It would be correct to say that winning is everything but it is also not incorrect to say that winning is not everything. If the Super Eagles had won the AFCON trophy last Sunday we would have broken into song and dance in a spirit-lifting excitement. In a country where the spirit of most Nigerians has been driven down by hunger and poverty and the roof-top cost of food and drugs we would have been temporarily happy that there was at least one thing to cheer about.
But the Super Eagles, gallant warriors, did not bring the trophy home. It is the Elephants of Ivory Coast, the hosting country, that did. They got a good prize for hosting a good tournament and giving a good account of themselves on the field of play.
From being one of the four best losers in the group stage they gallantly marched to the podium of success. They were considered dead but they woke up like Lazarus and performed the miracle of the AFCON 2023. They deserve our fulsome praise.
Our Super Eagles have won the tournament three times in 1980, 1994 and 2013. We were hoping that they would make us happy with a fourth trophy. They too wanted it badly and adopted the slogan “Let’s do it again.” They fell just a few inches short of breasting the tape of victory. But they acquitted themselves creditably considering where they were coming from.
In Cameroon two years ago, the Super Eagles made a shocking exit in the second round of AFCON. Nigerians cried. The Super Eagles also failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Nigerians cried. As the Super Eagles went into this year’s AFCON Nigerians thought they would cry again.
The former coach, Gernot Rohr, had led the Super Eagles to a bronze medal finish at Egypt 2019 and Nigerians thought that was not good enough. We clamoured for him to be sacked and he was sacked. A new coach, a Portuguese, called Jose Peseiro was appointed. Going into the tournament, his record was not spirit lifting. He had handled 20 matches out of which he won nine, lost seven and drew four. Among the losses was one at home in Abuja to Minnows of Guinea Bissau, a no-name in African football.
The main problem with the team was basically the defence that was leaking like water in a basket. We definitely had a goal keeping problem. The coach was bitingly attacked and many football lovers asked for him to be shown the exit door. He wasn’t shown the exit door but he knew that the exit door was only kept ajar. He accepted a pay cut and stayed on.
He also knew that he had a great gathering of stars, especially the shooters, professionally called attackers but his defence was wobbly and he needed to tighten the defence and also to find a goalkeeper that would prevent the ball, including cheap ones, from rolling leisurely into the net.
In this country, we have had great shot stoppers in the past, gallant men like Emmanuel Okala, Peter Rufai and Vincent Enyeama. They belong to the Hall of Legends. But Nigerians were sure that this big country was capable of producing such great men again if a careful combing was conducted.
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We did not know that the coach had gone to South Africa to observe the goalkeeping heroics of a Nigerian plying his trade there. He brought a man named Stanley Nwabali and put him between the sticks. We did not know what to expect, but we hoped for the best. But he soon won us over to his side when he presided over the early matches with Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea.
He showed confidence and exceptional skills in the crucial matches against the tough tackling Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and the very tactical Bafana Bafana team from South Africa. In the semi-final match against Bafana Bafana, he saved two penalty kicks during the penalty shoo-tout. It was no surprise when he was named man of the match. Now we have a goalkeeper, whose fingers are almost like aradite, they gum the ball. Now the Super Eagles have solved their goalkeeping problem.
Also, the coach seems to have solved the leakages at the back by adopting throughout the tournament a fluid five-man defensive formation that worked for the team. Apart from Nwabali who has established his place as a great keeper of the gate, there were other revelations at the tournament.
Two players,Osimhen and Ekong, were everywhere, roving from defence to attack and from attack to defence throughout the tournament. Their everywhereness was an inspirational confidence booster for the team and that was what took the team to the final spot.
Then, there was Ademola Lookman who established his reputation as a clinical finisher. That goal he scored against South Africa was a classic. He also proved that he is a potential dead ball expert who could bend it like Beckham and curve it like Okocha. There was also Moses Simon, master dribbler, master passer who, with time and tinkering, will become the new Okocha.
Then there was Kelechi Iheanachor, who didn’t have much playing time due to injury. But when he was introduced in the match with South Africa, he took the decisive kick in the penalty shoot-out and gave Nigeria victory. Iheanachor’s kick was as short as a miniskirt but went a long way in giving us victory.
This year’s AFCON was full of upsets either as evidence of football’s unpredictable character or as evidence of the growth of football in countries that were hitherto minnows. Morocco, semi-finalists in last year’s World Cup in Qatar, did not get to the final of AFCON. Senegal that came to defend its trophy and to take it back home again did not even reach the final. Other football titans such as Ghana, Tunisia, Egypt, Cameroon and Algeria fell by the way side.
My takeaway is that football is growing in most parts of Africa. That means that the battles in future contests will be fiercer than they are now. That should be a source of pleasure to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and to the lovers of football in the continent.
From this tournament, it is obvious that the Super Eagles have gallantly escaped from being derided as a failure. The Eagles did not win this year’s AFCON but they were not a failure. They were super in attack, excellent in defence and exquisite in midfield.
We must salute the coach for giving us a new Super Eagles that we can be proud of. As I said at the beginning of this epistle winning is not everything. Discovering our strength as we have done in Ivory Coast could be everything. That discovery can lead us to winning in future.
The credit for this must go to Coach Peseiro and his staff. This is the same team that was always criticised for being loose like a wayward lady. It is now as compact as a tightfittingjeans and it is that compactness that took the team to the final of this year’s AFCON. We are therefore in a good place now.
But it is a shame that for many years now, non-payment of allowances to players and salaries to staff has been the equivalent of a recurring decimal. Why? Why can’t we run our football, a money-spinning enterprise, the way it is run in other jurisdictions? Why? We only rushed to pay the allowances and salaries as we were going for the tournament in Ivory Coast.
Why? With our second place winning, we are going to collect $4 million from CAF. We must use the money wisely after paying part of it to our gallant players. It seems that money management is a major problem for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). There have been stories of corruption in the past in the management of the enormous resources that accrue to the football federation from multiple sources.
If these ugly stories persist and gain traction, it will be difficult for the federation to get support from organisations that would want to see accountability and transparency in the management of the NFF’s funds. It is in the association’s interest to prove that it is doing its business in a transparent and accountable fashion.
The way it manages its business reflects on the well-being or otherwise of the Super Eagles, Super Falcons and the other teams under its watch. The new management under Ibrahim Musa Gusau must do things differently from the way his predecessors were running our football if he wants to succeed. I am sure he wants to succeed.
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