naptu2:
1985. The Golden Eaglets won the Fifa/JVC World Under 16 Championship (Nigeria's first victory in a Fifa competition). I went to watch the victory parade.

Nduka Ugbade held the trophy like his life depended on it! They arrived MMIA and drove through Yaba, Third Mainland Bridge, Obalende, Ikoyi, Marina onward to the National Stadium for a grand reception.

When I saw them, there was first a long line of motorcycles (I wonder where they came from, since there were no okada in Lagos at this time), then police vehicles and then the bus. Ugbade was sitting in front holding the trophy tightly.

I went back home to watch the proceedings on tv and all through, from the National Stadium to State House Marina (where Buhari received the team) Ugbade was holding on to the trophy like his life depended on it.

naptu2:
We've finally broken the jinx (and created the second exception). Usually whenever we win the cup we end up coming second in the next edition of the tournament.

I remember that I stayed up to watch the final against Germany in 1985. I also saw the victory parade. I followed them through Obalende Road, Keffi Street and Awolowo Road. Lots of motorcycles appeared from nowhere (remember that there were no motorcycle taxis/okada at that time). The players were in a huge green and white bus. Ugbade was holding the trophy on the front seat of the bus. There were lots of policemen around them (someone joked that they didn't want anybody to steal the trophy).

We got to the final of Canada '87 and Babangida sent a presidential delegation to cheer the team. It was led by Admiral Aikhomu and Old Man was on the delegation. We lost to Russia. We teased Old Man endlessly at home. We said that he brought bad luck to the team (a journalist would make a similar point in the late 1980s. He said that these federal government delegations put too much pressure on the team and that's why we often lost whenever we sent a federal government delegation to cheer the team).

We won the tournament again in 1993. Those games in 1993 were very sweet. NTA could not hook up with their commentators for the first game, so they had to hook up with Ghanaian tv. The Ghanaian commentator was very funny. He couldn't believe that Nigerians were singing, "All we are saying, give us more goals" when the Golden Eaglets were leading Canada 7-0. The ships at Lagos Harbour put on their usual New Year's Day fireworks display when the referee blew the final whistle in the final match.

1995 was the first exception. Our team was filled with younger brothers of Super Eagles players and we ended up getting knocked out in the quarter finals.

I heard a stunning announcement on the radio c2006. Uncle Tella was made the coach of the Golden Eaglets. I remember that Deji Omotoyinbo didn't think that it was a good idea. Coach Tella had been teaching at the National Institute of Sports for a while, so Deji thought that he was a classroom coach. I knew better. I first knew Coach Tella around 1980/1981 when he prepared fantastic secondary school football teams that won multiple Principals Cup competitions, so I knew what he could do. He was also a friend of Old Man and it was always a treat for me whenever he came to the house ( Coach Tella was like Santa Klaus - a jolly old man). So I wasn't surprised when he won the World Cup.

We hosted the tournament in 2009 and got to the final, but as usual we lost to Switzerland.

I was out of Lagos during much of UAE 2013, but I was still able to watch most of the games. I remember asking myself (after the final match) if we would get to the final of the next competition and lose again.

Now here we are. Unfortunately I slept through the match. One minute I was waiting for the match to begin and the next I was watching Victor Osimhen pick up his golden boot award.

leisuretym:


Wetin make Segun Odegbami , Rashidi Yekini, Mutiu Adepoju come talk?