Technical Adviser of Go Round FC Wilfred Udube says he hopes to establish the modest privately owned club as powerhouses in the league and ultimately lead them to the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) title.
The Rivers State based team begin their 2018/2019 NPFL campaign away to Abia Warriors today after sitting out the first round of fixtures due to their opponents newly promoted Kada City FC being granted extra time off to prepare for the season.
Following a seven month break, the league finally kicked off on Sunday 13 January and while Udube says his team is excited that league football has finally returned, he also believes that the extended break did a lot of harm to football in the country and hopes that the league is allowed to run its course this time around.
“I am very excited because we have waited for a long time even Nigerians are not happy [with no league football for seven months],” Udube told busybuddiesng.com.
“You find out that the attention of Nigerians is in the Premier League in England so nobody was happy [with the NPFL being on break], when I go home even my little son will tell ‘me daddy what did Manchester United play’, but I would like my child to ask me about my result, ‘Daddy did you people win?’. We are now supporting people who we don’t know, who don’t know us when we have our own league languishing.
“The players themselves are now happy because it has been a long time they played. We are happy today that a date has been fixed and we pray that the date will be maintained [as] they say.”
Being responsible for a club like Go Round FC in a league where a
Now in their second season in the top flight, the club has gotten used to the rigours of competing in the NPFL on an inferior budget although Udube says he is still stymied by a lack of resources especially in terms of player recruitment and squad size.
“There are some challenges especially financial challenges where you have the player that you want to bring in because of the quality of the private club you cannot go for a big player all those things affect the psyche and the preparation of the coach.
“Not only that a private club has a number of players they will like to register, unlike a government club where you can register about 35 – 40 players because it is a one-man show so they are restricted to a certain number of players, even the backroom staff also. So that’s the challenges. But those challenges we have taken cognizance of them and we are tackling them one after the other and we will get there by God’s grace.”
Udube has had a storied career having started his football career with Iwuanyanwu Nationale (Heartland FC) in 1993, he has also played for the likes of Premier Breweries (Jasper United), Al Ahly in the United Arab Emirates and Sharks of Port Harcourt.
Following retirement from playing in 2005 and armed with a coaching licence from the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Udube started out as part of the backroom staff at Heartland FC in 2009 and won the Federation Cup with them in 2013.
Having worked under notable coaches like Samson Siasia, Okey Emordi and Kelechi Emefiele, Udube says he now wants to make a name for himself by winning the NPFL and establishing Go Round FC in the upper echelons of the league alongside other NPFL traditional powerhouses.
“Everybody has his own plan as a coach, I want to win the Nigerian Premier League,” he says.
“I want to grow as a coach there are a lot of coaches that have made it you just have to start from somewhere, my ambition all this while is to make sure that Go Round FC finish at the top of the league, if not first, then second or third or fourth because it is a very modest club so I’m looking forward to a situation where if people are mentioning names like Enyimba, Kano Pillars then Go Round FC will be mentioned.”
