Nigerian Football
Super Eagles’ most successful coach, Westerhof set to open up on his Nigeria adventure 35 years after contract signing
BY KUNLE SOLAJA, ALMERE, NETHERLANDS
This Thursday 15 August holds great significance in Nigeria’s football history. It is on this day 35 years ago that Dutchman, Clemens Westerhof signed a contract to handle the Nigerian lead football product, Super Eagles.
He took the team from just being a medium football power in the continent, he made it the fifth ranked in FIFA ranking as at the time he parted ways with Nigeria.
Thirty years and a month since he left in July 1994, no other coach has been able to take Nigeria to that enviable height.
He was an apostle of grooming home-based player into stardom. There are many of such. From Daniel Amokachi of Ranchers Bees to Finidi George of Calabar Rovers and Uche Okechukwu of Flash Flamingos and Iwuanyanwu Nationale, the list is unending. He assisted in establishing the Kwara Football Academy.
From the domestic scene, most of the players found themselves getting lucrative offers abroad where they flourished and added values to the Super Eagles qualifying for the World Cup for the first time ever, becoming the first Anglophone African team at the World Cup and the first African team to get to the next round as debutants at the World Cup.
Super Eagles under Westerhof also won their first title outside the home shores when they clinched the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia in 1994.
Building a national team with home-grown talents is a task all the successors to Westerhof have failed to do as they depend mainly on sourcing players abroad while neglecting the development of the game in the country.
He took largely home based players to the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations and still played the final match, losing 1-0 to Algeria.
In doing so, he worked on the psychology of a team that had an initial set back of 5-1 defeat in their opening match.
In Westerhof’s 21squad were 18 players from the Nigerian domestic league.
The trio playing abroad were: Rashidi Yekini (Africa Sports, Cote d’Ivoire), Andrew Uwe (K.S.V. Roeselare, Belgium) and Friday Elahor (Brøndby IF, Denmark).
The preponderance of home-based players was precipitated by refusal of the top foreign players to come to camp.
No other Super Eagles’ coach had taken such risk. Until Sunday 15 August 2021, Westerhof was the coach with the longest single or combined tenure with the Nigerian national team.
It took 32 years since he left in 1994 for his record of longevity to be broken by Gernot Rohr. Westerhof spent 1,787 days on the saddle before he walked away on 6 July 1994.
He was therefore Nigeria’s coach for four years, 10 months and 22 days.
Now 82 years old and spending a quiet time in Arnhem, a city situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border, Westerhof has consented to speak with Sports Village Square on his adventure in Nigeria and thereafter. Stay tuned.
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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