Freebase Data Dumps. Turkish Wikipedia. Munzinger Sport number. Olympedia people ID. Scoresway soccer person ID. Soccerbase player ID. Soccerway player ID. Trading Card Database person ID. Twitter username. Wikipedia 45 entries edit. Wikibooks 0 entries edit. Wikinews 0 entries edit. Wikiquote 0 entries edit. He also says that Nigeria has players in the top five European leagues that can win the African Footballer of the Year title.
Kanu, who said the Super Eagles could qualify for the World Cup and excel at the tournament, noted Nigeria has the quality to take the world by storm in Qatar, adding, however, that the coaches, led by Gernot Rohr must work hard to build a strong team. Look at where they are all playing… they are doing very well.
They can do more than what they are currently doing. Currently, if you mention the first four players in Africa, Nigerian players are there. Now, Osimhen is scoring goals in the Italian league. You can help your family if you are successful and that is a great thing to be able to do.
Few could have expected just what a far reaching decision that would prove to be, least of all the players in the Nigerian squad.
We knew we were a good team and we had good players but we were going to play against many nations who we know have great talent, who had won tournaments in the past, so it was very new. But all the way along, we saw ourselves progressing and progressing.
Kanu progressed perhaps quickest of all, lighting up the tournament with some virtuoso football that carried his side further and further on through the competition. This was a big step for Nigerian football and for the players in the team too.
Everybody knows about us from then, about the country and about the players too. We knew then that we could do it, that we were good footballers, we had a lot of belief in ourselves from there. We had achieved something and we were free to move on with our lives after that.
And because we had done that, a lot of big teams had come to see us there and they were knocking on the doors for us, the market was open to us after that and many of the players went on to play in Europe, like myself. In youth football, we were very strong. But then, as African countries did well in youth competitions every time, the European clubs started to take notice and started to take the players out of the country.
For Kanu, that Under World Cup win was a turning point in his life. All I did was to go to the under tournament with Nigeria and the only thing in mind is to win the competition, to do as well as we can as a team. But then suddenly, a lot of clubs from Belgium, from France, come knocking for me, but I was waiting to make up my mind, then Ajax come along. I already knew a lot about them, I knew that they were a very good club for kids, for their youth team, that they produce many good players.
It was a place where you can learn, where you can get educated well in football, they have good technical programmes and so it was easy for me to choose to go to Ajax. It was not easy at the beginning because so many things are different from home.
So it was difficult, but I loved the football and the chance to play there, I was quick to make friends, the club really did help and the players did as well and after a little time, it was much easier, I was very happy there. But he was quick to put that disappointment behind him the following season as he played a full part in helping Ajax retain the Dutch title. The Champions League is a big thing, and as a very young team, that was a great dream for us, but like with Nigeria, we did not really know how good we were, or whether we could win.
But we got through round by round and suddenly we were in the final to play against Milan after beating Bayern Munich. When we got there, we believed in ourselves, we were not frightened and we thought we would win the game, and we did. I am very proud of what we managed to do at Ajax.
Success on the domestic level meant that Kanu had put himself back in the thoughts of the Nigerian national selectors and, when the time came to select the team to contest the Olympic Games in Atlanta in , not only was Kanu in the squad, he was its captain.
But for the rest of the world, this was a tournament that ranked only a little short of the World Cup itself, and one that was treated very seriously, not least by the South Americans who sent very powerful sides to contest the competition. After sweeping aside both Hungary and Japan, Nigeria found themselves pitted against Brazil in the semi-final.
That was the cue for Kanu to turn on the style, tormenting the Brazilian defence, helping create a goal from Ikpeba after 78 minutes. With time running out, with virtually the last kick of the game, Kanu struck to send matters into sudden death extra-time.
Four minutes later, Kanu came away with the golden goal and a place in the Olympic Final. If I stop football tomorrow, all my life I will be able to remember that moment, I will never forget it.
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