Psychologists schooled in the field of perception say that ‘perceptionis everything’. Socrates the Ancient Greek Philosopher is credited tohave stated that ‘first impression matters in a whole lot of ways’.Similarly, marketing scholars have a high profile rating of products andservices in terms of the brand name.
The US based lifestyles news magazine Forbes in their fine attempt todefine a brand still went back to the earlier point I raised when theyobviously concluded with the truism that Brand is everything.
The company stated in its website thus: ” Marketers realized that theycould create a specific perception in the customers ‘ minds concerningthe qualities and attributes of each non-generic product orservice…put simply, your ‘Brand’ is what your prospect thinks of whenhe or she hears your brand name.”
Today’s reflection is on a budding football talent which Nigeriarecently exported to the World’s most highly rated Leagues-ENGLISHPREMIERSHIP by name MR. KELECHI IHEANACHO who hails from Imo State,South East of Nigeria.
This young lad has turned out to be one of the finest sporting exportsfrom Nigeria in this decade. He is creatively prolific in scoring goalsand is very courageous even in the face of World rated top players whohave been on the World Soccer stage long before he KELECHI dreamt ofplaying football as a primary school pupil somewhere in Imo State.
He now plies his trade in the top rated ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP sideMANCHESTER CITY.
The Daily Mail of Britain wrote recently that the MANCHESTER CITYSTRIKER is now a hero for kids in his home country, and he has spokencandidly about his childhood. This writer believes that if this greatbrand is professionally handled then Nigerian Youth would gain immenselytherefrom.
In a published interview this youngster revealed what is actually nonews in terms of the difficult upbringing he underwent. This is becausea greater percentage of Children of Nigeria are born to poor homes sincepoverty is so high that nearly 100 million Nigerians live inexcruciating poverty. Football is generally embraced by a lot ofChildren from very miserable backgrounds in far flung towns and citiessuch as Enugu, Port Harcourt, Kano and Lagos. Few dozens of theseresilient youth have attained international limelight. KelechiIheanacho is the latest in the growing list of great sporting talentsthat have made it big in the Western World after moving over fromNigeria.
The Manchester City striker KELECHI IHEANACHO opened up about hisNigerian upbringing, admitting: “I couldn’t afford 20p to watch PremierLeague football.”
Iheanacho endured a difficult childhood in his home country, but nowserves as a hero figure for kids who crowd round the television to catcha glimpse of him.
The player lived in such a perilous penury that he couldn’t afford aticket to view any of the premierships in any of the many viewingcenters in Nigeria. The British press reported that public pay a fee of50 naira, around 20 pence, to watch the games, but Iheanacho reveals hecouldn’t afford that cost as a child.
“We didn’t have the money,” he told the Daily Mail. “Maybe after thegame I’d hear the scores. I’d be at home playing football and myfriends would come back after being there to tell me. We didn’t have atelevision at home.
“Sometimes I watched the Spanish league — it was a bit cheaper, maybe30 naira. But the Premier League was 50.
“Sometimes I’d watch the Premier League if I found the money, or I’dgo there and beg them to let me in. Or sneak in for the second half andpay half the money.”
Today this young lad who couldn’t pay his way to watch the Premiershipfrom his backyard in Owerri Imo State has become a recognizable figurein World football because of his phenomenal rise and the obvious factthat the brand KelechiIheanacho is one of the most sought after inEuropean Soccer industry.
A respected website in the United Kingdom has even rated him as the newHero in Manchester City given his prolific goal scoring talents whichhas seen him net in 13 goals so far since he broke into the top leaguefrom the academy few Months after arriving from Nigerian where healongside his mates won Nigeria the FIFA under 20 World cup.
In what could pass as a great testament on his prowess in the field offootball the news site www.readmancity.com [1] wrote as follows:“There’s a perceived notion that Manchester City have no regard fortheir youth team and would much rather spend to fix their problems”.
“At Villa Park on Saturday that notion was totally dispelled an academygraduate scored a hat-trick, two others made their debuts and one hadanother run-out. £296 million – that’s the exact figure City havespent on strikers since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover with just threeproving to be a success this season”.
“However with Sergio Aguero having his fair share of injury problems, ayoung striker signed and academy graduate signed for nothing may justprove to be the key difference maker for City in their quest fortrophies”. The news site then added the clincher thus: “KelechiIheanacho is the name on City fans lips this season and after his Man ofthe Match display at Villa Park on Saturday, opposition fans have nowstood up and taken notice. There was more to his performance than justthe three goals at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon, he posed the Villadefence constant problems with his pace, his link up play and movementoff the ball”.
“He provided Raheem Sterling with an assist for the fourth goal andproved to be a nightmare to deal with for the beleaguered Villa backfour. His three goals on Saturday epitomised him. Cool, calm, collectedand ready to pounce on the slightest half chance that falls his way.Having just made five starts, incredibly Kelechi has eight goals andfour assists to his name this season, scoring on average a goal every 44minutes according to Squakwa“.
The news site which wrote the piece before KelechiIheanacho netted inadditional goals had written thus: “Iheanacho has staked a serious claimto be city’s second choice striker ahead of misfiring Wilfried Bony,and with his display at Upton Park and at Carrow Road alongside SergioAguero there have been calls for a return to 4-4-2 such was the impactmade by the youngster”.
The numbers however simply don’t do Iheanacho justice. His naturalscoring prowess is just one facet of his game.
“From his instinctive reactions to score the winning goal at Palace [2]to his first goal yesterday where he pounced on a loose ball in the box,what has been most impressive is his youthful vibrancy, his pace andmovement off the ball the intelligent tactical runs he’s made that hascreated space for others and dragged defenders out of place; qualitieshe has been displaying ever since his first appearance for the club inthe Pre-season tour of the US in 2014″.
“These outstanding qualities were in full view in City’s win atNorwich [3] and the draw at Upton Park last weekend. With Kevin DeBruyne injured in midweek and Samir Nasri not due back until March, itseems the time has come to give Iheanacho the chance show his burgeoningtalent on the European stage and regularly in the Premier League [4].
The website then added: ” It must be noted a lot of credit must be givento Manuel Pellegrini despite the constant calls for Kelechi to play moreoften than not the Chilean has managed Kelechi’s game time quite well.He has not been overplayed and has been kept hungry and on his toes withthe amount of chances he’s been given”.
It’s therefore not surprising to wake up and to read the story that thissensational player will be getting an extended contract with his team.He has made his modest request through his agents.
The agents have demanded a bumper new Manchester City contract thatwill pay the Nigeria starlet a mind-blowing 200,000 pounds-a-week overfive years, AfricanFootball.com can exclusively reveal today.
“He has deserved his keep at City as he is now one of the mosteffective forwards in the whole of Europe when you put his game timeagainst the number of his goals,” a top source argued.
The 19-year-old Nigeria international has netted 13 goals in allcompetitions this season with seven of them in the Premier League.
This indeed is KelechiIheanacho’s era and one hopes that the brandKelechiIheanacho has come to stay for some times to come. He is indeeda pride to us back home in Africa.
Africa is a crisis prone region and Nigeria has found herself at thecenter of much of these crises with armed insurgency and terrorism beingsome of the most disturbing afflictions.
Tobias Denied with Axel Klein edited a well written book on the theme:“Fragile peace, State failure, violence and development in crisisregion” in which they highlighted some of the basic challenges ofdevelopment that Nigeria faces which I think a great brand like KelechiIheanacho if galvanised can propel positive trends amongst hundreds- of-thousands of youths in Nigeria who grew up in similar squalidexistential condition but are caught up in the poverty circle unable tounbind themselves from these chains of poverty and want.
The book stated thus: “War and crisis countries are characterized byintractable structures of violence that stand in the way of prospect forpeace…although the wide circulation of small arms is not a cause ofconflicts in the narrower sense, it does indirectly influence the courseof conflicts, the splintering of warring parties and shifts in thebalance of power among them…as the state is not able to curb crime,sometimes even directly involved in it, it extensively fails as aguarantor of law and order in many countries”.
The writers of this book also asserted that: ” Seen against thisbackground, prosperous individuals increasingly avail themselves ofprivate security services. Companies as well as governments and rebelgroups hire growing numbers of mercenaries with the result that we canspeak of a ‘privatization of security’ analogous to the‘privatization of violence’ by rebels, organized crime and terrororganization.”
The MuhammaduBuhari’s administration although battling to defeat BokoHaram terrorists should work out modalities that are sustainable usingthe Youth ministry to mobilise the Nigerian Youth to take interest indeveloping their innate sporting talents and governments at every levelshould provide the enabling environment for functional sportingfacilities to be sited across the geopolitical zones so people can beguided in the grooming of their talents which if fully blossomed andexported to the more prosperous West can serve as foreign revenue makingavenues for Nigeria. The brand KelechiIheanacho is beneficial on thelong run.
Written by Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria
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