Former Nigeria Super Eagles star Finidi George has revealed that up until he joined the Nigeria national team, he was more of a midfield player rather than a winger.
Speaking in an interview with a Lagos based radio station, the ex- AFC Ajax player explained how he was converted to a winger by former Super Eagles coach, Clemens Westerhof.
“I was a midfielder during my days in Calabar Rovers and Sharks. It was when I got into the Super Eagles and we had too many midfielders and I couldn’t breakthrough.
‘’So Westerhof decided to convert me to play on the right side because of my pace, because of my way of thinking and understanding the game.
‘’He gave me that opportunity to play on the right side and that was how I started to play in that position. Normally I was not a wing player.”
The former Calabar Rovers, Iwuanyanwu Nationale, and Sharks player, who was likened to David Beckham during his playing days because of his ability to deliver good crosses from the wings, however, said he personally improved himself.
“Nobody (coached me). You have to work on your craft, work on your skills and I think because I was a midfield player, which helped me a lot.
‘’When you play in the midfield, you always try to look for others to give that through pass to. I look for the strikers all the time.
“So when I was converted to play on the right side, my first option, whenever I got the ball, was to look for others.
‘’That was how I started looking out for Rashidi Yekini, Daniel Amokachi, and others, trying to feed them with balls and everything just worked out fine.
‘’When I knew assist was part of the game, I started doing what I was used to when I was playing in the midfield,” said Finidi.
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Finidi played most of his senior career as a right-winger, who knows how things would have panned out for him had he not changed positions when he was called up to the national team?
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 years ago
