BY FOLAKE OKEGBENLE

The new book on Super Eagles has started to get acclaims even before it hits the shelves. The book is aptly titled “Super Eagles @ 70…Soaring On the Wings”. It captures the evolution of the team, which will hit a major milestone on June 26, the 70^th anniversary of when Nigeria first composed a national football team.

Coincidentally, www.sportsvillagesquare.com recalls, it is on that date that Nigeria will play its most challenging 2019 Africa Cup of Nations’ most challenging group match against Guinea.

The NFF President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, whose regime also has the honour of marking the country’s football governing body’s 60^th anniversary of affiliation to FIFA on April 22, is excited at the unfolding events.

He has asked Nigerians and citizens of the world to join in celebrating the NFF and the Super Eagles as they mark major milestones.

In a video trailer heralding the coming of the book, he looked back at the days of the bare-footed and famed UK Tourists to the era of the ‘Red Devils’ and that of the glorious ‘Green Eagles’ to that of soul-lifting ‘Super Eagles’ and summed up that “we have reasons to celebrate.”

“Written in lucid and infographic manner, virtually all that is needed about the Super Eagles is encapsulated in one package

“It is written by Kunle Solaja, the only journalist in Africa to have covered eight consecutive World Cup finals from 1990 to 2018, and with great prospects of covering more – A 28-year adventure at the zenith of global football.

“He is consequently the most imbued with the depth of information regarding the Super Eagles’ adventures at the six World Cup finals that the team has featured in.

“He watched every minute of the 21 World Cup matches the Super Eagles played from USA ’94 to Russia 2018. A multiple award winner, Solaja had written two other books on related subject matter – Super Eagles…Through the Ages (2010) and Going For Goals (2014)”

Consequently, the NFF partnered with the Nigeria’s foremost football diarist, Kunle Solaja, to produce a compendium on the Super Eagles. The milestone book is due for public unveiling later this June, before the Africa Cup of Nations’ kick-off.

Stakeholders in Nigerian football have been very generous in their preview of the book. Seyi Akinwunmi, a lawyer and 1^st Vice President of the NFF remarked:

“Kunle Solaja, a foremost Nigerian football historian has given me the privilege of having a preview of his latest piece of work titled “Super Eagles@70…Soaring On The Wings” 

“I have never doubted the quality of his research nor the authenticity of his assertions on our football history, but from my sneak preview I can confidently say that the quality of this current work surpassed my high expectations.”

Akinwunmi is not alone. Patrick Ekeji, the only Nigerian sports personality to have had roles in all sphere of football as a player for both clubs and national teams, as a coach for both clubs and national team, as a teacher of coaches at the National Institute of Sports and as an administrator who rose from stat sports council and climbed through the rungs to become Nigeria’s Director General of Sports, also commented on the latest work of the author.

“Kunle Solaja has obsession for record keeping. He is a human data bank on Nigerian sports. No one else can better chronicle the Nigeria national team which I also played roles in.”

His words are further corroborated by easily Nigeria’s most charismatic footballer of all time, Segun Odegbami. “If anyone can do justice to the delicate subject of chronicling the Super Eagles, Kunle Solaja’s name would pop up first. His eyes for detail and authenticity are unequalled in our ‘football planet’.

Sports and Communication entrepreneur, Dr. Larry Izamoje who established Africa’s first all-sports radio station, the famous Brila Radio remarked:

“With decades of successful media practice, the author stands out as a first grade sports statistician .A meticulous researcher, he presents a riveting excursion on Nigeria’s most celebrated team in his uniquely captivating way.”

Another football legend, Dr. Felix Owolabi whose solitary goal against Morocco paved the way for Nigeria’s first ever qualification for an Africa Cup of Nations’ final match and the attendant eventual victory, prayed that the author’s sacrificial effortsin the front burner of reportage in Nigeria football coverage will not go unnoticed.

Journalist and marketing expert, Muyiwa Akintunde remarked in similar way. “KS (King of Soccer-journalism) is at it again! The serial author of historical accounts of Nigerian football is set to launch his new work.

“Excellence is his watchword. And this particular one to mark an epoch for Nigerian football and its administration is not going to be different.”