The former coach of the Nigeria U17 team Manu Garba has detailed the role he played in the discovery of emerging Super Eagles left back Bruno Onyemaechi, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Bruno has played as the first choice left back of the Nigerian team in their last three games largely due to the absence of regular left back Zaidu Sanusi of FC Porto.
With Sanusi still out injured, the Boavista defender is expected to keep his spot for the start of the world cup qualifiers, where Nigeria will take on Lesotho and Zimbabwe respectively in their opening two games of the series.
Speaking on the left back, Manu said he first sighted him in his U17 camp in 2017 and back then he was playing a role just behind the main striker and not as a left back. He said he even picked him as his captain.
” I remember him (Bruno) as a member of my 2017 U17 team. He was playing in a role behind the striker and he reminded me so much of Kelechi Iheanacho that I even told Iheanacho when he visited us in camp. Onyeama like we call him back then was very good at shooting and also link up play very well . I named him my captain”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
” He (Bruno) plays as a left back now but you can see that he won’t be lost further up the pitch. Like Igho Ogbu at Slavia Prague, Tolu Arokodare at Genk and Adebayo Adeleye of Hapoel Jerusalem, they were all in that my team of 2017″, he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman