Category: Football

At dawn of March 13, 2023, the 'Field Marshall' died. The sound of messages bombarding my phone woke me up that morning. The first came from my former classmate and childhood friend, retired Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority, and...

Whatever happens in the ongoing national elections in Nigeria, I predict that the country will never be the same again. A new demography has joined the ongoing political ‘war’. This is an army of irrepressible young and educated people determined...

f Thompson Usiyen had not migrated to the USA when he did in 1976 but had waited to play during the last qualifier against Tunisia in 1977 for the 1978 World Cup, every Nigerian that knew the mercurial talent of...

Not for the first time, pictures of Peter ‘Apo’ Fregene in a truly pathetic state, looking like a 100-year-old man, unwell and dying, have inundated the information-superhighway. Fregene is a former Nigerian International goalkeeper. He kept goal for a few...

It has been one week since the end of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. World Cup finals have usually been drab. The fear of losing the final match makes coaches to be too tactical, and the players under the pressure...

Tomorrow, the 2022 FIFA World Cup comes to a beautiful end. I wish the better side on the night to win. Whilst we are waiting for that, I go back in time in order to catch up with the future...

Football is not described as ‘the Beautiful game’ for nothing. In Qatar, it has thrown up everything that is beautiful about the game – drama, shocks, suspense, surprises, tears (of joy and of defeat) and football of every hue, from...

I am watching the ongoing matches in Qatar but all I am thinking about is my country, Nigeria. As I am writing this, the last of the African teams, Ghana, just played their first match and lost against one of...

You may not know both names above but read this to the end. The 2022 FIFA World Cup starts in a week’s time. I am not going to Qatar.The reality of missing out on my 4-year football pilgrimage is just...

I call him ‘Youngest Millionaire’. It is a nickname that I gave him following our team’s success at the 1980 African Cup of Nations. We had received a lot of gifts that must have amounted to a tidy sum. Being...