Class of ‘94

The gradual entrenchment of Clemens Westerhof’s glorious bunch of Super Eagles in club and national team positions is perhaps the nearest comparison to proliferation of Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson’s former players in British football cycles. Assisted by successor, Johannes Bonfrere, Westerhof is credited with discovery and eventual welding of a gifted crop of home-based players into a fearsome unit appropriately judged fifth best by the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) in June 1994.

Many of the Dutch’s former wards appeared to have benefited from his man-management skills considering recent high-profile positions earned. Except for defender Uche Okafor whose death in the United States of America lately occasioned rancour, and top striker and team talisman Rashidi ‘Ye-king’ Yekini who approaches oblivion, all the others are managers, consultants, scouts or coaches at various levels of football development, at home and abroad.

Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, is today the most prominent member of the victorious Tunisia ‘94 and sensational USA ‘94 squad. Austin ‘Cerezo’ Eguavoen, thrice Eagles coach himself, and once assisted by ‘Sia One’ at the helm, is at the same time national Under-23 coach.

Both are in charge of the country’s quest for international glory at the highest levels of international football. Their appointment comes after a recent slump in football fortunes highlighted by the 2010 Africa Nations Cup and World Cup debacles as well as consecutive failure to qualify for the Nations Cup Championship for home-based players (CHAN).

Daniel Amokachi, erstwhile assistant Eagles coach and caretaker of the last home-based Eagles meltdown, is at present a popular analyst on South Africa cable sports channel, Supersports. ‘Da Bull’ is joined by Victor ‘The Prince of Monaco’ Ikpeba who has so far stayed away from coaching.

Ikpeba is a member of the Delta State FA along with Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha who is vice-chairman. The youngest member of the famous squad, Okocha is probably the most skillful player ever paraded in Nigeria’s green. He was also recently appointed into the Nigeria Football Federation Technical Committee.

Stephen Keshi – the squad’s long-time skipper – is perhaps the most accomplished Nigeria-born coach at senior level after taking the Sparrowhawks of Togo through a successful qualifying campaign for the Germany 2006 World Cup finals. Although he was sacked before the finals, not least because of acrimonious relationship with the players and team management, ‘The Big Boss’ managed to land another job with the Eagles of Mali but led them to a poor Angola 2010 Nations Cup outing. He is at the moment in his third stint with the Togolese.

For his presence in the coaching ranks of English Premier League side, Chelsea, Emenalo is quite an achiever. There was talk, at a time, of the Nigerian succeeding beleaguered gaffer Carlo Ancolotti, in near fulfillment of an amazing trajectory for the former defender and club scout.

Ezeugo, second-choice goalkeeper Alloy Agu, defender Benedict Iroha and winger Emmanuel Amuneke have also functioned as club coaches or deputies in the local league. Iroha is at present attached to the national Under-23 team as assistant coach while Agu assisted Shuaibu Amodu at the Eagles helm until recently.

Nicknamed ‘The Destroyer’, Ezeugo coached Churchill Brothers in India and assisted Siasia at Heartland of Owerri until recently. A well-known scout for Manchester United, Amuneke coached abroad as well before taking the reins of former club, Julius Berger, and afterwards, Ocean Boys.

An English FA- and UEFA-licenced coach, Efan Ekoku has since carved out a second career as top Barclays Premier League commentator and analyst while Finidi ‘Finito’ George and Sunday Oliseh were recently appointed into management positions at former clubs in Europe.

First-choice goalkeeper Peter Rufai returned to the country after a spell in Europe topped by a slew of academic degrees to undertake a football academy project similar to that handled by Okocha in partnership with a popular bank. ‘Dodo Mayana’ is also known for his work with budding goalkeepers in the country.

Mutiu ‘Headmaster’ Adepoju currently heads top league side 3SC as General Manager while Thompson ‘Midfield Driver’ Oliha is also a coach at local level. Less known for their latter career activities are Uche ‘Gentle Giant’ Okechukwu, Chidi Nwanu and third-choice ‘keeper, Wilfred Agbonavbare of the ‘Agbonavbasket’ fame.

Of the 22 players that attended the Tunisia ‘94 Nations Cup, Nduka Ugbade and Isaac Semitoje failed to make the USA ’94 World Cup, as they were dropped in favour of Ezeugo and Emenalo.

But why do the feats of one of Nigeria’s greatest national sides remain relevant? Because the team profited from good organisation as the Eagles’ first outing under Westerhof at the 1990 Africa Nations Cup finals in Algiers proved, according to Amokachi in an interview with a Ghanaian online magazine.

The good thing about our own generation of players was that we enjoyed football … Believe me, most of the players who went to Algiers in 1990 just went there to play football. Probably we didn’t know the magnitude of the championship. We were just local, home-based players enjoying the game.

First we went to Amsterdam for camping. In our first friendly match we trashed them like 8-1 and the man who owned the team and even Westerhof were shocked. Then the man said Ah we’ve not played the real team, we’ll have to play Ajax. We beat Ajax 2-1 on their own ground. Again, Westerhof was pleased at what he was producing but was still shocked. He still appeared not convinced. He said we’ll have to beat the two more top teams to convince him.

After all said and done, he took just two professionals from Europe (Andrew Uwe and Ademola Adeshina). The first game he put Andrew and Ademola we were beaten 5-1, so, he said they scattered his team and went back his normal way without them. From there we played up to the final.

So there, for general benefit, is an insight into the making of anexceptional squad. The path Siasia must take with his blend of local and foreign-based stars, and which the rest of us – critic and supporter – must highlight, is as clear-cut as FIFA’s latest ranking of today’s Eagles at 39th.