Former Super Eagles midfielder, Etim Esin, on Saturday warned young footballers to learn from his experience and shun all forms of indiscipline in their quest to becoming future stars.
Esin gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) during the draws for the 5th edition of Cohesion Football Tournament held at Filmhouse Cinemas, Surulere, Lagos.
NAN reports that Cohesion Football Tournament is an annual cadet grassroots football competition, organised for pre-teens between the ages of nine to 13 being sponsored by a football enthusiast, Damilare Obagbemi.
Esin, who supervised the draws, however, warned young footballers not to truncate their ambitions through indiscipline.
“During my time, I had some people I was looking up to, which I failed to realise. These kids today should also have those they should be looking up to as mentors.
“In this era, we have great players like Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo and others, but during our time, we had players like Diego Maradona and Pele of Brazil.
“These young ones now have many players to learn from to have a great future,” said Esin.
According to him, many people now want to use football as a platform to achieve greatness, but warned that those dreams could be truncated by indiscipline.
“The kids of today have great advantage of combining education and football. If one does not work for them, they can fall back on the other.
“What I am saying is all about discipline, people know my story because part of my story in football is about indiscipline. These kids need a lot of discipline and must learn from my story,” he said.
Esin, who was once described as African Maradona owing to his playing style likened to the great Argentine player, further urged the youngsters not be in a hurry to achieve fame.
“The young footballers need to listen to their coaches more and take to instructions and should have a mindset of discipline, train well and build their minds.
“We are now getting older and they will become older too. It’s a cycle, so when opportunity comes like this, our young ones should not allow it to go away,” he said.
NAN reports that Esin conducted the draws for the 42 teams competing in the 5th edition of the Cohesion Football Tournament, alongside other officials. (NAN)
