| It took
until the mid of the 1970's until the population biggest country of Africa
emerged as a powerful football nation and it took until the 90's before
Nigeria finally became the considered superpower of African Football. But
will they stay top? Generations of journalists have been speculating on
the reasons why Nigerians, who make one fifth of the African population
and from early on a traditional footballing nation, seldom were able to
fulfil the expectations that arose from the talent and the richness of
the ressources of players.
The lack of consisteny
was always obvious. Nigeria is a difficult country to draw a blend of eleven
players from. 400 ethnics living in it with the background of four different
major language families and not only resources but again different religion
distributed in different patterns over the regions.
In the football mad
country which would have liked to be the Brazil of Africa and still wants
to become, thousand views and opinions clash and there has been no adminsitration
yet which has been able to establish long term success. The Nigerian league
football has won the African Cup Of Champions not a single time in 38 years.
But since Nigerian
talents become stars in Europe, the leap at the top has been made possible.
With Finidi George and Nwanko Kanu two winners of the European Champions
League are backbones of the squad, together with the likes of Sunday Oliseh,
Taribo West, and Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha.
Although names are
familiar, Finidi George should be by far the oldest player on the team
and several young names have already gathered remarkable experience like
Celestine Babayaro, Julius Aghahowa, or Victor Agali. More young blood
like Joseph Yobo have been integrated without a lot of noise, only in midfield
the same group of players seem unchallenged.
The weakest spot seems
the goalkeeper position, as number one Ike Shoronmu is seeking a club and
lacks match pratice and his replacements play for low profile clubs from
Malta and Egypt.
Nigeria arrive with
a Nigerian coach Amodu Shaibu, a high profile local coach who has achieved
to break the tradition of hiring European names for the post. He will be
on trial: a disappointing Nations Cup and he probably will not be given
the chance to learn from mistakes with the World Cup ahead.
The group Nigeria has
been drawn into seems relatively easy, exactly right for Nigeria who are
expected to start slowly and find better form throughout the tournament
as they seemed to do two years
ago, when they finished runners-up after a dramatic final with Cameroon.
The third one they lost to the Indomitable Lions after 1984 and 1988.
But Nigeria have their
problems against small names - the World Cup qualification almost slipped
through their hands after losing to Sierra Leone and Liberia... |
