Adekunle Awesu, The Left- footed Genius ‘ Resurrects’
ANY one born after 1978 may not have heard, or may not know about Adekunle Awesu and may choose to read this out of curiosity, or out of the prospect of informative value, or beca use I am s uggesting they do so because it will be worth their while and time to kn ow about a football genius that lived and died leaving behind only mysteries.
Even those that know the history of Nigerian football very well, from before 1979, may only remember snippets of the life of one of the most gifted, left- footed football players in Nigeria’s history.
To date, no one has been able to tell precisely when and how Kunle Awesu died in the USA. His obituary was never officially published, and, strangely, Nigerian newspapers were not awash with news of the death of the player who was selected as the best left- winger at the African Cup of Nations of 1976 in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
So, the big question is: Why am I bringing up the story of Kunle Awesu now, some 28 years, or so, after he died?
The reason is simple. His spirit is hovering around.
Two weeks ago, browsing through one of my web sites, I found a recent message from a complete stranger enquiring about Kunle Awesu. Frank Thomas, an American based in the United States, wanted to know about the whereabouts of his colleague from their days at Clemson University. He told me that since they graduated and parted ways in 1992/ 93, he had lost complete touch with Kunle. They cultivated a close friendship that grew out of Kunle’s mysterious ways during their four years stay in the University.
I gave him the bad news – Kunle died mysteriously sometime after the 1994 World Cup in the United States. The circumstances of his death are still uncertain till this day. He died alone in his apartment, leaving no trail of any relations, friends or even immediate family. To date, it is not known that Kunle ever got married and had any children. There is no family trail even here in Nigeria. From the moment he departed
Nigeria, he disappeared completely from the radar of Nigerian football. Nothing was ever written about him and his extraordinary skills in the American Collegiate football system, very much unlike the army of great Nigerian footballers that joined the flood of emigration to the greener pastures of football and academics that America offered lavishly between the mid- 1970s and the early 1990s.
Frank Thomas, devastated by the news of Kunle’s death that I provided him, also started to tell me about Kunle’s life at Clemson University, invaluable new information that provides a missing chapter in the ‘ empty’ book of the life of one of Nigeria’s unacknowledged and forgotten football heroes.
Coincidentally, a week before Frank’s communication with me, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, I had written down Adekunle Awesu’s name in a list of African sports heroes that had given up their dream of Olympic participation and possible medals to support the fight against racism and Apartheid in South Africa, and paved the way for the election of the first Black President in South Africa, late Nelson Mandela.
Kunle was a member of that Green Eagles team to the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976, that famous 4- 3- 10 ( the margin of goals they scored against minor European clubs they played against in Europe en- route Montreal) Eagles. That feat struck fear in the camp of opposing teams in the football event.
The Sports and Diplomacy Unit of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, that I head, is compiling the names of the heroic athletes from 27 African countries that boycotted the Games ( a huge and unprecedented sacrifice) to be embossed in Gold on a special wall either in the headquarters of the African Union in Ethiopia, or within the NIIA headquarters in Lagos. It is a project still in its early stage of conceptualisation.
That’s how Kunle Awesu’s name ‘ resurrected’ twice in the space of one week. Frank Thomas’s enquire about Joseph Awesu is now providing incredible new stories about the life of the extra- ordinarily gifted late Nigerian football player, rousing his resting spirit and filling a big gap in the story of his life that has never been told, and is about to be told for the first time in 43 years, filling a chapter in the blank book of Kunle’s life.