Olympic gold medalist, Emmanuel Amunike has declared that playing as a team helped the Nigerian team win gold at the Atlanta ’96 Olympics.
The former Nigerian international while chatting with journalists on a sports WhatsApp group said ‘ what was above all was the team achievement, we are happy we left Nigeria as a team and achieved our goal’.
Amunike who scored the winning goal at the final game against Argentina in the 89th minute after only coming on as a substitute for Victor Ikpeba in the 72nd minute said fans did not want him to play in the final.
‘fans and journalists were complaining I was not at my best. The coach (Bonfree Joe)came to me and I told him, play anyone who you think will help us but I’m always ready when needed’.
Speaking on the semi-final match against Brazil which the team almost lost, the AFCON winner said ‘Brazil had lots of talents but as a team, we had lots of talents too, trying to be disciplined as a team was the key word, it did not matter how good we were individually but working, playing as a team and helping one another really helped us. The coach made some changes in the second half, we kept our cool and did the comeback’.
The 1994 AFCON and 1994 African Footballer of the year award winner was one of the over aged players in the U-23 team at Atlanta ’96 Olympics.
