Emmanuel Amunike, Nigeria Football legend and former Tanzania head Coach has given insights into Nigeria’s 1996 Olympic gold victory and his incessant knee injury which hindered his 1998 FIFA World Cup participation.
The 1994 African Cup of Nations winner narrated, “We played against Brazil in the group stage with a nervy 1-0 loss and playing them in the semi final only means one thing for us, we knew how good they are, we believed in ourselves as a team, we had some good players, great talents coupled with discipline. It really helped us, we were loosing before the break and during the second half, Bonfere introduced new players, fresh legs like Ikpeba and we got back our rythm”
With the winning goal against Argentina, the llast touch was perfect, I provoked the foul that brought about the goal, I got into the box and the ball came to me and the Argentines couldn’t put me off. We are happy because we are historical legends privileged to serve the country.”
“Scoring the goal that eventually gave us the victory and becoming Olympic gold medallists was such an euphoric feeling, we left Nigeria to America as a team and we are glad that we achieved our aim”.
“At a point, Bonfere came to me and told me that I wasn’t at my best enough and I told him to do what’s best regardless of whenever I come in, eventually we won it and we had opportunities of the big clubs beckoning at the Nigerian national team door”.
“I wasn’t in the position to serve Nigeria for so many years but you just have to accept your fate, am into coaching now and I believe if we prepare our players without sentiments and tell them what is expected of them, when we are honest and not just talent but with discipline and functioning as a team, we can win the world cup because there are rules to the game and an athlete can be crowned when he competes according to the rules”, he admonished.
Amunike played all the games at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, scoring the winning goal in the final as the national team won the gold medal and was crowned Africa footballer of the year after his exploits in the Tunisia 1994.
