This days, it will be a thing of joy for parents to hear that their wards were invited to any of the national teams.

But for young Adebayo Gbadebo, the reverse was his case. As his parents stopped paying his school fees in his final year at the University of Ibadan for playing football and got invited to the Super Eagles.

Speaking as a Guest to the monthly Ex-University of Ibadan Footballers Association virtual interactive session, Gbadebo who is now a Pro-licensed coach in Thailand said “my parents did not support my going into Football. I was discouraged, though they knew that I was good in the game, but my father stood against it. The parents then only wants you to read and go to school all through. I thank God for that, if not I could not be here today as a graduate from the Premier University in Nigeria. I thank God for a father who will take his stand at every point, and remained on it”.

Adebayo who is the Head Coach of Suphanburi in the Thailand Premier League said his father warned him seriously not to play football in the University, but contrary to his expectations, he started playing for his hall of residence same week he resumed in the school, and played for the school team same year “I was playing for several clubs like 7Up FC, Union Bank FC and Railways FC. It was when I was with Railway that they decided to play in the second tier of the league then, and they moved the team to Lagos. When we went to NUGA games in Port Harcourt, I was selected to join the Super Eagles in camp. I was in the hall one afternoon, I was told that my father was looking for me. He came all the way from Lagos. I took him to my room, he brought out a newspaper and showed me a page, while asking me if that was my name among the players invited to Super Eagles camp. I answered in affirmative, he left there and then. I was in final year then. That was the end of his sponsoring me in school. Because, I disobeyed his order”

“I was not much bothered then, because I had a team, Railway FC, that were ready to pay me some sign-on fees, and good salary, I had to rough everything though, it involved my traveling to Lagos daily to train with the team. It also made me to remain focused to achieve what my parents doesn’t like, and what they liked. I was happy that at the end of the day, I did not disappoint them, neither did I disappoint myself “.

He finally advocated that combining football and education is a personal issue, that the player would need to organize himself based on what he needs” it all depends on the quality of the player. If you are good, clubs will come for you and support you on how to succeed in your education. But, if you do not have the qualities, just concentrate on your education and finish up ” he concluded.

Gbadebo, who spoke to a Popular WhatsApp Platform “FCT Football Update” said with the quality of talents that are abound in the country, that Nigerian coaches are supposed to be in hot demand in the foreign countries, but standard of the league and football been played, can not encourage any serious minded club to hire a Nigerian coach.

The former Stationery Stores of Lagos player said if Nigerian coaches would want to have a look at outside Nigeria, they should be ready to refresh themselves and step up in the pyramid of the profession.

Gbadebo who is the Manager/Head Coach of Suphanburi FC of Thailand, a Premier league club in Thailand further revealed that coaching a team outside the shores of the country depends on the owners of the club, how they see the team, how they want the team to play and the plans they have for the team, that is what determines the type of Coach they will engage “this can be achieved when they watch our matches on Television or YouTube, see the quality of the games and coaches who are on top of what they are doing, the people will start taking a look at our coaches. A coach must have the requirements needed”.

Continuing, he said “Nigeria football is very interesting, but the quality of the league needs improvement so that those foreign administrator would want to have those handling the teams to help them o develop theirs. But, if we compare the standard of what we have now, it will be difficult for Nigerian coaches to handle any team outside the country”.

The Coach who also played for now defunct Eagle Cement of Port Harcourt in 1992 frowned at the use of artificial turf for league matches saying that that as the worst thing that would happen to Nigeria football “playing on artificial turf is bad. It lowers the standard of game. There is no where in the world that they are using artificial turf for their league matches. The stage matters, and that is what is depriving us the opportunity of seeing the lot of talents that are in our league” he concluded.

Adebayo Gbadebo, a Sociology graduate of the University of Ibadan, helped Stationery Stores of Lagos to play up to the Semi finals of the African Champions cup in 1993 before he joined Bouri FC of Lebanon, Mohun Bagan of India, Tore Sasana of Thailand, and retired at PS Pekambaru of Indonesia. He is an AFC Pro License holder, and has Port FC as General manager, Rajpracha FC as Technical Director before joining Suphanburi FC, as their Technical Director and now the Head Coach of the club.