International Football
On Zik’s anniversary, Nigeria’s Super Eagles seek World Cup playoff slot
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
On a day that Nigeria is seeking a major soccer glory to move into World Cup qualification playoff, it is coincidentally a twin anniversary of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the country’s first president and easily the most sports-inclined.
It is 117 years today that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, popularly known as Zik, began the long adventurous journey. It is also the silver jubilee of his interment on 16 November 1996.
Perhaps it was to his eternal honour that the Nigerian Super Eagles first played on the sacred turf of the old Wembley Stadium on Zik’s anniversary in 1994 and also qualified for the Brazil 2014 on a 16 November date in 2013.
For the former Nigerian president it was a life well lived, a thrilling sporting life.
Perhaps no other Nigerian of his profile adequately combined statesmanship with sportsmanship.
In political area, Zik was noted for compromise. Perhaps also, it had to do with his sporting background.
Sports is about winning some and losing some – a compromise of sort.
More than any other well known Nigerians, Zik was involved in all facets of sports. He was a player in many disciplines – athletics, boxing, tennis and football.
He was an umpire in boxing, athletics and a football referee.
Of course he was a supporter, cheering from the stands in athletics and football and also by boxing ringsides.
As a sports organizer he owned the famed Zik Athletics Club (ZAC) which incorporated many sports disciplines – an envious dream of today’s so called club professional sports clubs.
Archival materials speak volumes of the exploits of the club which was also the first privately owned and also one to own its arena. The club also had branches outside Lagos.
The ZAC Ibadan, contrary to statistics dished out yearly on Challenge Cup finals (now Aiteo Cup), was the first one-man club and first team outside Lagos to play in the finals of the then Governor’s Cup, losing 0-2 to Marine on 6, October 1947.
The ZAC Lagos later transformed to the ACB football club which folded up in 1994.
Endowed with creativity, Zik introduced the word ‘stadium’ into Nigeria’s sports lexicon when he named his football ground, ‘The Yaba Stadium’.
Before then, football arenas were simply called grounds, hence ‘The Association Ground’ which had been variously named as King George V Stadium, Lagos City Stadium, Onikan Stadium and now called Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan.
As statesman, his speeches were sometimes laced with sporting ‘lingo’. While stating his desire to play fairly in the general election, he remarked: “I will not score an offside goal…
“I have been taught by my athletics coach not to beat the gun; by my boxing coach not to hit below the belt…”
Of significance was his address to the nation on January 1, 1964. The broadcast was essentially on Nigeria’s dwindling sporting stature.
Since then, no other head of state or president of Nigeria has ever made sports the theme of a nationwide broadcast.
He dismissed the famous cliché’ of Baron Pierre de Coubertin that honour in the Olympics was in taking part and not winning.
Hear Zik: “Gentility in sports was a by-product of the Victorian era with its aristocratic tradition.
“The concept of not playing to win but having the honour to participate formed the basis of British ethics of sportsmanship”.
He went on to say that the idea spread to everywhere the Union Jack had been hoisted.
Everyone now shares Zik’s view hence the saying of the Olympics: “Winning is not everything, but it is the thing”
Well-travelled Portuguese coach Paulo Duarte has been named as Guinea’s new coach, less than a month before their next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Duarte, 56, has twice previously coached Burkina Faso and taken charge of Gabon and Togo, while also coaching at clubs in Portugal, France, Tunisia, Angola and Saudi Arabia.
Guinea’s football federation gave no contract details when they made the announcement on Monday, but said they would be looking for Duarte to “restructure their national team”.
Guinea trail leaders Algeria by eight points in their World Cup qualifying group with four games remaining, leaving them with only a slim chance of qualification.
They play Somalia away on September 5 and then Algeria at home on September 8 in their next two qualifiers although a stadium ban means Guinea have moved their home game to Casablanca, Morocco.
-Reuters
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Veteran coach Louis van Gaal says he has been cured of cancer and is keen for a return to the higher levels of the game.
The 73-year-old announced three years ago that he was suffering from prostate cancer, but told a Dutch television talk show, “I’m no longer bothered by cancer.”
When he announced his illness, Van Gaal was the coach of the Dutch national team, but he has not worked since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“Two years ago, I had a few operations. It was all bad then. But it all worked out in the end. I have check-ups every few months, and that’s going well. I’m getting fitter and fitter,” he said.
Van Gaal, whose career has included stints at Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, reiterated a lack of interest in returning to club management but said becoming the national coach of a top-tier country could tempt him back.
He now serves as a special advisor to Ajax.
-Reuters
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In a compelling twist of football destiny, Davide Ancelotti is stepping into his own spotlight as he begins his first head coaching role at Brazilian club Botafogo—just months after parting ways with his legendary father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.
The 35-year-old has been appointed as Botafogo’s new manager, the club announced on Tuesday, following the sacking of Renato Paiva. Davide, who has spent the last decade working alongside his father at some of Europe’s top clubs—including Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton, and Real Madrid—has signed a one-year deal with the Rio-based team.
This marks a significant milestone for the younger Ancelotti, whose career has long been shaped by his father’s influence, but who now faces the challenge of carving his own identity on the touchline.
The move comes shortly after both father and son departed Real Madrid at the end of last season, with Carlo taking over the Brazilian national team. Now, in a poetic alignment, father and son find themselves on different paths within Brazilian football—one leading the Seleção, the other steering the fortunes of a storied domestic club.
Botafogo’s decision to appoint Davide follows a controversial parting with Paiva, who was dismissed just days after their exit from the Club World Cup. Though he oversaw a stunning win over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, a 1-0 extra-time loss to Palmeiras in the round of 16 proved to be his final act after just four months in charge.
As Davide Ancelotti begins this new chapter, all eyes will be on whether the son of one of football’s most decorated managers can step out from his father’s shadow—and perhaps, in time, build a legacy of his own.
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