The
Rise of the Super Eagles
Rashidi Yekini finally
becomes Superstar and noticed in the rest of the world
It was 1994 and the
Nations Cup took place at Tunisia. Nigeria had qualified for the World
Cup 1994 and Rashidi Yekini had been elected African Footballer of the
year 1993. Team selections had been discussed but Dutch coach Clemence
Westerhof had been succesful with Nigeria like almost no other coach before
and after he had been trying out more than a hundred players during his
four year period his picks had been 22 players of almost equal qualities
and he even had had to leave out some more. A lot of Nigerians had started
to establish themselves in European leagues because of the success of the
Nigerian youth program. Many had drawn the attention of European scouts
on Nigerian potential when Nigeria became U16 world champions 1985, runners-up
1987, and only knocked out after penalties without conceding a goal in
the tournament of 1989. They had won the U17 WorldCup, the biannual successor
of the biannual U16 World Cup in 1993 and the streak of top level youth
performances had opened the gate for many Nigerian players from a country
that had been ignored before by European eyes for two reasons: First of
all Nigeria is not part of Francophone Africa and so lacks the access to
the more open to Africa minded leagues in France and Belgium and second
they had not been successful on senior level in the time when African footballers
had begun to become accepted in leagues such as the German Bundesliga.
But despite severe
economical problems there had been some money (wasted) because of the oil
program and some Nigerian players had been able to travel abroad and offer
themselves such as Augustine 'Jay Jay' Okocha, who became a star player
at Eintracht Frankfurt later. So the Nigerian squad was a selcetion of
European based players that enjoyed to come together and celebrate their
football. In the same time it was a bunch of competitors for spotlight
places guaranteeing a market price increase and it was not a unit as later
in the 1996 Olympics.
But there was one player
above all: Rashidi Yekini. The 30 year old muslim among christians had
not had the career he had deserved, judged only by the club names on his
career list. He already had displayed his qualities in the finals of the
Nations Cups before, but Nigeria had not won it. This time there was no
doubt left this team was a favorite, after they displayed their abilities
in the opening match.
It was 'only' Gabon
they played against, a newcomer on this level, but the way Nigeria won
it, demonstrated class. Controlling and dominating the entire game in medium
tempo, and suddenly exploding with style. Germans know this way of playing
from dominators Bayern Munich in the early seventies. And the goals of
Rashidi Yekini had been irresistible. An elegant receprion, followed by
a lob over the keeper and a header into the goal and a freekick that could
have distroyed the goal itself and precisly into the triangle the same
time. Those two goals alone demonstrated the completeness of the Nigerian
forward. The match was 3:0, featuring another goal by Mutiu Adepoju.
It was a three teams
group and two would advance. After Egypt had thrashed Gabon 4:0 it was
already clear, both had qualified for the quarter finals before their encounter.
So Nigeria played their controlled game and Egypt did not do much as well,
so the match resulted in a 0:0. Nigeria was ready for the quarter finals.
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