By MTNFootball.com Friday Dec 30, 13:11 +0200
At only 20, the once promising career of Nigerian youngster Rabiu Ibrahim is now at a crossroad after his contract at top Dutch club PSV Eindhoven was cancelled.
It was only four years ago that Ibrahim was the exciting, gifted playmaker as Nigeria beat a Spanish side that included former Barcelona ace Bojan Krkic to win a third U17 World Cup in fine style.
His vision, creativity and ball skills earned a lot of rave reviews. He was sought after by Real Madrid and several top English clubs including Chelsea and Manchester United.
He was as the ‘New Jay Jay’ after Nigeria midfield legend Austin Okocha. He eventually signed a contract with Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon and in 2009, he made The Times’ Football’s Top 50 Rising Stars.
At just 16, he was included in the Super Eagles squad by German coach Berti Vogts for the Ghana 2008 Africa Cup of Nations alongside U17 teammate Lukman Haruna, but a groin injury prevented him from staking a claim for a place in the tournament squad.
It is now most baffling that such a career is now in tatters even before it had begun.
But signs that he may struggle to crack it at top level began to emerge when he could not make a single first-team appearance for Sporting Lisbon in the three years he spent there.
Early this year, the midfielder appeared to have got his groove back when out of the blues top Dutch club PSV Eindhoven gave him a three-year contract after he had tried out at several other Dutch clubs including JC Roda.
“Ibrahim is fast, technically skilled, physically strong and has a good sense of field position, there is something in that boy,” remarked an impressed PSV club manager Fred Rutten.
Sadly, the one-time schoolboy star would only make four appearances before his contract was terminated after a clause was activated that allowed PSV to do so if they are not satisfied with his performance.
“Rabiu Ibrahim’s contract was performance-based. He did not meet the targets set for him by the club,” a top agent based in Amsterdam informed MTNFootball.com
“This was not your usual contract, it was one-sided because one of the parties, in this case the club, could terminate the agreement at any given time. Rabiu was simply at the mercy of PSV.”
Where did it all go wrong for one of Nigeria’s most promising talents in recent times?
The smallish player suffered from some major injuries including a groin problem that had to be operated on.
Natural talent is not enough in this modern-day era of world football where players are now super athletes and you have to be agile, well-built and strong to withstand the physical rigours of the game.
His confidence suffered a huge knock when he failed to make the grade at Sporting when everything and everybody thought he would.
Managerial changes at the top Portuguese club did not help his development as he had to prove himself to each new management team as the Lisbon club struggled on the pitch.
It could also be that he could not manage the weight of the expectations heaped on him at such an early stage of his career.
In some ways, Rabiu’s story is similar to that of ‘The New Pele’ Nii Odartey Lamptey of Ghana.
Lamptey was also the schoolboy star who caught the attention of the world in 1991 when he led Ghana to win the 1991 U17 World Cup after playing in the 1989 edition as a 15-year-old.
He won the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player and was touted as the next Pele.
He was also named the 1991 fifth Best African Footballer of the Year and Anderlecht signed Lamptey as a 15-year-old. After two great seasons, he was transferred to PSV, where he also impressed.
Lamptey was again the major reason why the Black Satellites won the 1993 African Youth Championship and reached the final of the 1993 U20 World Cup. Earlier, he was part of the Ghana team who clinched bronze at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
But warning signs that Lamptey career was going down the hill first appeared when he left PSV for Aston Villa. After failing to perform at Villa, he moved to Coventry, where he was also a flop before unsuccessfully trying out at Venezia in Italy, Unión de Santa Fe (Argentina), Ankaragücü (Turkey), União Leiria (Portugal) and SpVgg Greuther Fürth.
He also played in China before he returned to his hometown of Accra, where he now has a school and breeds cattle on his farm.
Outside Africa, Freddy Adu’s case comes to mind. At the age of 14, in 2004, Adu signed a professional contract with DC United shunning interests from Europe’s top sides including Inter Milan, Manchester United, Lazio and Chelsea.
Before he had even kicked a ball, Adu, who has Ghanaian roots, was already the highest earner in the league.
He moved to Benfica in 2007 but it was as far as it got. He couldn’t hold a first-team place culminating in various loan moves to Monaco, Belenenses, Greek side Aris and Turkish second division club Caykur Rizespor.
The Great Hope crashed and Adu returned to the USA.
The likes of Pablo Aimar touted as the next Maradona; Bruno Cheyrou (the next Zidane) and Anthony Le Tallec (the next Platini) also failed to realise their true potentials when it mattered most.