Towering defender, Francis Nwosu, found it embarrassing when asked to pay to watch soccer matches involving Nigeria and Enugu Rangers.
Better known as ‘German Wall’ he made his mark winning the Africa Winners Cup, Challenge Cup and National League with the Flying Antelopes and gold at the Nigeria/Ghana Sports Festival.
Nwosu was a member of the Lagos State Academicals team that lifted the Manuwa /Adebajo Cup in 1974 following a 2-1 victory over his home state, East Central . After that he was called to the national camp as part of the Nigerian Academicals to the First Ghana/Nigeria Sports Festival, Lagos ’74. It was a golden outing beginning with a 5-0 demolition of Ghana in the first of their two games.
Prominent members of the Nigerian side included Francis Ossai, Nnamdi Egbukichi, Andrew Larry, Remi Oguntimoju, Ifeanyi Onyejiaka and Taiwo Ogunjobi. The boys were in splendid form and reduced Ghanaian goalie ,Peter Dzakpasu, to a ball boy as he visited his net severally.
The Green Eagles were not super. Despite Keeper Emmanuel Okala’s heroics, the Black Stars duo of Owusu brothers, Dan and Kwesi, tormented the Nigerians in the first game. A lone goal victory through Kwesi Owusu gave the visitors the senior soccer gold medal. The Nigerians just could not find a way round goalie John Baker.
German Wall was invited to the Eagles camp at the end of the competition but it was with Enugu Rangers that he made a mark. In 1975, the Flying Antelopes were double champions, equaling their 1974 record. They also were on the way to CAF Champions League victory before East Central State officials bungled the flow.
The Coal City Boys lost home and away to Hafia, Guinea in the finals.
Rangers made up for that disaster when they won the Africa Winners Cup in 1977. In the finals they defeated Canon Sportif 5-2 aggregate. The Cameroonians will not forget Nwachukwu ‘Igariga’ Onyekwelu’s bullet in the Yaoundé 1-1 draw. Canon paraded internationals like Thomas Nkono, Jean Manga Oungene, Paul Akono and Arantes Mbida among others.
With all these laurels, Nwosu thought he was going to earn enough respect in stadia across the country. Unfortunately, Nigerians forget so easily and it has become a source of regret.
” How can anyone ask me to pay to watch football here,” Nwosu queried. “I won the Challenge Cup three times. I won the National League thrice and went further to win the Africa Winners Cup.The humiliation was so annoying that the day Eagles played Gabon, I travelled to Benin.”
He was talking about the Italia ’90 World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria had lost 2-1 to National Azingo in Libreville. That was Clemens Westerhof’s first time of watching the team he was going to manage in the next five years.
Nigeria took the Gabonese to Enugu and won. However , the whole thing ended in a national tragedy.
Sam Okwaraji died playing against Angola in Lagos. The Indomitable Lions compounded it when they knocked Eagles out of the campaign on a day Aloy Agu made his senior team debut with borrowed cleats and top. And that was after keeper David Ngodigha was carried out of the field of play following a severe injury.
That death reminded Nwosu of two of his Africa Winners Cup mates. James Ogidimma Ibeabuchi died in a car crash on the Benin- Asaba Highway, in February 1986. He had graduated from the University of Benin same year and frequented that route. Igariga would die a year later, also in traffic accident. which occurred about three kilometres outside Onitsha. It was also in February.
Onyekwelu had finished from Dennis Memorial Grammar School [DMGS] Onitsha under a soccer crazy principal, Chief Austin Ezenwa, also called UPGA. Ezenwa was known in Benin as the man who taught Col. Paul Ogbebor at St. Patrick’s College, Asaba before the Civil War. Both were officers in battle , the former for Biafra, the latter for Nigeria.
German Wall had a close shave with death on the way to continental victory in 1977. Rangers were forced to a barren draw by AS Police of Senegal in the Lagos first leg of the Africa Winners Cup quarter final. In the return leg, the Flying Antelopes shocked their hosts with a 2-1 victory. All hell was let loose thereafter.
“It was hell. We were beaten like common criminals. Captain Christian Chukwu was stripped to the pants. We were only able to leave the Demba Diop Stadium in a Black Maria.
Embassy officials called Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo [he was Head of State at the time], and he sent a Nigeria Airways plane in six hours,” Nwosu said.
Chukwu, like German Wall attended Nike Grammar School, Enugu. After the war, Nwosu changed to St. Gregory’s College, Obalende-Lagos. That was the opposite of what happened to Patrick Ekeji who joined Rangers in 1978. Ekeji was at St. Greg’s but was forced to relocate to the East by war. From Stella Maris College Port Harcourt, he settled at Holy Ghost College ,Owerri.
Ekeji and Chukwu had won the Manuwa /Adebajo Cup with East Central State Academicals in 1971. On the way to victory, the team beat Lagos in the quarter finals, Mid- West in the semis and Kwara in the grand finale. Ekeji also fought for Biafra and saw action in the Mid-West as part of the Biafra Army Signals [BAS].
Nwosu starred for the Flying Antelopes at the same time as another Nwosu, Alex. They came after Johnny ‘Wheeler’ Nwosu one of the pioneers that played for Rangers from start in 1970. The name German Wall came from admirers who said he reminded them of the Berlin Wall which divided Germany at the end of the Second World War. Some veterans corrupted the nickname to German War.
In retirement, he turned to coaching. Nwosu went to the Nigeria Institute of Sports where he got the Grade Three certificate in 1986. The following year, the ex-player became the first female football coach in the old Anambra State, with Coal City Babes. In 1989 he was back to NIS for a Grade Two certificate. There after, German Wall moved to Awgu to manage Youth teams.
