Nigerian Football
Ex-Nigerian International and Coach, Hamilton Dies
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Former Nigerian international and coach to different grades of Nigerian national teams, Paul Hamilton, is dead. He was aged, 75. The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, was one of the organisations and individuals that have been paying glowing tributes to the football icon who died on Thursday.
He was reportedly diagnosed of heart and kidney related health issues and weeks ago, had his right leg amputated.
In a press release, Dr. Sanusi Mohammed, NFF General Secretary, remarked: “We are in terrible shock. ‘Wonder boy’ Hamilton was a perfect gentleman in the real sense of the word, despite being a former international player for Nigeria and a Chief Coach of the senior national team.
“He worked very hard and with his whole heart for Nigeria in all spheres, as a player, a coach and as an administrator. The Nigeria football family will miss him dearly.”
Hamilton, who owing to his dribbling and ball juggling skills in his playing days, was popularly called “Wonder Boy.” He played in the inside right position.
Sports Village Square recalls that Hamilton’s first international cap for Nigeria was on a sour note – a 0-5 loss to Ghana in a 1963 semi final duel in West African competition for Kwame Nkrumah Cup.
But in the losers’ final, he scored a brace in a 4-0 defeat of Senegal. He remained a regular national team player up till the 1968 Mexico 1968 Olympic Games.
Paul Hamilton joined the defunct Lagos ECN from the famous Onitsha Redoubtable in 1962. With ECN, he won the Challenge Cup in 1965.
His last international match for Nigeria was against Senegal in an Olympic qualifying match played on April 18, 1971. Nigeria lost the match in Dakar, 1-2 and failed in the bid for Munich 1972 Olympics.
In Hamilton international career that spanned from 1963 to 1971, he had 24 caps and scored 11 goals.
After his active playing career, Hamilton took to coaching. He attended coaching courses at the Brazilian Football Academy and Hennef-West Germany for Trainers and Coaches.
He later became a national team coach and was at the verge of qualifying Nigeria for Italia ’90 World Cup before he was replaced by the Dutchman, Clemens Westerhof.
Before then, he was the head coach of the Nigeria U-20 squad that took the bronze medals at the FIFA World Youth Championship (now known as FIFA U20 World Cup) in the Soviet Union in 1985.
He was also the first head coach of the senior women national team, Super Falcons, and steered the team to the 1991 and 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup final competitions.
The Nigeria U17 women’s team has been given incentives to make it to the Women’s World Cup for the eighth time.
The team, Flamingos, who arrived in Algiers in the early hours of Wednesday aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, are highly inspired by the imminence of another FIFA World Cup ticket as well as further financial windfall from the Nigeria Football Federation and billionaire business mogul Kunle Soname.
Soname gifted the young players and their officials the sum of N4 million (one million naira for every goal) following their commanding win over the North Africans at the Remo Stars Stadium on Saturday, while the NFF gave out the sum of N2 million (five hundred thousand naira for every goal).
President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau and Soname have both confirmed that the same financial incentives are in place for the second leg in Blida on Friday.
“Our objective is clear – to win the FIFA World Cup ticket. That is the big motivation.
“Yet, we have been further incentivised by the monetary rewards. My girls will go all out on Friday night,” Head Coach Bankole Olowookere said.
Olowookere, who led the Flamingos to their last two World Cup ventures, will most likely rely on first-leg two-goal heroine Queen Joseph, lone-goal scorer Zainab Raji and Kaosarat Olanrewaju to start at the fore, with Shakirat Moshood, Muinat Rotimi and Philomena Isaiah supplying the passes from the midfield.
Goalkeeper and captain Christiana Uzoma and defenders Azeezat Oduntan, Hannah Ibrahim, Christiana Sunday and Jumai Adebayo are also likely to start.
The Confederation of African Football has selected Cameroonian official Marie Noelle Etong to be the referee, with her compatriots Marcelle Teikeu and Innocentia Ntangti as assistant referee 1 and fourth official, respectively, while Chadian Ngarassoum Victorine will be assistant referee 2.
Oumou Souleymane Kane from Mauritania will be the commissioner, and Sabelo Maphosa-Sibindi from Zimbabwe will be in the role of referee assessor.
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Former president of the initially 15-member West African Football Union (WAFU), Chief Jonathan Boytie Ogufere, has expressed his heartfelt condolences over the recent death of former national team captain and coach, Christian ‘Chairman’ Chukwu.
He remarked that the erstwhile Enugu Rangers’ defence stalwart will ‘be dearly missed’. In a personally signed letter of condolence, Ogufere described Chukwu, who died on Saturday, April 12, in Enugu after a brief illness at 74, as a ‘hero of our time and a friend’.
The nonagenarian recalled with nostalgia how he nearly recruited the young Chukwu for his P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu, adding he was impressed with how the ‘Field Marshal Christian Chukwuemeka ‘Chairman ‘ Chukwu (MFR), conducted himself throughout his career as he led both the national team, the then Green Eagles and his beloved Enugu Rangers to many conquests.
“I join numerous others to mourn the transition of the legendary Christian Chukwu, a hero of our time and friend,” the Ugbugba of Okpe Kingdom wrote.
“As one of the young academicals discovered after the end of the Civil War in 1970, I tried to enlist into my club, the P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu but he was fair and frank in informing me that he had already joined Enugu Ranges Football Club, and I respected that attitude. From the rivalries between the two clubs, his exploits as a central defender were very visible.”
He continued: “Christian Chukwu emerged at the national level as a trustworthy and formidable captain of the national team who led by example.
“He was one of the heroes during the Golden age of Nigerian football when I was one of the Board Members of the Nigeria Football Association under the chairmanship of Chief Sunday Dankaro as Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 for the first time where Christian Chukwu as captain of the Green Eagles was declared the best player of the tournament. He led the national team in several battles, which endeared him to millions of football lovers.
“After his playing days, he showed his talents through coaching in Nigeria and abroad.
“I express my sincere condolences to the family he left behind, the football family and the country in general. He will be dearly missed.
“May the good Lord grant his noble soul eternal rest,” he noted.
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Remo Stars are coasting to what will be their greatest moment ever, a win of the Nigeria Premier Football League title, as they recorded a 1-0 win over Shooting Stars in Ibadan in a match played behind closed doors.
In doing so, they achieved their sixth double of the season, having earlier beaten Shooting Stars in the first stanza of the league.
They maintained the seven-point lead over second-placed Rivers United, who also beat Sunshine Stars 1-0 in Port Harcourt.
After a ding-dong affair, Alex Oyowah scored the vital goal for Remo Stars from a right-wing cross from Ismail Sodiq.
In another match, Ikorodu City continued to work tenaciously to obtain a continental ticket as they held El Kanemi to a 1-1 draw.
SUNDAY RESULTS
- El Kanemi 1-1 Ikorodu City
- Niger Tornados 1-1 Bayelsa United
- Heartland 0-0 Kwara United
- Plateau United 1-0 Akwa United
- Rivers United 1-0 Sunshine Stars
- Shooting Stars 0-1 Remo Stars
- Bendel United 1-1 Nasarawa United
SATURDAY
- Katsina United 0-0 Abia Warriors
- Enyimba 2-1 Kano Pillars
- Lobi Stars 2-4 Enugu Rangers
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