba and Haruna Ilerika among others.

Shehu Dikko, NFF’s vice president, at a function recently in Abuja described Bunmi as a highly intelligent young coach with great ‎prospect.”

Aug 11, 2017 @ 1:00 GMT