The Myth of Inua Rigogo - The Flying Cat [Nigeria Folklore]

"Nobody born of a woman can ever shoot a shot pass Inua Lawal Rigogo - The Flying Cat!"

Inua Rigogo and Teslim Balogun may have been the only two footballers whose stories have become quite popular in the Nigerian Folklore.

These two stories, some how mythical, may have been told again and again... and handed down from generation to generation in this country of the largest black-race... situated at the oceanic coast of West African region..

These stories may sound like fairy tales today. I know not many in this millennial generation ever heard that there were football superheroes that existed in this country Nigeria in the 50s’ and 60s.’ I think the onus is on some of us who grew in the 70s’ to tell these stories to our younger ones today.

Well, the truth is I didn't see either Inua Rigogo or Teslim Balogun. But my father who played for FC Marine and Red Devils (Nigeria national team then), told me some of these stories.

As kids we heard that  Teslim Balogun, popularly known as Thunder Balogun’s shot actually ripped a goalkeeper's stomach open and at another time, the ball burst open and went through the goal net.

My father told me that nobody born of a woman can shoot a ball pass Inua Rigogo, who was nicknamed ''The Flying Cat.'

It was actually Kwame Nkurumah, Ghana’s President then, that named Rigogo “The Flying Cat?” After he watched Rigogo display some incredible somersaults, flying from pole to pole to the extent that the Ghanaian national team couldn’t even score him a single goal in 1964… in his spellbound amazement, Nkurumah named Rigogo  “The Flying Cat.”

Many veterans that talked about Rigogo, said he used African magic (Juju) to man the goal post. My father said Rigogo can somersault several times in a speed of lightning to grab a ball everyone thought had gone into the net. And to everyone's amazement, you see him wrap himself over the ball.

You may say and I agree, many could have been given to exaggerations, because the stories were handed down orally from one generation to another. You know what they say about oral history… Heck!

But I have read Segun Odegbami's account of Rigogo... and both his story and that of my father atested to the fact that Inua Rigogo may arguably be Nigeria's greatest goalkeeper of all time.

He was scored only 4 goals in his eight year as Nigeria national team first choice goalkeeper from 1958 - 1966.