Presenting Erimuya, Nigeria’s Olympic star, a versatile player News

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Presenting Erimuya, Nigeria’s Olympic star, a versatile player

By Daily Sports on August 31, 2017

There’s a trending youtube video of Saturday Keigho Erimuya, the defender who won an Olympics bronze medal with the Samson Siasia-coached Nigeria under-23 team in last year's Rio De Janeiro Olympics in Brazil.

The video contains highlights of the player, featuring some of his best moments in the national team and in his club’s colours, both in his time with his grassroots club BJ Foundation of Benin City and with then Turkey division 2 outfit, Kayseri Erciyesspor.

It's a very impressive video which shows the qualities of the central defender and why he's very widely regarded as a great prospect for the senior national team, the Super Eagles and why many are tipping him for a fine career in a top European league soon.

Erimuya Saturday

Erimuya's timing of his tackles, his exceptional long range ball distribution, his turbo pace and power as well as being very comfortable playing out of the back are qualities, as the clip shows, that have endeared him to his fans as a top-class defender.

But what many people (especially outside his Benin City, Edo State base) may not actually know is that the youngster is not just a versatile player, but also one who’s actually one of the top stars at the youth level in different playing positions.

Erimuya is comfortable, and has made a name in Benin City, playing as a goalkeeper, midfield enforcer and attacker.

Many years ago when he represented a grassroots club Royal Force as a goalkeeper, he was so impressive in goal, helping the team to win a prestigious and well-contested ‘Sunday-Sunday’ football competition in Benin City.

The final of that competition offered some drama as Erimuya’s saves throughout the game made players of the opposing team to fidget when it was time for penalty shootouts after regulation time ended scoreless. The opponents players were seen backing out and wanting each other to go first to take penalties against Erimuya, fearing that the ’keeper would save their shots.

In the end the young ’keeper saved three penalty kicks to help Royal Force carry the day.

It is, however, in attack that Erimuya is most feared when he’s not defending. If one looks around honestly in Edo State, there’s not one attacker, apart from the duo of Uche Epete and Junior Osaghae (both BJ teammates) who are comparable to Erimuya in terms of striking abilities.

The 19-year-old player, nicknamed Sabatino has all the qualities of a fantastic finisher. He can run with the ball glued to his feet en route to goal, his hold up play with his back against goal reminds one of a certain Didier Drogba, his heading is very good while his finishing is always done with aplomb.

Earlier this year, Sabatino was training with a grassroots club Chinamoon FC in his Dumez Road neighborhood. The club lined up a couple of top grade friendlies against pro division one side Bendel Insurance and national amateur league club Dynamite Force (who have just gained promotion to the National Nationwide League) as part of their preparations for the Edo State's Federations cup. To the consternation of many Chinamoon beat Insurance 1-0 and defeated Dynamite 2-1 in both games. Erimuya played in attack for Chinamoon and netted the only goal against Insurance and scored one of the two against Dynamite to help the club record the unlikely results against the two top teams of Edo state.

Some weeks ago, last year’s Edo State League champions, Benin Warriors (the club I own) were involved in a tournament in the Ikpoba Hill area of Benin City involving the top grassroots clubs and had the blessing of having Erimuya line up for them as he keeps fit for a possible trip to Europe. When the Warriors lined up in their first game against nouveau-riche Dynamos in its opening game, fans might have thought Sabatino would play in his traditional central defense position. But I opted to play him upfront because I was convinced he is the best striker around and that he could guarantee us goals which would help us big time.

We beat Dynamos 2-0 with a very young team and guess what? Sabatino came up with the goods with two powerful headers in the first 10 minutes. He scored a good third goal just before the half time whistle which was wrongly ruled out for offside.

In our second game against Impact FC, Erimuya again was on the scoresheet, showing great calm to score from the penalty spot in our 2-0 win.

Erimuya was unavoidably unavailable for our third match against the hosts Crown FC who needed a win to qualify while we needed a draw. Unfortunately we struggled to create chances in his absence, with the center referee doing everything possible to help the hosts win and save their face. He awarded a penalty from absolutely no where in the dying minutes of the match which was 0-0 at that time, prompting us to abandon the game and tournament, knowing fully well that the chief organiser was also the coach of Crown and that there was no way of getting justice.

But we felt the absence of Sabatino in that game and felt he would have made it more difficult for the ref to cheat if he had been around to notch in a clean goal or two.

Sabatino is at a stage of trying to reboot his European career and my wish for him is that he gets a good European club. That’s what his versatile talent deserves. In fact, I believe he's the most versatile young player I’ve ever seen at the youth level and seeing him maintaining such versatility today really impresses me.

When you get close to him you’d see he’s such a humble kid who’s very hardworking and ready to take on any task fearlessly. I’m sure his playing versatility and good character would stand him in good stead as his football journey continues.

Source Daily Sports

Posted August 31, 2017