Sports
Albert Onyeanwuna: A Tribute To Soccer Legend
I was holidaying in Port
Harcourt in 1962 when I had the rarest of opportunities to meet the great soccer legend, Albert Onyeanwuna at the Port Harcourt City stadium. This was my second year at the Ibo Union Grammar School, Kano, the elite college which the Igbo merchants of Kano had established and modelled on Britain’s Eton College primarily for their children to attain the highest levels of education in those days. The college was special enough for the Premier of Northern Nigeria the late Sir Ahmadu Bello to send one of his relatives, Sani to attend the college. We were both in Class 2B.
Staying just across the road from the stadium at No. 10 Takoradi Street, Port Harcourt, with my in-law, Francis Uzoenyi, I was not necessarily a soccer addict but as an avid newspaper reader, I knew by their names all the soccer stars of that generation such as Thunder Balogun, Albert Onyeanwuna, Elkanah Onyeali, Dejo Fayemi, Godwin Achebe, Fabian Duru, Augustine Oduah and others. I had never watched a major football match before this one and I was very excited. The Red Devils of NPA, Port Harcourt, was playing ECN of Lagos and the three Onye’s – Onyeador (Green Eagles captain in the early sixties) Onyali and Onyeanwuna were on the team sheet.
The Red Devils were in action and Onyeanwuna scored a brace and the excitement I had was simply too much for me to put up with that I had to write a report of the match and sent it to the Eastern Nigerian Guardian newspaper of Port Harcourt which had its offices close by Takoradi Street on Bathurst Street. I had no inkling that the report would be published until the Monday following the Saturday of the match when the Editor ran the report under my byline Anthony Amadi. It was my first ever printed article and I felt like a million dollars.
Onyeanwuna lived at Lagos Street, Port Harcourt, just a stone throw from my Takoradi Street residence and I used to hang around his No 30 house hoping to see and adore him. A few kids like me used to loiter around as well to see the famous man and he used to honour us with his presence by coming out, his trademark haircut which he wore with a pattern that had a straight line cut on the left side of the massive hair was copied by many soccer buffs in the area.
On the national stage, Onyeanwuna was a sensation and proved a continental threat to defenders of his generation. He always found a way to wriggle through the massed defence, whether it was Lagos teams or international teams clashing with the Nigerian sides that he played for. In the days of the Black Stars of Ghana, Onyeanwuna was probably the only striker that was an antidote to the deadly defenders of the Black Stars. On a major soccer date against the Ghanaians, Lagos used to freeze when they touch down at the Ikeja airport as it was known in those days. They come with their deadly strikers like Agreey Finn, Gyamfi and the rest of them that I cannot remember their names. But Onyeanwuna and the Green Eagles were always going to give a good account of themselves, even though there were days that Ghana gave us a good thrashing.
Looking back, I doubt if Nigeria could ever produce great players like those of that generation. The passion exhibited in those days by players was certainly greater even with the general state of penury that marked the fate of footballers of the fifties and sixties. Onyeanwuna and his generation served Nigeria with more zeal. They still maintained their day jobs at NPA (Nigeria Ports Authority) or ECN (Electricity Corporation of Nigeria) unlike footballers these days that play professionally.
If Onyeanwuna was a British citizen, the premiership we all adore today would hold a series of events in his honour. Matches would not start before at least a one minute silence before is observed in his honour across the country and his name would have become Sir Albert Onyeanwuna MBE (Member of the British Empire).
What is the Federal Minister of Sports, Dr Tamuno Danagogo, waiting to send Onyeanwuna’s name as well as other great footballers that brought immense glory to Nigeria to the National Merit Award for appropriate posthumous honour? What is the Rivers State Government waiting to rename one of the stadiums in Port Harcourt, after Onyeanwuna or at the least, build a monument after Onyeanwuna at No 30 Lagos Street, Port Harcourt or even rename that street after this great man who lived most of his life there in the Garden City to the glory of Nigerian sports.
Thank God that Anambra State is doing something about honouring Onyeanwuna by the string of events penciled down for his burial programme on the 19th of this month at Abatete, his home town by the Action Governor Willie Obiano and his vibrant Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Chief Tony Nnachetta, who is a guru himself in the arena of Nigerian Sports. What makes the new governor tick is simply that he is fixing round pegs in round holes and not placing dummies around him to confuse him the more.
In a News Agency of Nigeria report on September 5, 2014, the Anambra Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Tony Nnacheta, confirmed that the state would immortalise the late football legend, Albert Onyeanwuna, who died on April 22 in Lagos. Nnachetta inaugurated a 15-member burial committee in Awka to plan and execute the burial, and promised that Onyeanwuna would be buried on September 19 at Abatete in Idemili North Local Government Area of the state in recognition of his contribution to Nigerian football. He said the state government had also constituted a 30-man national committee comprising top football personalities across the country, assuring that the late soccer hero would be given a befitting state funeral.
According to the Commissioner, “This is in remembrance of his contributions to the growth and development of the game in Nigeria.” He described the late footballer as an illustrious son of the state, and added that the Anambra State Government would continue to appreciate any son or daughter that brought the state to limelight. He said that burial activities for the football legend would hold in four Nigerian cities — Lagos, Port Harcourt, Awka and Abatete.
He expressed optimism that the events would be hitch-free one of the activities included a novelty football match last Sunday between Lagos All Stars and Lagos SWAN at the Eagle Club, Surulere, Lagos.
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos and his Anambra State counterpart were expected to have been part of the match.
Nnacheta said Rivers State football coaches Association would also play a friendly with Port Harcourt ex-professionals at the Sharks Stadium, Port Harcourt, tomorrow and the final football match on September 18 would be played at the home town of the legend between Enugu All Stars and Onitsha All Stars, at Notre Dame College pitch, Abatete.
The late Onyeanwuna would lie in state at the Women’s Development Centre, Awka on September 18 and would be laid to rest after a funeral mass at the St. Dominic Catholic Church, Agbaja, Abatete on September 19.
Onyeanwuna was one of the biggest players of his era, a master dribbler who debuted for the Red Devils, as the Nigerian senior football team was then known, on October 30, 1955. He was a member of the Eastern Region’s Spartans Football Club that won the National Golden Cup for keeps in the 60s.
Looking back to the glory years of Nigerian football, it is necessary that sportsmen are given their due recognition for these are the men and women who made Nigeria proud and the reason that Nigeria is today a great country in the comity of nations. In football Onyeanwuna, Onyeali, Onyeador, Thunder Balogun, Dejo Fayemi, living legends like Segun Odegbemi, Christian Chukwu, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Stephen Keshi and the current Eagles sharp shooter, Ahmed Musa must never be forgotten in a hurry.
Footballers mentioned above were never the type that failed to train or threaten boycott because of pecuniary issues. As we mourn the departure of Onyeanwuna, let us hope that the Ministry of Special Duties that compile national honours would not fail to put his name up to be immortalised Onyeanwuna with a major national honouror name one of the stadia that dot the country after this illustrious sone of Nigeria.
May the soul of Albert Onyeanwuna rest in perfect peace.
Amadi writes from Port Harcourt
Late Onyeanwuna
Nigerian football fans and former internationals may have finally joined the call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to save Nigerian football from the grip of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), demanding a complete overhaul and the resignation of the board following a series of national-team heartbreaks, including the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, their second consecutive absence and the Super Falcons’ recent loss of an automatic qualification spot for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
Until now, football legend Segun Odegbami has been a lone voice in the vanguard of those calling on the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF board to step aside. However, many ex-internationals, angered that the national embarrassment has now spilled over to the women’s team, have joined the call to “save our football.”
“We are demanding a total systemic clear-out and consequences at every tier of Nigerian football,” one of the former players said yesterday, pleading to remain anonymous to avoid “arrows” from what he described as desperate officials holding Nigerian football by the jugular.
Ahead of the September 27, 2026 elective congress of the NFF, scheduled to hold in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Chairman of the Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reforms Initiative, Prince Harrison Jalla, has also painted a gloomy picture of the future of Nigerian football.
Jalla’s position is in tandem with that of some aspirants who are also crying blue murder, alleging that the electoral procedure is skewed in favour of incumbent NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau to secure a smooth passage to a second term unopposed.
Jalla insisted that “all indicators are pointing to a gloomy picture for the future of Nigerian football, mainly due to administrative ineptitude, while the gladiators remain engrossed and fixated on the election.”
“The major crux of the election is the guidelines, which make it very difficult for other candidates to secure endorsements from across the six geopolitical zones to challenge Gusau.
“The NFF elective congress creates a skewed voting structure because [certain blocs] hold an overwhelming majority of the voting power, which critics argue marginalises key football stakeholders such as club owners, players, coaches, referees and sports writers.
“Out of the total delegates and voting structure, the 37 State FA chairmen form the primary voting bloc, making it difficult for independent candidates to win.
“This is so because of the marriage between the FA chairmen and the NFF. Most FA chairmen depend solely on the Federation for favours. Over time, during national and international engagements, the NFF uses such opportunities to reward the FA chairmen with trips and estacodes.
“They have been so compromised that no Jupiter would make them see reasons for a change. The system, therefore, heavily favours the incumbent leadership seeking re-election. That explains why they were in a hurry to pass a vote of confidence in the NFF leadership even when Nigerian football became topsy-turvy.
“As desperation has beclouded their reasoning, they have forgotten how low they have dragged Nigerian football.”
A cursory look at the catalogue of failures by Nigeria’s national teams will reveal this;
Super Eagles (Senior Men): Failed to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Their campaign ended in agonising fashion in November 2025 during the CAF playoff final, when they lost 4–3 on penalties to DR Congo. This marked the second consecutive World Cup missed by the senior national team. Earlier, in January 2026, they were also eliminated from the 2025 AFCON via a penalty shootout.
Super Falcons (Senior Women): Suffered an early continental exit by losing 1–0 to Cameroon in the 2026 WAFCON quarter-finals. The defeat stripped them of an automatic ticket to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, forcing them into an inter-confederation playoff route. Worse still, Banyana Banyana of South Africa stopped the Super Falcons with a 2-1 defeat in Morocco, marking Nigeria’s worst outing in the history of WAFCON.
Golden Eaglets (Men’s U-17): Failed to qualify for the U-17 AFCON and subsequently missed out on three consecutive FIFA U-17 World Cups — 2023, 2025 and 2026.
Flying Eagles (Men’s U-20): Missed both the 2026 U-20 AFCON and the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Olympic Team (Men’s U-23): Failed to qualify for the 2023 U-23 AFCON, which directly resulted in their failure to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
An official NFF apology to the government and Nigerians was met with backlash, with fans dismissing it as “too little, too late” and “one apology too many”, while demanding actual resignations.
The current frustration among fans stems from what they regard as an unprecedented catalogue of systemic failures across all tiers of Nigeria’s national teams.
Segun Odegbami said the failures had become one too many.
“If you fail to take your team to the World Cup, you find out that more often than not, they vote you out or sack you.
“That’s the measure. If you have a coach who doesn’t do well, they sack him. If you have a player who is doing badly, you remove him.”
“These guys have not succeeded. They’re our friends; that’s the painful thing. We know ourselves. We are all in the business and, when we champion the fact that they should go, they make you an enemy.
“It’s not a personalised thing. They have failed and, if we go back to that route, we are going to fail as we have failed before,” he said.
The financial damage from missing recent major tournaments is equally devastating, with total losses estimated at between ?150 billion and ?300 billion in direct payouts and broader economic partnerships.
This continuous string of qualification failures has effectively choked off the federation’s primary revenue pipelines and left its local development initiatives starved of funds.
The economic wreckage breaks down across several critical areas. By failing to reach the expanded World Cup, the NFF forfeited a guaranteed baseline participation fee of $10.5 million, reportedly worth roughly ?15.5 billion.
This single tournament loss wiped out an amount equivalent to roughly 87 per cent of the NFF’s projected annual operational budget. Had the Super Eagles advanced beyond the group stage, the rewards would have risen above $12 million, while reaching the quarter-finals could have yielded up to $20 million in performance-related payments.
Early exits by the Super Falcons and the qualification failures of the youth teams, U-17, U-20 and U-23, mean the NFF has also missed out on vital developmental subsidies and travel grants normally provided by continental governing bodies.
Corporate organisations and major sports betting companies are scaling back their sponsorship valuations. Without global television exposure, the NFF cannot command premium rates for brand placement.
The federation also misses out on potential revenue from global jersey sales, training gear and licensed supporter memorabilia that normally spike around major tournaments.
By missing out on tournament participation, Nigeria also loses leverage to draw heavily from FIFA’s financial programmes aimed at upgrading domestic training academies and pitches.
Consecutive missed World Cups have further lowered the market value of the national team brand, making future broadcast and marketing rights significantly harder to sell at a premium.
Former Ajax midfielder Hedwiges Maduro has praised Nigerian striker Tolu Arokodare, highlighting the forward’s strength and power and suggesting that he could prove valuable to Ajax in the Eredivisie.
Arokodare joined Ajax from Wolverhampton Wanderers on a season-long loan in July, with the Dutch club holding an option to make the move permanent.
He has already made an impact for his new side, providing an assist in Ajax’s 2-0 victory over PEC Zwolle in their opening Eredivisie fixture.
Maduro discussed Arokodare’s qualities during an appearance on ESPN’s Voetbalpraat, where he assessed how the Nigerian could complement Ajax’s attacking options.
He sees Arokodare as offering a different profile to Marcos Leonardo, particularly against opponents who defend deep and limit the space available for attacking runs.
Speaking about the Nigerian striker, Maduro highlighted his physical qualities and explained why he believes they could make him a valuable option for Ajax in the Dutch top flight.
“I think Tolu has something special, in terms of strength and power. I think he can be of real value in the Eredivisie,” Maduro said, as quoted by Ajax Showtime.
According to Maduro, the tactical demands of certain matches could make Arokodare’s physical presence an important option for Ajax, especially when opponents retreat towards their own penalty area.
He contrasted the situation with Leonardo, who he believes benefits from having space to make attacking runs. Maduro explained that when teams defend deep, those spaces become more difficult to find.
“Leonardo needs space. If teams drop back completely, where are you going to make those runs?
Then you get more use out of Tolu as a focal point to drop the ball,” he added.
The Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, LOC, of the Arsenal Nigeria Converge 2026, Ugochukwu Oputa, has said that over 25 states across Nigeria were involved in the second edition of the Arsenal Converge scheduled for Port Harcourt from August 14 to 16, 2026.
Oputa disclosed this on Sunday after the Converge meeting at the Ediz Wine Bar in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to him, Arsenal’s popularity cuts across the nation, and the Converge is organized to provide a period for supporters to network, interact, and harmonize.
“Knowing how Arsenal’s popularity is spread across the nation, it became necessary that all the different supporters of Arsenal club across the country harmonize and create a particular period where we can meet, network and interact,” Oputa said.
He outlined the five-day schedule of activities to include
Press conference,
Environmental sanitation and community service at Mile 1 Market, Diobu, involving both visitors and residents, arrival, welcome and cocktail party. Others included Games Day, football competition and other fun activities at the Rivers State University football pitch, Community Shield watch party yesterday, where all Arsenal supporters’ groups met, interacted, and discussed the future of Arsenal, including plans for the 2027 hosting rights of the Converge.
Oputa added that this year’s Converge which was in Port Harcourt, had over 3,000 fans registered.
“Port Harcourt Arsenal Community is a recognized supporters’ club of Arsenal in London and we have over 25 states that participated in the Arsenal Nigeria Converge 2026,” he said.
Also speaking, a member of the Nigeria Arsenal Supporters Working Committee, Nsikak Ntia, said that what distinguishes Arsenal supporters is their offline community impact.
“What we are doing here in Port Harcourt is beyond football. It’s a family that is growing. We had over 3,000 to 4,000 people on Saturday at the Rivers State University that shared the confidence that Arsenal represents,” Ntia said.
He noted that the club’s motto, ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’ – ‘Victory Through Harmony’ – is the bedrock of the group.
“The work that we do at Mile 1 Market is to help with environmental protection and increase what we do in society.
“We also have future plans to promote environmental protection and better ways to handle waste.
“These are things that are germane for our future, the future of our young people and generations unborn.
” It goes beyond football, it goes beyond banter, it goes beyond yapping at each other.
“That is what Arsenal Football Club is all about. Arsenal has the most well-organized supporters’ club in Nigeria and Africa’ he sated.
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