Nigerian Football
Peter Rufai, MKO Abiola’s birthday mate clocks 60 today
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Former Nigeria captain and goalkeeper, Peter Rufai has joined the Diamond Jubilee Club as he clocks 60 years today.
Coincidentally, he shares the 24 August birthday with Africa’s greatest ever known philanthropist, Bashorun MKO Abiola who would have been 86 today if he were alive.
Rufai will be marking his 60th birthday anniversary in a couple of day’s time and the highpoint of it will be the unveiling of a book on the Nigerian football legend.
It is written by famous Nigerian sports journalist and academician, Dr. Mumini Alao.
The power-packed programme is slated for the first week of September.
Easily the most flamboyant Nigerian national team goalkeeper and perhaps the first to venture abroad, Rufai was a trojan at the goal post.
With 62 international appearances for Nigeria, he established himself as a fine successor to Emmanuel Okala and Best Ogedegbe.
He ranked close to Muda Lawal, Austin Okocha and Stephen Keshi in the number of appearances for the national team.
Rufai was a creative goalkeeper whose sharp reflexes and long reach enabled him to make difficult saves.
Peter Rufai (r) as Nigeria’s skipper at the USA ‘94 World Cup meets the legendary Diego Maradona in pre match formality ahead of their Group D clash in Foxboro.
His major attribute lay in his ability to stop penalty kicks. In 1981 when he had his first international experience with Super Stores in the African Winners’ Cup, Rufai was instrumental to the club’s saves against A.S. Benghazi in Tripoli, CAPS United of Zimbabwe in Lagos and Union Sportive of Douala in Yaoundé.
Some of his most spectacular saves were in 1983 at Rabat, Morocco. Rufai saved two penalty kicks to give Nigeria a 5-3 win in the last qualifying match for 1984 Africa Cup of Nations.
It was that game that shot him into international prominence. His other penalty saves were in the 1984 Africa Cup of Nations against Egypt, 1988 Africa Cup of Nations match against Algeria and in 1994 against Cote d’Ivoire. All were semi-final matches.
One of his greatest disappointments in the national team was a 1985 World Cup-tie against Tunisia in Tunis. Rufai kept a clean slate in Lagos where Nigeria managed a 1-0 win. Back in Tunis, the North Africans nullified the goal in 30 minutes.
Peter Rufai could not understand what happened on the fateful night of 20 July 1985.
He was no doubt badly protected by his defenders. Rufai clad in his famous yellow shirt and black trousers almost shouted himself hoarse.
His worst outing was at the France ’98 World Cup where he was a last minute inclusion into the Nigerian team. No doubt, the goalkeeper was the weak link of the disorganised Nigerian defence.
But Peter Rufai had his excuses. He said that he was compelled to join the Nigerian squad despite not being prepared mentally and physically for the tournament.
When the 1997/98 season was finishing, Rufai said he was planning to go on holiday in Cuba and had stayed out late at a disco party before he got his call up to the national squad. At France ’98, Rufai came under heavy criticism following Nigeria’s 4-1 loss to Denmark. It was the heaviest tally Rufai conceded in any full international.
As a goalkeeper, he scored a goal for Nigeria when he converted a penalty for the Super Eagles in a 6-0 defeat of Ethiopia during the last qualifying game for Tunisia ’94 Africa Cup of Nations.
He became the first Nigerian goalkeeper abroad when he crossed the border to guide the goal post for Dragon FC of Republic of Benin in 1986.
Two years earlier, he left Stationery Stores after four seasons with the club to join a less-fancied Femo Scorpions in a rural town of Eruwa. After four years in Benin Republic, Rufai joined the Belgium trek and signed for Lokeren in the 1989/90 season.
He featured for a couple of clubs in Europe, among which are Beveren (Belgium), Go Ahead Eagles (Holland), Farense (Portugal), Hercules (Spain), Deportivo La Coruña (Spain) and Gil Vicente (Portugal). His most successful spell was with the Portuguese team, Farense.
His spectacular form in the club made Rufai to be acknowledged as the best goalkeeper in Portugal. He was with the club for two seasons and started in 26 matches in the 1994/95 season. In the following season he featured in 23 games for the Portuguese club before joining the Spanish side, Hercules and then Deportivo La Coruña in the 1997/98 season.
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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