For every first continental soccer triumph by a Nigerian team, there is at least one Ghanaian as part of the success story. From the Green Eagles in 1973 and again in 1980, to Shooting Stars in 1976 and 1992 respectively down to Enyimba in 2003, it is the same tale.
When the Eagles won their lone All Africa Games gold at Lagos ’73, there was Sani Mohammed in the midfield. There are those who argue that another team member, Yakubu Mambo,had Ghanaian links. He is best remembered as the first to score at the National Stadium, Lagos.And Nigeria defeated the Black Stats 4-2 on the way to gold.
In 1980, John Orlando, lifted the Africa Nations Cup with Nigeria. He had spent some time in the country and was popular among Ibadan fans playing for Shooting Stars. Black Stars were lucky not to come the way of the Eagles as they played in the Ibadan group comprising Algeria, Morocco and Guinea.
There was the Ghanaian quartet of Philip Boamah, Sam Asante, Joe Appiah and Kennedy Dappah celebrating Nigeria’s first continental club soccer glory , tne Winners Cup, with the Oluyole Warriors in 1976. Boamah stayed behind after that and has gone round Nigeria as a coach. Dappah died and was buried in Ibadan.
Boamah was Assistant coach when 3SC won the maiden CAF Cup donated by Chief Moshood Abiola in 1992.It is funny that the Ibadan Boys won their first Winners Cup and their first CAF Cup with contributions from Ghana. They have so far lost in two CAF Champions League grand finale. On both occasions they did not have Ghanaians in the team.
It also happened to Enugu Rangers, the first Nigerian team to play in the Champions League finals. That was in 1975 and they defeated Accra Great Olympics, home and away in the first round. The Flying Antelopes went as far as snatching compatriot, Christian Madu from the losers. Rangers lost in the finals, home and away. It was a 100 percent Igbo team.
It was laughable because one Rangers player, Emeka Onyedika, bore a Ghanaian cognomen, ‘Owusu’. That nickname came after the First Nigeria/Ghana Sports Festival in 1974. The Black Stars had two brothers, Kwesi and Dan Owusu. The first match ended goalless. Dan Owusu scored the lone goal that gave the Black Stars gold in the second game. Both ties were held in Lagos.
In the Second Ghana/Nigeria Sports Festival the following year in Accra, Nigeria won the first duel 2-1 with goals by Onyedika and Ogidi Ibeabuchi. The second match ended in crisis, leading to the demise of the Games.
Iwuanyanwu Nationale hired two Ghanaians: Keeper Edward Ansah and petit defender John Benson and got to the final of the Champions League in 1988. They lost. Benson who joined the Owerri side from Leventis, Ibadan went back to team up with Shooting Stars in 1996. Again, he lost in the Champions League finals. Ansah and Benson were also losers in the 1985 Africa Winners Cup finals.
However, the Ghanaian magic returned with Enyimba in 2003. It was the first time Nigeria would win the CAF Champions League after struggling for 36 years. Asamoah Joetex Frimpong was with the< Aba Elephants.Enyimba retained the trophy in 2004. The Ghanaian was there. And they also lifted and defended the Africa Super Cup successfully.
This romance with Ghana began in 1938 with the first inter colonial match.That same year, one Kotey played for Zik’s Athletics Club Bombers. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe would later travel to Accra to recruit another Ghanaian, Collins Gardener. That was also the year Ankrah featured for St. Gregory’s College, Lagos against Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha, managed by Luke Emejulu in Lagos.
Another Ghanaian, Mensah, did not only play for St. Greg’s in the loss to CKC,he joined Lagos Selected against Calabar Eleven in 1939. This same star went on to play for the Nigerian national team, first as a striker and later as goalie. In 1962, Stationery Stores proprietor, Israel Adebajo,imported another Mensah.
Ghana would have created a frightening record in 1976 when Alhaji Yusuf Salami’s Alyufsalam Rocks, Ilorin reached the finals of the Challenge Cup. Captained by Owura Agyei and populated 99 percent by Ghanaians including Ahmed Nalando and James Quino, Rangers beat them 2-0, thanks to Chimezie Ngadi’s brace. The lone Nigerian, Humphrey Okechukwu, was poached by the Coal City Boys.
Names like Loatis Boateng, Peter Yeboah, Ebenezer Badja,Fred Arye (Baba Ali), Adoquaye Laryea, Abdullahi Alausa, Benjamin Sellas, Mohammed Lawal and Bawa Abdullahi will continue to live with us even if they did not win for our nation.
