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World
Cup Finals, 1998, Nantes, France, 13th JUNE 1998, Spain 2 v Nigeria 3,
Nigeria's Mutiu Adepoju stumbles after a challenge from Spain's Guillermo Amor
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Former Nigeria World Cup
star Mutiu Adepoju has been appointed to help raise the profile of Spain's Le
Liga in his home country.
BBC
Sport report continues:
The
45-year-old spent more than a decade playing football in Spain.
His
task is to improve the Spanish league's popularity to compete against the draw
of the English Premier League.
"The
EPL has the edge right now, but we want La Liga to be much more visible because
Africa is a big football market," Adepoju said.
"In
two years, we hope to be the market leader with the biggest media visibility in
Nigeria."
The
Premier League is widely followed in Nigeria with top local stars such as
Chelsea's John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses, Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City),
Odion Ighalo, Isaac Success (Watford) and Alex Iwobi (Arsenal).
But
unlike the Adepoju generation, which boasted many big names in La Liga, Granada
defender Uche Agbo is now the only Nigerian star playing regularly in Spain.
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Granada
defender Uche Agbo (left) is the only Nigerian currently playing La Liga
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Donations
The
Nigeria Professional Football League has signed a five-year co-operation deal
with La Liga and already this agreement has seen an All-Stars team from Nigeria
feature on a playing tour of Spain last month.
La
Liga will soon donate 4,000 footballs to the country, while coaches from Spain
are scheduled to visit schools and academies in Nigeria. An under-13
tournament, La Liga Promesa, will be staged in Nigeria and South Africa.
La
Liga Foundation has also made a cash donation to help Nigeria Premier League
club El Kanemi Warriors and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) as a result of
the havoc in northeast Nigeria caused by the Islamist group Boko Haram's
continuing security threat.
Catalan
giants Barcelona are also in the process of setting up a residential academy in
Nigeria's commercial capital city of Lagos.
"La
Liga is opening to the world," said Adepoju, who wants to open the door of
La Liga to Nigerian players.
"Within a few months of the agreement (with the Nigeria league), La Liga has taken a team from here to Spain, where there was also a workshop for Nigerian club managers on organization and marketing to make our clubs more viable."
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