Technical Adviser of Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL side, Usman Abdallah has finally disclosed reasons and circumstances that led to his shocking departure of defending champions, Enyimba.

Coach Abdallah won the 2018/19 NPFL title with Enyimba haven topped the Super 6 playoffs played in Lagos State.

Coach Abdallah was fielding questions from journalists on Writers Lounge WhatsApp platform on Thursday also spoke about how daunting it is to coach in Nigeria suggesting for organisational changes to better it.

“I think there are a lot of challenges. You know I started my coaching career in Asia, then moved to Europe and its totally different from coaching here.

“There is a lot of things we are missing in football here, especially from the grassroot. We don’t pay much attention to the grassroot, school sports.

“Most of the players that playing for senior national team are missing a lot of things. There are stages you need to pass through which are basics but most of them don’t have it.

“What we need mostly to change status of our football is to work more on the grassroot so that we will have good representation and good results at the national teams. And also there is need for organization face lift and financial aspects as well.

The former Kano Pillars’ coach revealed what led to his departure from Enyimba few weeks into the new season after winning the league for the Peoples Elephants the previous season saying he was no longer comfortable with the working environment.

“I offered to leave the club earlier. So I spoke to the chairman, you have to let me go, for two times I told them I wanted to leave, I just don’t want to take my bag and leave.

“The working environment became hostile and there was no fun in it, so I looked at it that I can’t stay again because I know too much about this job.

“Its a team that they don’t like to work with people that are intelligent to understand what is going around them and they like pointing fingers a lot.

“So I looked at it and said its not about loosing the job, after all its not money that kept me at Enyimba. If I leave and want to get a club, I can get a club within a week.

“When I left Enyimba, I didn’t want to stay because I wanted to go back to Europe to finish the year there so that I can have an opportunity to upgrade my CV and learn new things because football is evolving everyday.

“So I was thinking of taking some courses in Europe and get more knowledge then Wikki came. The Governor (Bauchi State) sent for me through the Commissioner for Sports and they sent some people to me from my state in Kano, those In respect a lot and then I looked at the offer. So I sighed a five months contract with them,” he said.

Coach Abdallah’s had his playing career in the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe.

In Africa he turned out for various Nigerian Clubs including Sanka Vipers of Kano; UNTL of Kaduna, Rocks of Kaduna, Stationery Stores of Lagos and Mogas 90 of Benin Republic.

He played in the Kano State academic and festival teams in the 1980s and the national Under-20 and Under-23 teams along with his older brother – Hassan Abd’Allah.

In 1991, he moved to Al Arabic FC and then complete the season at Bayer Leverkusen.

He moved to Singapore where he played for Jurong FC, Khalsa Fc and Gombak United FC, while his odyssey in Asia also involved periods with top side Sheikh Russel in Bangladesh and Kalantan FC in Malaysia.

At the twilight of his playing career, he returned to France and starred for Bollene FC and also FC Sete.

Abd’Allah stopped playing in 2006 while with a second division side in France.

He first coached in the French lower division for EPS FC, FC Sete, FC Frontignan and Bollene FC.

The soft spoken tactician holds UEFA B Licence Certificate and a UEFA A Licence obtained in England.

He attended several coaching courses, including CAF courses as well as Strength and Conditioning Level 1 Coaching Certificate in Australia.

He has degrees in football coaching and team management at Le CREPS de Montpellier, France, National Coaching Accreditation Programme (NCAP) Level 1 from Singapore and the LaLiga Coaching Certificate.

Before joining Enyimba, he coached in Nigeria with Kano Pillars as an assistant coach and also oversaw the youth team of the pyramid club.

He joined Enyimba initially as an assistant to Paul Aigbogun.

He was later promoted to Head Coach and led the side to the semi-finals of the CAF Confederations Cup, losing to Raja Casablanca of Morocco.

  NPFL, Usman Abdallah