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Nigeria football is a sport with many stories, full of fairy tales, high octane stories and staggering trivias embroidery into the cultural fabric of the people. However, amid all the happenings one must not lose his head, but to understand the difference between fact and fiction.
Some of these stories have happened so long ago that they are often twisted in ways that would be convenient for the narrators and have become football myths of a sort today. Some of the stories didn't even happen in reality. They are just fairytale or mere exergerations popotted by individual.
Somehow, these stories have defined the way we understand, aporeciate and relate with the game: the adminstration and management of the sport, physical training and fitness, the use of sports medicine, the import of the supernatural (evocation of the gods).
These football myths often takes no time to cover ground and unconsciously affect the psyche of the people.. We have listed five such groundbreaking football myths which people still tell the stories today.
1. Teslim "Thunder" Balogun's Shot Ripped Through A Goalkeeper's Stomach and broke through the goal net
It is told in Nigerian football folklore that in a match played in the 1960s, ECN, Lagos needed a goal to win the Challenge Cup, and with time running out a fan shouted at Teslim Balogun [who was on the pitch], "Remember your left leg" and he [Teslim] shot a shot that went off like a thunderbolt with his left foot.
The ball went through the midriffs of the goalkeeper and through the net and the moniker THUNDER was birthed. The nick stuck courtesy of his skills and lethal shots at goal.
2. No man Born of a Woman Can Score Inua Rigogo "The Flying Cat"
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 or voodoo) 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.
3. The Day Emmanuel Okala saw Double-double
Nobody believed him but Emmanuel Okala, perhaps the best goalkeeper in Africa at the time, complained of see double of everything in the pitch at Conakry Guinea and Enugu Ranger lost 1 - O to Hafia FC of Guinea in the first leg African Cup of Champion clubs final in 1975.
Then came the second leg at the National Stadium Surulere Lagos and the goalkeeper also known as Mountain of Gbiratha, had to wash his face several times during the game, still complaining that he was seeing double of the ball anytime the Guinean shot the ball at the goal post. Yet, Enugu Rangers didn't do anything about it. Though, they dorminated play, yet Ranger lost the match by 1 - 2.
4. The Day India walloped Nigeria 99 - 1 and got banned by Fifa
Whether it was the Red devils or the Green Eagles of Nigeria was walloped 99-1 by a little known India team, nobody is sure. but If you have never heard of this historic match, then you are still a suckling of the Gen Z.
Sam Ibiam or Emmanuel Okala, was the goalkeeper on that fateful day. It was an unforgettable day and a football match that ended India’s football journey as they were banned by FIFA, the world football governing body, for scoring too many goals, allegedly for using voodoo in a friendly soccer match.
The story was that each time Nigeria's players needed to kick the ball, they noticed a ball of fire. This drew them back each time and the Indians attacked them much more intensely. The goalkeeper Okala, who would have saved the day for Nigeria stated that each and every time the ball approached him, he saw a lion instead and that was why Nigeria lost ingloriously that day.
No one could really tell when the match was played, the exact year nor the exact date or the stadium were it was played, but the story is told and handed down from generation to another here in Nigeria.
5. The god of Soccer is a Nigerian
Stories like the "The Damman miracle" and " The Atlanta 96 Miracle" atest to the notion why people believe that the god of soccer is a Nigerian. These are more of a true story, but often exaggerated when told.
The Miracle of Dammam also known as The Dammam Miracle was the name given to the result of a quarter-final football match between the Nigerian U-20 football team and the USSR U-20 football team at the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship in Saudi Arabia which the Nigerian U-20 team went on to win on penalties. The match created a footballing record as Nigeria became the first team to come back from four goals down to equalise and then go on to win a FIFA World Cup match at any level.
Atlanta 96 Miracles: Nigeria’s Dream team won the Olympic gold medal in Atlanta 1996 after coming from a goal down twice to defeat Argentina 3-2 in the final of the men’s football tournament, thus became the first African country ever to win football gold medal at the Olympics.
The Jo Bonfrere-led team had captured the imagination of supporters with their exciting brand of football which saw them also come from two goals down to beat Brazil which had the likes of Ronaldo and Bebeto 4-3 in the semi-final even after trailing 3-2 untill the 89th minute.
What the People Believe and Do
1. First, Nigerians believe that an individual player can raise his game from the natural to the supernatural realm, either through natural gift from God or the deployment of voodoo or other spiritual invocations into his or her game. And we have seen players like Austin Okocha, Nwankwo KANU, Taribo West...whose game are some worth magical and out of this world.
2. Nigerian people believe there's juju (Voodoo) in football. They believe in the invocation of the supernatural into play during a football game. This is the reason most Nigerian teams form circle and put their hands together on their shoulders to pray at the beginning, at the end of first half, at the start of second half and at the end of the game. They pray for divine favour and luck to shine on their side.
Sometime, one wonders how these prayers were conducted since the players are from different religions and faith. It turned out that most of those prayers were mere team tradition.
3. Nigerians strongly believe there's a god of soccer which orders the proceedings of every game. And that god of soccer is a Nigerian.
So Nigerian players never give up, no matter how many goals down, they believe the god of soccer will turn it around in a twinkle of an eye. And Nigerian teams had stage some of the greatest comebacks in world football history.
This has given birth to what is now called "The Nigerian Spirit" - a feeling of invincibility and attitude of "never say die" no matter the circumstance.
