Lateef Omidiji at Go Ahead Eagles (The Netherlands)

Noted. As you know (I guess) from my postings I love to see soccer grow into a top sport in the USA. Also I am very interested in the development path of young US players in the Netherlands. Those long enough in the BS community that followed my reporting on the US youngsters at Heerenveen, Utrecht and PSV for instance, know that I have a weak spot for Young YA, especially those in the Dutch leagues.
I for myself would love to see a kid raised in the Feyenoord affiliated environment of Scott Gallaghar or the Kentucky youth soccer association be so good to make the jump at 18 to our academy and make a Pulisic kind of rise to our mutual benefit for the player, Feyenoord and US soccer as a whole.
Probably his comments were influenced by the attitude of his entourage/parents. But it gives me a foul taste in my mouth. Somehow the Feyenoord management seem to believe they can change that attitude. I have my reservations about that as his entourage plays a big part in it.

 

If it helps, never believe what is written by the African football press. Much of what they say seems to come from interested 3rd parties and has only the most tentative grasp on the truth.

 

That's what gets me. The kid isn't even quoted in the article that kicked off that dudes sick rant.

 

Indeed. When I read those things linked in here I wondered if I somehow landed into a parallel world/other dimension. You have to wonder how much of it is a phantasy of those writing it and how much of it is a cooperation between parents/entourage of the kid and the writers of those pieces to "create" a buzz that they hope will lead to a club signing him for top euros money. Bit like the other Nigerian scams.

 

His rant is misdirected and a bit out of place, but he is not wrong. The recruitment (poaching) of many of the most talented dutch youth players by primarily English clubs has destroyed the Dutch league and currently also Dutch football as a whole. Every Dutch club suffers from this, but in truth none more than Feyenoord. Simply look at the number of their young players aged 15-18 who left in the last few years to top English clubs and it will blow your mind. Most of the time these players leave for free, or for a measly monetary compensation. Almost all Dutch clubs make minimal profit which means that they depend on their youth development both for competitiveness and profit. For a club whos record profit is 6.8million, I can understand how missing out on 15-20million for a product like Ake can be extremely frustrating. And truth be told he might have gone for even more than 15-20million if he had not wasted a few years of development on the bench in England.

For all the attention that Ajax got this last year for all of their young talents while playing in the Europa league, imagine how sick that team could have been in the coming years with Timothy Fosu-Mensah (Manchester United), Donyell Malen (Arsenal), Daishawn Redan (Chelsea), Mink Peeters (Real Madrid) and all of the other poached players. This could have been the next coming of the champion's league winning mid 1990's Ajax teams filled with world class youth talents (van der sar, de boers, kluivert, overmars, bergkamp, rijkaard, seedorf, stam, blind, davids) but unfortunately with the poaching of all young dutch talents we will probably never see such a team again.

The Netherlands isn't the only country to suffer from this, and unfortunately it has made football significantly less attractive and diverse than previous decades.

#Offtopic

 

Not sure if this has been posted, highlight reel of him.

 

"Hoodie Omidiji"

 

Shock to see he has not been included in the latest 48 man squad.

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...48-player-roster-for-final-2017-training-camp

 

Article from march, take with a grain of salt - http://www.allnigeriasoccer.com/read_news.php?nid=26877

Excerpt: "Meanwhile, the United States Soccer Federation are confident they are in pole position for the services of the American-born starlet ahead of the Dutch and Nigerian Federations.

The 14-year-old has only attended one United States youth team get-together from a possible fifteen he was invited for, though USSF are in constant communication with his club, family and grand parents in Las Vegas.

USSF have assigned a mentor, Borussia Dortmund's Christian Pulsic, to him and the 2017 U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year calls Omidiji regularly to make sure he is doing okay.

Last November, Lateef Omidiji received a call-up from the USSF for the U17 Nike invitational in Florida where he had a chance to play against Brazil, England and Netherlands U17s but he declined the invitation."

 

Lol what a mentor. That is a pretty decent pitch right there.

 

I think US soccer might need to tweet stalk him like Nigeria

 

A nice goal posted by his sister:

987096252432072704 is not a valid tweet id

 

Fun 20 minutes re-reading this thread. That field in the video is ten minutes from my house. Pretty cool to know he grew up here in Las Vegas playing, encouraging to know these kids are right here in plain view.

Let’s hope he chooses the land of his birth, and represents the United States of America.

 

Where the Dutch film at?

No offense to anyone involed but that's a very low level of the American youth game in the first few section of video and also disproportionately skewed early physical maturation.

Can this kid play? By next year I hope/expect for footage similar to what we saw of Pynadath at the U15 level in the country.

 

Here are some of his goals from his time in Holland pre-Feyenoord. I agree, though, not much video since then.

 

On the bench:

📋 Line-ups!

✌ Basiself AZ: Deen, Postma, Hillen, Twisk, Fitz-Jim, De Jong, Barasi, Hoever, De Wilde, Reverson, Stam.#azfey pic.twitter.com/VagSRRusJT

— AZ Jeugdopleiding (@AZJeugd) May 15, 2018

 

‘03 US U14 & Feyenoord U15 winger Lateef Omidiji Jr. has accepted a call into a Nigeria U15 camp. #usynt pic.twitter.com/qwNswGPzyv

— Joey (@USAprospects) May 26, 2018

 

Crap

 

All Nigeria Soccer says that the US has invited Omidiji fourteen times to camps since his lone US U14 camp in 2016, but he's declined each one. His father is very pro-Nigeria and his American-bred sister already represents Nigeria, so the tide is against the US.
http://allnigeriasoccer.com/read_news.php?nid=27888

 

Very glad to hear the rumor that there is somebody at USSF that knows how to dial the kid’s phone number at least.

 

US-eligible '03 Lateef Omidiji Jr and '07 Rasheed Omidiji have moved from Feyenoord and FC Den Bosch respectively to Go Ahead Eagle in Holland. Lateef will play with the O17s and Rasheed with O13s. Lateef accepted a recent call-up to the Nigerian U17s #usynt

— Joey (@USAprospects) June 27, 2018

Moves to Go Ahead Eagles U17 with his younger US-eligible broth Rasheed.

 

Would that be considered a move up? Hard to believe Go Ahead Eagles are rated higher than Feyenoord, but maybe I'm wrong. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.... me thinks...

 

Inquiring minds want to know...