How NUGA games salvaged my football career- Ex- FUTMinna player

Morgan Paul Echor who hails from Benue State, Nigeria is one of the testifiers of the essence of the interuniversity competition. He studied Electrical & Electronic at the Federal University of Technology, FUT Minna. In a chat with Dotun Omisakin, he narrated how his footballing career sprout up at the scent of water through Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA) games and he the challenges bedeviling the competition. He is presently plying his trade with Fleetdown United FC in the United Kingdom.

Can you narrate the genesis of your footballing career?

I started participating in sport in school from Senior Secondary, SS3, everybody knew I could play football but I was too scare to express it. I started playing with shell cup team in SS3.  After my secondary school, I played for the Nigeria Airforce team in Abuja, from there I got an invitation by a coach at that time who told his brother about me, so I was invited for trial for the U-17 world cup in 2009, and that was a perfect hit for me but I couldn’t make it to the U-17 world cup because my dad came to the camp and chased me away, I was in the Lagos camp and there were a lot of players in the camp and got a call from one of my friend that the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) result is out and I have gotten admission but I refused to let my parents know about the admission because I knew as soon as they find out I will have to go back to school.

Unfortunately for me, my dad got to know about my admission, he called for a family meeting with my grand ma because he knew I wouldn’t say no to my grand ma and she said let’s have a deal that if I go to school and graduate, she will make sure that dad support my football career at any level I want. So, it was like a deal so that was how I went to the university.

Kindly share with us your sporting sojourn in the university?

When I moved to the university, honestly, I wasn’t happy like I told you earlier that I don’t want to continue my education after secondary, it was like leaving a dream, I was already playing in the Nigeria Air force football club as at SS3, in the Nigeria’s amateur league called Nation-wide League One, NLO. I was the youngest person in the league.

I was one of the youngest goal scorers in the NLO at the time and so very small with stature.

I didn’t even know any university to go to, I picked FUT Minna because I heard they had good football there, that was why I choose FUT Minna. So, playing football in FUT Minna, it started from there, with the love of the game, so one day, when I was coming from lectures, I saw the best player with school football team and my school roommate kept saying that I can’t play in the school football team because the culture was that you must reach a certain academic level, I told him I will play because I have always felt I am the best, that is mentality, nobody better than me. So, I joined the school team.

Can you share your NUGA Experience?

I participated in the one that was hosted in Benin, there was used be to pre NUGA before the competition proper, I did some pre NUGA in my zone, my first NUGA, my school was meant to host the pre NUGA in FUT Minna.  

I was right there in camp with so many players for trials, after the trials, we had like three players that were in the final and two of us who were already playing in pro. There was a boy who was already playing in Niger Minna feeder team and I was at Air force at that time, so I had  scored a goal which went on the news in Brila fm Abuja, so I don’t know that the football team had heard the news so when I went to the camp, so they said we have a student of this school, I was not fully a student’s yet, so I have written jamb and post UTME, I was like a student, is just that I have not done my registration, so they called me and ask me what was score and I told, so literally football secured my admission into the university.

So, I played pre NUGA and when we went for NUGA proper, we had an issue, we had most of our players not been registered, they did not qualify, I don’t know the reason, they were able to register 12 of us, so, it was a very hard situation, we didn’t have substitution. So, I was literally the only striker in the tournament.

So, the first match was against University of Benin, UNIBEN in Benin which actually one of my best football games because it was immediately after the Olympics game in 2008 and we had Ambruse Vanzekin who was the goal keeper of the Nigerian Olympics team, he was playing of UNIBEN team and I was at the opposing team.

That was my first game, everywhere was tense up, it was about 10,000 capacity filled up to the brim, people were sitting on the pavilion, we could not see our fan, as we were coming out from the dressing room, we were receiving threat.

So, when I got down, very where was tense, I could see it on their faces, when we got to the pitch, Vanzekin has already hit like two or three shots. So I did something, I picked the ball from the middle of the pitch and funnily enough for me and one of my colleague who is basketballer right now, he is the coach of  Niger Thunder basketball team, Sheu, that is the moment he can’t forget and I ran the ball past five players so when I struck the ball, it hit the cross bar and went over the bar but I reacted as if I scored a goal, this is part of the professional instinct, I went to our crowd, shook the barrier, so the crowd started supporting us.

When we came back for the second half, they targeted me and I was taken down by their defender. It almost ended my football career. In the middle of the game, when they stretched me out, my coach was shouting, so the school and NUGA doctor said they will get me injected.

So, the commentator at that time was Sir Victor Uwaifo and Sam Dede. So victor Uwaifo sent a message because he was like the most senior celebrity there, he is late now, so he sent a message that “make sure they don’t take that boy out, he is the one entertaining the crowd.” So even the NUGA committee insisted, they will inject me to continue the game but I was scare of injection because I don’t want to be paralyzed, so I didn’t take the injection, so I was stretched out. We had a draw and that was my first NUGA.

NUGA games really helped me. First education and football helped me because some decision I had to make, so document I had to read was because I was educated so I did not have mistaken.  And no one can take my certificate from me.

Thanks to NUGA games, I think that was what gave me my call up to the feeder team in Niger Tornadoes and another thing NUGA game helped me with should I use the word ‘networking’ to meet people from different schools, I would never meet with Vanzekin, it was during NUGA games I met him.

I met with people who had really made an impact in the NUGA games, so it was a very big motivation, you know when you meet someone like a professor I met in my school, he is called professor Ijaya, he has played for Calabar rover, SUPER Eagles, Niger Tornardoes before he became a professor.

So thanks to NUGA games, I could meet someone like that and have the inspiration that going to school, does not stop you from achieving your dreams.

What were the challenges?

To honest, there were challenges especially when you are trying to balance your academics and the games because sometimes these games are hosted when some schools are writing their exams, so you have missed some tests and the school will promise you when you get back, they will give you an opportunity to write your own test and the lecturer will tell you I didn’t send you to play football.

And there was also the challenge with our parents because sometime when your result suffers because of NUGA, you can’t tell them I went to NUGA, that was why I failed.

And when it comes to infrastructure and accommodation, they were poor compared to the western world. Here in the United Kingdom, when I saw the way school tournament are being hosted, we are still way behind.

When it comes to accommodation, you know you will be sleeping with mosquitoes. There was time we went for pre NUGA and our first night we had to spent it in the bus because when we arrive, the school does not have an arrangement for us.

And when it comes to nurturing of talents, if I am being honest, it a bit poor.

Can you do a comparison of collegiate sports in the United Kingdom and Nigeria?

There is a big difference, at college level here (abroad), you start making money, the way we scout for players to go to club, from secondary here (abroad), they scout for players to go to the university on scholarship, what they need you to do is to keep the level of the performance of your academic grade. So, you are being talented, they let you that know that our grade point G.P should not be less than and get scholarship. In Nigeria, I am not sure there is any sport scholarship. And the facilities here (abroad), you can play a proper league match.