Nigeria: Will Kelechi Iheanacho follow John Obi Mikel's road to mediocrity?
Sunday’s Community Shield was a light aperitif; dispensed with, focus inevitably turns to the Premier League season in store, and the narratives set to be explored and unfurled in the current weeks and months. One of the chief questions, from the standpoint of the Super Eagles, is in what capacity the lavish talents ofKelechi Iheanacho are to be utilized.
For the second preseason in a row, the youngster has put hardly a foot wrong.
The caveat last time around was Manchester City’s inability to snag him a work permit, an inconvenience that has now been corrected. With Stevan Jovetic off to Inter, and a move to Roma seemingly inevitable for Edin Dzeko, Iheanacho may very well be third in the Citizens’ striking pecking order going into the season.
Consider also that Sergio Aguero’s blitzes of brilliance are invariably punctuated by multiple injuries within the season, and Wilfried Bony is still finding his feet at the Etihad. At some point, Iheanacho will surely get a chance to show what he’s got.
This can only be good for the player’s development. The dicier subplot to resolve is whether it is in the interest of the national team.
On the surface, it is a ridiculous concern—the Super Eagles can only benefit from having the prodigious 18-year-old playing regularly in the biggest league in the world. However, his appearances will continue a trend that, if unchecked, will complete a position-change from creative wide man to central striker.
While he scored six times for the Golden Eaglets side in 2013 as they triumphed at the Fifa U-17 World Cup in UAE, it was clear that his goals were not the main attraction. Indeed, four of that tally came in one game: a freakish 6-1 demolition of Mexico; he scored only twice more in the remaining six games, and one of those in the final. Instead, what stood out was his unique vision and creativity.
Employed as one of two playmakers behind first Success Isaac, then Taiwo Awoniyi in a 4-3-2-1/4-3-3 hybrid, Iheanacho thrived when drifting centrally between opposition lines of defence and midfield. His initial wide position often made him difficult to track, and from this zone he wreaked absolute mayhem. He completed the tournament with seven assists, none more beautiful – or totemic – than his slide rule pass for Awoniyi’s opener in the quarter-final against Uruguay.
His lock-picking abilities fuelled a sense of excitement about his arrival; Nigeria has struggled for overt creativity since the declines of Kanu and, to an extent, Jay-Jay Okocha—players who, in their right, were the final hold-overs of the national team’s golden era in the mid-to-late 90s.
However, since joining City, he has featured mostly as a pure centre-forward. In a way, you could lay it at the door of the broad spectrum of attributes he possesses: he is a very composed finisher and, standing at over 6ft, is no soft touch. His goals for Manuel Pellegrini’s side also suggest he is doing well enough in the role, and he continues to provide assists, as Raheem Sterling can attest.
However, the Chilean’s imagining of the player could, in the long run, be detrimental to the Super Eagles. Nigeria is not short on young strikers with great potential (Imoh Ezekiel, Michael Olaitan, the aforementionaed Awoniyi and Isaac, to name very few), what it does lack is competent playmakers.
Iheanacho could become the player City want, but not the one that Nigeria needs.
If this story arc tugs at the fringes of memory, that is because there is recent form for the national team being deprived of a great talent through a change in role.
John Obi Mikel , himself a prodigy with the world at his feet, made a move to nouveau-riche Chelsea to much acclaim. What Nigeria got back was half the player, generously watered-down and disinclined to produce the sort of sublime, effortless brilliance that had seen him share a podium with Lionel Messi.
The Super Eagles persisted in fielding Mikel in the role: surely there was something left, the embers could still be coaxed into, if not a raging blaze, at least a flickering candle. The experiment failed calamitously, leading Samson Siasia, under whom Mikel had blossomed in the beginning, to lament, “Chelsea destroyed the player Mikel once was!”
Pulling in two completely different directions is an entirely apt illustration—by the analogy, the club role exerts greater stress, as international breaks are intermittent. In the end, the limit of elasticity entailed Nigeria had to accept Mikel for what he had become, rather than what had been expected.
At some point in the near future, when his evolution is complete, Nigeria will have to accept the Iheanacho that has been sculpted at Manchester City. That is not necessarily a bad thing: Robin van Persie underwent a somewhat similar transmutation into a fearsome centre-forward and, in the process, has become the top scorer in the history of the Dutch national team. Still, whatever heights the teenager hits as a striker, there will always be the sense that a great opportunity has been lost
Feelers around new boss Sunday Oliseh indicate that Kelechi Iheanacho will be a key component of the new Super Eagles. The question once again is - what version will he be hoping to get, and will he be prepared for the inevitable disappointment?
For that matter, will the entire nation be?
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