It was simply a night of glitz where the stars on the African Continent twinkled brightest as the world shared in the glamour of the 2013 CAF African Footballer of the year awards held last Thursday, January 9, 2014 at the Convention Centre of the Eko Hotel in Lagos.
The awards capped a wonderful year in which Nigerian football stood out at the helm making global headlines a significant fact to the renaissance of the beautiful game back home.
It was a night every Nigerian stood tall as the country’s football stars kept sweeping on a night Africa’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) Alhaji Issa Hayaton and other stakeholders toasted to the warmth, success of Africa’s prowess in football at the global stage and the acknowledgement of Nigeria as the arrow of the continent especially as we look forward to the World Cup starting on June 12, 2014 in Brazil where Nigeria leads the pack of other African representatives to the mundial.
The grand show anchored by former Super Eagles midfielder Sunday Oliseh whose dexterity in French and English was widely applauded saw the Super Eagles win the National Team of the year beating Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.
The Super Eagles have had a glorious 2013 winning the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa early last year, qualified for the World Cup and played at the Confederations Cup last summer where they thrashed Tahiti 6-1 in one of the group matches.
Under Coach Stephen Keshi, the Super Eagles have come to be reckoned as a major under dog threat at the World Cup as he has brought back the glory days to the National team with a bunch of young players who have shown determination and commitment to succeed for the country. The award was received by the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Aminu Maigari.
The Golden Eaglets also made history on the night of legends as they won the youth team of the year. The exploits of the Coach Many Garba led side at the FIFA Under 17- World Cup last year in the United Arab Emirates left no one in doubt as the Eaglets left no one in doubt from their first game that they were in the middle East country to make history like their counterpart in 1985, 1993, 2007.
The Nigerian supporters club led by the President General Dr. Rafiu Ladipo left no one in doubt when they picked up the CAF Fair play award.
The drumming magic of the supporters club, coordination and ceaseless support all through matches played vital roles in Nigerian’s dominance at the Nations Cup and FIFA Under 17 World Cup last year where members and Nigerians were mobilized to cheer the national teams to victory coupled with their colourful attire, drum beats and blaring trumpets which makes them outstanding at any match venue.
For Coach Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, his award as the Best coach on the continent crowns a glorious year for perhaps Nigeria’s most vilified manager.
Despite the scathing criticisms to Keshi’s tactics and approach to matches, the Big Boss has continued to churn out results which have given the country a propelling image globally.
Keshi’s reign as national coach has instilled discipline into the national team to the detriment of the sidelining of the team’s captain Joseph Yobo and goal scorers Osaze Odemwingie and Ike Uche.
Despite appeals by millions of soccer fans for Keshi to recall some of his experience players, he has kept faith with the new set of players, given the home based players and overwhelming exposure at the Nations Cup, Confederations Cup, World Cup qualifying games and high profile friendly games including the draws against Italy.
Keshi has given much confidence to the players in the local league as the believe resonates that their place in the national team can be achieved on merit despite the limitations of exposure, quality facilities and poor management of clubsides in the country plus a lack luster league fast dwindling in appeal.
Keshi’s award has silenced his critics including yours sincerely even as we await another success story as the team berths in South Africa for the CHAN 2014 for home based players on the continent as Nigeria remains the favourite and the World Cup where the country is in Group F alongside Iran, Bosnia and Argentina.
For Kelechi Iheanacho, when he left with the Golden Eaglets for the United Arab Emirates for the FIFA Under 17 World Cup, he was not rated by soccer pundits as the star to watch at the tournament as Isaac Promise was the star attraction and focus of the team.
However, fate favoured Kelechi whose midfield exploits at the Under 17 World Cup saw him win the most valuable player of the tournament and the silver boot.
Today, he has emerged the most promising talent on the continent.
Indeed, the future backons on this youngster who would have been on the flight to South Africa to display his skills with the senior national team CHAN 2014, but for his pursuit for a career in Europe in Manchester City which is yet to materialize.
One hopes, that this bundle of talent would not be misled to take unfortunate decisions that could kill his talents just for economic reasons.
The boy still needs to grow and the CHAN tournament would have been a great platform to watch his subline skills.
Africa Eleven best players included three Nigerians – Vincent Enyeama (Goalkeeper), John Obi Mikel (Midfield) and Emmanuel Emenike (Striker), with Stephen Keshi as the Coach of Africa’s best. Another wonderful feat.
For President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the Platform Award bestowed on him is a confirmation of the fact that he is tenure has ushered successes in Nigerian football.
President Jonathan’s commitment to Nigerian football remains outstanding especially when Nigeria failed to fly at South Africa 2010 where the decision to withdraw the country from all FIFA related activities for two years was almost made.
Today, that charge has changed the fortunes of Nigerian football.
The President has visited the Super Eagles in their training camp at the National Stadium Abuja preparatory to a World Cup qualifier, visited the team in the Addis Ababa in the first leg of the final qualifier, rewarded the various national team for their feats and remains committed to another excellent sporting year ahead of CHAN 2014 and the World Cup.
For Mikel Obi, the Chelsea stalwart who helped Nigeria win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa, and also featured in Chelsea’s Europa League win last year, he remains our pride even as the eventual winner Yaya Toure in his speech stated “Mikel also deserves to win the award”. As we savour the successes of a glorious 2013, we look forward to higher standards of display by our national team.
The biggest showpiece takes place in less than six months as Africa’s hope lies with Nigeria as we begin the preparations.
Everything is possible and we can achieve it.
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