1.0Mathematical 7https://mathematical7.com/m7rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="w5xcC5Scay"><a href="https://mathematical7.com/m7/chief-justice-adokie-happy-60th/">Chief Justice Adokie – happy 60th!</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://mathematical7.com/m7/chief-justice-adokie-happy-60th/embed/#?secret=w5xcC5Scay" width="600" height="338" title="“Chief Justice Adokie – happy 60th!” — Mathematical 7" data-secret="w5xcC5Scay" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); //# sourceURL=https://mathematical7.com/m7/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js /* ]]> */ </script> https://mathematical7.com/m7/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Adokiye-Amiesimaka.jpg371336I have never celebrated any footballer's birthday on this page. This would be a first and for a very special reason. It is a useful reminder of our mortality and how time flies! Time has crept in like a thief in the dark of night. How can the CJ be 60? That’s the age people start to be referred to as ‘old’. And CJ can never be ‘old’ in my eyes. By CJ I am referring to one of Nigeria's most celebrated and most cerebral of footballers in the country's history. 'CJ' is the acronym for 'Chief Justice' the nickname given to Adokie Amiesimaka by Ernest Okonkwo, the late Nigerian radio commentator whose commentaries in the 1970s and 1980s gave life to many a game and nicknames to the more celebrated amongst the players that became their eternal identities - Chairman, Mathematical, Blockbuster,Tallest, Chief Justice, and so on. Every time I see Adokie he looks exactly the way I first saw him, almost strolling into the camp of the national team to step into the shoes left behind by Africa’s best winger at the time, Kunle Awesu, who had just emigrated to the United States after being a part of establishing Nigeria as an emerging African football power at the African Cup of Nations in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Anyone that would step into Awesu’s shoes would have to have been 'huge', not this fine looking ‘small’ boy, an undergraduate student in the University of Lagos, who came into the national team without even the least fear of being in the company of famous legendary football, nor any fanfare to herald a new genius into the fold. To everyone’s consternation, this fledgeling started to rattle, dazzle and mesmerize from day one. Here was a player way ahead of the rest of his generation and of even the global game at that time - playing in the mid-1970s what the world has now adopted as one of the great revolutions of modern day football – a left-footed player playing on the right side of attack, and a right-footed player doing the same on the left. That’s what the world’s current best players have been doing lately and succeeding – Messi on the right, and Ronaldo and Neymar on the left. So, let it be recorded that it started with Adokie Amiesimaka in Nigeria’s national team in 1977/78!