BY KUNLE SOLAJA

The architect of the famed golden era of the Super Eagles, Clemens Westerhof, last six years ago made a sensational visit to Nigeria and hours later, was briefly a guest of editor-in-Chief of www.sportsvillagesquare.com at his Lagos home. 

The Dutch tactician, who clocked 74 during the visit, took the Super Eagles to their highest level of achievement till date.

Besides Nigeria’s winning the Africa Cup of Nations Cup for the first time outside the country’s shores, he is also the only coach of Nigeria to have achieved the top three levels of the competition – runners up at his first attempt at Algeria ’90 and second runners up at Senegal ’92 before achieving the ultimate at Tunisia ’94.

 He was the first coach to qualify Nigeria for the World Cup when the Super Eagles pulled a stunning 1-1 draw with Algeria in Algiers to win the triangular league that involved Cote d’Ivoire and Algeria.

Under him, Nigeria had their best position in the monthly FIFA ranking when the Super Eagles ranked fifth in April 1994. That was 26 years ago.

Westerhof, who came to Nigeria with a Dutch television crew to shoot a documentary on his exploits with the Super Eagles, believed an encore was in the offing.

He went into a little historical analysis to back his optimism.

In 1993, Nigeria won the U-17 World Cup in Asia and also qualified for the following year’s World Cup on the American continent.

In 2013 in Asia (Dubai), the Golden Eaglets were again victorious, while the Super Eagles got bound for the World Cup on the American continent, that time in Brazil.

“In the year of the World Cup, I won the Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria, before heading for the World Cup,” he recalled glowingly.

“I believe Keshi should attempt to do better than I did 20 years ago at the World Cup.

“This means he has to take his team beyond the second round. He must go to the quarterfinals and possibly get to the last four,” said Westerhof.

He was to repeat the same challenge two days later at the occasion of his 74th birthday when he met with Stephen Keshi and two of the other players that made his 23-man team to the historic World Cup in 1994.

The other two former players were Peter Rufai and Daniel Amokachi.

Hear Westerhof’s charge to the late Keshi: “You are just at my level if you just get to the next round after also becoming an African champion. You have to get to the quarterfinals to get better than me.

“I will be happier if you get to the last four,” he told Keshi. Two days earlier, he remarked that Keshi needed to build the right team with the right players and right combination.

He observed that Nigeria had more overseas players now than during his era two decades earlier. “In my days, they were about 10 or 12. Now they are in hundreds.

“If Keshi selects the right ones spread across Italy, Belgium, England and Germany and if he is able to make the right combination of the best, he will certainly make a big mark at the World Cup”, Westerhof remarked before Brazil 2014.

He defined the right players and combination as a set of players playing as a team and fighting for each other for results and not those playing individually for personal glory.

He looked forward to a tactically disciplined side that was devoid of distractions. He insisted that Keshi should be left alone to select his players.

“He is the boss. He decides who he wants to feature. He decides those in the right frame of mind to achieve his goal.

“He has qualified the team for the World Cup. He is a champion of Africa. So, he is the right man for the job,” remarked Westerhof.

He charged Keshi to take interest also in the off-field attitude of the players while in camp. He gave an example of how he had to take a seat by the elevator of the hotel camp of the Super Eagles in their last home game in the USA ’94 World Cup qualifying series.

“I sat all night to ensure that no player sneaked out. I did it because I wanted to win. And we won (against Cote d’Ivoire) 4-1. The players had rested and were in the right frame of mind.”