GLOBAL SOCCER

I was in the contingent as a sprinter but Coach Adegboye Onigbinde said since I played football for Osogbo NEPA, I would be useful to the football team. I was on the reserve bench in a match involving Oyo State and Niger State and we were trailing Niger b

Adesina said the national team coach should work regularly with the players at home, adding that frequent training would bring the best out of them. While condemning the attitude of players based in Europe, he also questioned their claim to automatic place in the Eagles team.

“None of us played abroad before becoming stars in the Eagles and I am surprised that Nigeria suddenly began to rely on players who are either not playing regularly in their clubs or play in very small clubs and non-competitive leagues, just because they play outside Nigeria. The home-based players can take our football to where it rightly belongs. I’m not saying we don’t need the foreign-based players but they should not be the bedrock of the national team. In our days, we only had Richard Owubokiri, Sylvanus Okpala and Okey Isima coming in from Portugal to beef up the team. But the core of the national team were the home-based players,” Adesina noted.

One moment in his career that will always be etched in Adesina’s memory was the semi-final match of the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations which paired Nigeria against Algeria.

“I was wrongly given a red card by the centre referee because I was not the person that erred. As soon as I was shown the red, I knew I will be missing the final but considering the vacuum my absence was going to cause the team, I began to doubt if we could beat Algeria with a man down not knowing that Bright Omokaro had other ideas. He reduced the Algerians to 10 by injuring one of their players after they had completed their two changes (a team could only make two changes as at 1988) making both teams to play with 10 men.

“Losing the final of Maroc ’88 was very painful, more especially losing through dubious officiating. Henry Nwosu’s legitimate goal was overruled. In the semifinal, I got an undeserved red card against Algeria in a case of mistaken identity. It would have been difficult holding them with a man down in as-much-as I don’t think what Omokaro did was right, which eventually gave birth to his nickname, ‘10-10’. I however still feel if I had played the final against Cameroun, we could have won. As they say, the rest is history.”

During his playing days Adesina played under different coaches, but one coach whose influence remains indelible is Christopher Udemezue.

“Chief Adegboye Onigbinde did a lot in my life as a footballer and I really appreciate him. ‘Wonder Boy’, Paul Hamilton also affected me as a footballer; so too was late Father Tico and late Brazilian tactician, Otto Gloria. But none of them can compare to what late coach Udemezue did to my career. He was a disciplined man and he did a lot in shaping my football career.

"Otto Gloria thinks and behaved like a Nigerian. He was aware there was division in the national team but he did well to integrate the old players with the new ones. He told the late Muda Lawal that I had not come to take his place but rather that I have come to take over from him after he leaves and charged him to take care of me.

“Onigbinde was a teacher and I owe my confidence from the penalty spot to him. During the 1984 Nations Cup qualifier against Morocco in Casablanca and the game was to be resolved on penalty shootout after goalless 90 minutes. Nobody wanted to take the first kick but the Modakeke high chief called me and asked me to open the way.

“The late Udemezue was a disciplinarian. A particular Nigeria Football Association, NFA (as NFF was refered to then) chief had issues with me and asked Udemezue not to field me in a Mexico ’86 World Cup qualifier against Liberia. But he fielded me against all odds and I even scored in that match. Such was the trust Udemezue had in me,” he recalled.