International Football
LEAVING NIGERIA WAS MY BIGGEST MISTAKE SAYS WESTERHOF
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.”
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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