Nigeria’s first Olympics medal was won at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo where the country’s representative in boxing, Nojeem Maiyegun won a bronze medal in the men’s light middleweight class.
That achievement opened the door for more medals in subsequent editions with Team Nigeria’s best outing being the 1996 Atlanta Olympics where Nigeria won two gold, one silver, and three bronze medals.
It was at the Atlanta Olympics that Nigeria won her first and only individual Olympics gold medal. Policewoman, Chioma Ajunwa leapt 7.2m to win gold in the long jump event. Her record stood for 25 years before it was broken by fellow Nigerian, Ese Brume who jumped 7.17m at a recent event.
Last Saturday, D’Tigers recorded a historic 90-87 victory over the USA in Las Vegas. They followed up with another 94-71 victory over Argentina who are ranked 4th in the World.
D’Tigers who are ranked 22nd in the world were unfortunately brought down to earth on Wednesday after Australia humbled them 69-108 points in their third tune-up match in the USA.
The loss to Australia ended Coach Mike Brown’s unbeaten record with the team since his appointment in 2020. However, the D’Tigers team now dominated by players in the NBA are still brimming with confidence as they get set to hit Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics.
Did your parents support your decision to play football?
I have no problems because my parents gave me full support to play football from the onset. Though some family members didn’t like it, since my parents gave their blessing, I went ahead and I was okay.
Can you give us a brief rundown of your career till date?
After I moved to Sunshine Stars, I played all the 2007 Africa U-17 qualifiers under late coach, Yemi Tella but I missed going to the World Cup because of my injury. I played under Ladan Bosso for the U-20 Nations Cup where we won bronze. I also played under Samson Siasia in the U-20 World Cup. We camped here in Abuja and played the Junior World Cup in Egypt. I have also played in Europe, specifically in Albania for Tueta FC. I was there from 2017 to 2018 on a year loan deal.
Each of the Zones has a total of eight groups of five teams each for the group matches.
The sponsor of the tournament, Patrick Pascal, who is the Chairman of Bauchi State Football Association and Co-ordinator of the Super Eagles told Trust Sports that the tournament is being organised to promote unity among youths in the state and to honour Prof. Bogoro for his enormous contributions to education and youth empowerment.
The former Super Eagles star maintained that the Football Association will continue to identify and honour Bauchi State indigenes that are committed to the development of youths.
“As the Chairman of Bauchi State FA, I want to use one stone to kill two birds. I am sponsoring this youth football tournament to engender unity among the youths in the state and to honour one of us, Professor Suleiman Bogoro, for his unquantifiable contributions to education and youths’ aspirations.
You sound so confident but most Nigerians feel otherwise. What is giving you this confidence that the players will not disappoint in future?
Anything in life is about time. If you are starting, you are bound to face so many challenges. However, if you do not give up, you will become better. It is the same thing with football. I am happy that the NFF president, Mr. Amaju Pinnick has said more of such top friendly matches would come the way of the home based Eagles. If they continue to play together, I am sure they will improve. We mustn’t forget the fact that most of the foreign based Eagles that we idolize today started like this.