Asifat Sulaimon is the head coach of Kwara United Football Club of Ilorin. In this interview with MIKE ADEYEMI, he speaks on the readiness of his team for the Nigerian National League as well as the need to give room for home based players in his current squad. Excerpts:
What informed your coaching carrier?
After my playing career, I decided to take coaching as a career in 2005.
I started with a female team, Toyin Saraki Queens, and I led the team to the state challenge cup. We won the cup against Oladimeji Tigress.
Later, we proceeded to play at national challenge cup. We got to the semifinal. Afterwards, I decided to leave the team for a coaching course at the National Institute for Sports, Lagos.
Later, I decided to have set up an academy called Confidence Football Club of Ilorin. I later left for Ondo State to coach another academy team called Moero FC. We played at the challenge cup final against Sunshine.
Later, I came back home to join Injector Football Club. That very year, I got the team promoted into division 1. From there, I joined Lubcon FC and I took them to principal cup to division 1 amateur 2.
Later, Kwara United invited me last year to be an assistant coach and now I’m the head coach.
How many laurels did you win as a player?
It’s a long story. I started here in Ilorin at the academicals at youthful age. Later went to Doyin Babes then.
I played for NEPA FC of Ilorin and later with Jasper United of Onitsha. There we won silver medals twice. We came second in the league twice too, 1996 and 1997.
I left there to play for Kwara United in 1999. I captained Kwara United for seven years. We played at continentals, we got to the quarter final of continentals before I stopped playing.
The highest medals I won is silver medals in 1996/97 while with Jasper United. I also won silver when I was with Kwara United. While with Jasper United, we won the league twice, but because of the NFA’s pranks then, they withdrew the cup from Jasper United.
How prepared is Kwara United for the coming season?
As you can see that we ‘ve started early, because we know that we have challenges.
Challenges in the sense that it was at the peak of last season, as an assistant coach that my TA left.
After the season, I retained 27 players. Even at that people were criticising that 27 players were too much. But I believed in continuity.
My notion was that we can continue with those players and inject few ones to strengthen the team. That was my thought.
But, unfortunately, 17 players left and we are left with 10 players now.
It means I have to start all over. That is why I said it’s going to be a serious challenge. We have a big task ahead of us, but we can overcome it within a short period.
Our top priority is to get the team back at the Nigerian Professional Football League next season. That is our target.
We ‘ve started our screening and have made it an open one. We ’ll give our home based boys who feel they can showcase their talent a chance. And that is what we are doing now.
We have not gotten our full team for now. Like I said, we have only 10 players on ground and that shows we have a very long way to go. That is the reason we ‘ve started on time to ensure we have formidable team.
The Goal cup will enable us the opportunity to test the players on ground and our readiness for the season.
Has there been any financial commitment on the part of the managements to buy players?
Exactly, the chairman and the management told me that we should try as much as possible to get any player from anywhere. They assured us that they were ready to buy.
Are there chance for home based players in your squad?
Yes, we’ll buy players outside the state at the same time we’ll give home based preference.
We have 24 Kwara born players on ground now, we ‘ll look for the ones that would be fit to join Kwara United.
Is there any relationship between Kwara United and the feeder team?
Presently, Kwara United doesn’t have feeder team. We only have the U-15 team that played La Liga cup. We have picked about 5 players among them and trying to see how they can be groomed into the senior team.
