Charles Ogundiya 
Former Super Eagles player and coach, Daniel Amokachi, in an interview with CHARLES OGUNDIYA has said the country has changed and it is difficult for people to help each other due to the current situation around the world. Excerpts…
It was a terrible outing at the 1998 World Cup, what really went wrong?
The friendly matches we played were enough to show we were not going anywhere. We lost all the friendlies with wide margins and that was unusual at the time. After Ike Shorunmu’s injury, the return of Peter Rufai was not also okay to some of the players because he was not ready. Too many issues affected the team and prevented us from doing better than we did in France.
Despite the problems, you were able to beat Spain and also secured the second round ticket, how did you achieve this?
We spoke to ourselves to give our best shot despite the issues we had and somehow the Nigerian spirit in us helped as we defeated Spain 3-2 and also Bulgaria 1-0 in the first two games. Against Denmark, our spirit was down because it was a few days after the Head of State, Sani Abacha, died and the coach for no reason placed many top players on the bench for the match. Late Rashidi Yekini and I were on the bench. He did not reckon with Yekini as first or second choice but he was actually our best forward at the time.
Could you elaborate on the effects the death of the Head of State, Abacha, had on the team?
I am aware that Bonfrere Jo was contacted and he was to take over but because Abacha died, it was not concluded and the coach at the time, Bora Milutinović, escaped the sack. Football is a big deal in Nigeria and it is sad when it is left for some journeymen who come as foreign coaches.
Nigeria will be playing against Benin and Lesotho in the final round of AFCON qualifiers, what’s your take on these games?
I just want them to spare us another round of calculations. They should go for the maximum points in Benin and come back for the final game against Lesotho with the qualification already in the bag.
In your generation you played with passion and even when you lost people would applaud the performance unlike nowadays that even in victory, people still complain. Why is this?
It is the generation, you and I can’t help out to solve the problem. It is not just about Nigeria, it is global. They just need to keep doing the best they can do, and keep collecting the huge money that we are seeing now in football, and we that watch them should keep enjoying what they are playing.
You started your career from the local league and rose through the ranks before traveling abroad, but now it is difficult to have our local league players playing in the national team, how do we go back to the old days?
It has to do with the administrators because they are the ones that give the coaches coming to the country instructions on what to do, and conditions to work with. I was blessed to work with the late Amodu Shuaibu, Austin Eguavoen and late Stephen Keshi, and I know their enthusiasm when it came to the home-based players because they all came through the ranks. That’s the difference between them and those coming from outside. Most people coming from outside are not Nigerians, they are not passionate about the players playing at home, they are just here to do their job and get paid, not like our own who are passionate about developing the players back home. They know the talents that Nigerians possess especially if you dig deep; we have the quality that can help. In 2013, we practically won the AFCON with home-based players; they qualified us for the championship and won it for us. Four or five players from the Nigerian league were starting games and that says a lot about the coach. But everyone knows how these foreign coaches go about their job and you can’t blame them. We just keep hoping that the coaches will consider the players especially the young ones that are coming from the home front, and let them get a chance in the team.
But Westerhof was a foreign coach when he was in charge of the Super Eagles and he was able to discover home-based players like you…
That’s why I said it has to do with the mind-set of the person coming; Westerhof knew what he was doing. Before coming to Nigeria, he had already done some research about the country. He knew the quality of the players back at home and that’s what still happens till today. There is no coach that will come to Nigeria without knowing full well that he will get to the semi-final or final, that’s the minimum as long as you know the right thing to do. If you want to prepare Egusi (melon) soup, and you get the right ingredients, you will get a good soup, same as leading the Super Eagles.
Could you compare your growing up in the Northern part of the country and what is happening around there now?
The present state of this area is definitely not what I grew up to know. I grew up in a society where peace reigned, not just in the North but every part of the country. I started travelling to play football at the age of 14, we went around to states where we didn’t know people but those there embraced us without thinking twice. You could be driving on the way and see someone and give such person a lift, now you cannot do that anymore because you don’t know the kind of per-son he or she is. While growing up and you did something wrong, your neighbor could discipline you and when you got home your parents would still deal with you; but we are growing up in a society where you dare not do that again. In my growing up days, we lived in a compound with 18 tenants; there was one Igbo woman that made ‘opa’, before going out to sell in the morning, she would go to all the tenants and give each family and when she returned she would share the remaining, but who can try that now? If you try it, they will embarrass you, some will even call you a ritualist. The world has changed but we have to keep doing what we are doing to change the mindset of people and let them know we are still one Nigeria, we have to keep accepting the people the way they are and show love to each other.
How did it all start for you as a footballer?
In our generation it was fun kicking cans from home to school, when you see oranges already sucked on the way, you kicked and kicked and kicked till you got to school and that’s where the passion came from. I don’t subscribe to an African man saying he started playing football at the age of six or seven, that period you are just catching fun, but when you begin to play with your street teams and so on, that’s when you will start feeling it inside of you that you can play. While playing then it was just fun because I didn’t take it as a job, it was when Westerhof came and I travelled to Europe that I started taking it seriously because back then you couldn’t look back and say this is a professional footballer because of the money he had made apart from a few like Stephen Keshi and some others who had travelled abroad playing professional football. I was not playing to make money then, I was just playing for the passion. People before us like Segun Odegbami, Christian Chukwu, Felix Owolabi, Muda Lawal, they all played with passion and not for the money.
When did you realise that you could make a career out of football?
That was my second year in Europe. When I was playing for Ranchers Bees, I was just playing and not getting much. It was always like getting match bonus after games, like N200. Even when I moved to Belgium, my first year was still looking at football as just a passion to the extent that my team won the league and I didn’t even know about it. After the last game that won us the championship, I went straight to the dressing room and was surprised that nobody followed me and then our captain came in with flowers and told me we won the title that I should come outside because they are already calling my name. I took the flower, joined them to celebrate and then I took it more seriously as I realised that it is something that brings good money, something that could be used to support the people at home too.
How does it feel scoring that historical Champions League goal?
That goal was actually ordained by God. The game was immediately after I travelled back after the game against Ethiopia in Nigeria when I got a chronic groin injury and I was going through rehab but was not getting healed on time. The coach actually asked me to play the game with that injury and I started. I almost came out but I told the coach to let me be and fortunately, I scored the goal and also finished the game. After the game, I didn’t know the goal was that important, didn’t know it will be part of history until around 2001. I was at home in Kaduna and someone called me that he was watching ESPN and my club president in Besiktas just received an award on my behalf. The question I asked was which award he was talking about, he explained that I scored the first goal in Champions League history; I was surprised because I was not really aware of it. I am grateful to God for everything and contributing to history.
How did you come about your dancing celebration at the USA ‘94 World Cup?
It just happened. We didn’t plan it or rehearse for celebrations. I just love football and make it fun. I am passionate about it and after scoring that goal I just went for the dance, Nigerians loved it and when I watch it again, I love it and it helps in contributing to how much people love me because of the passion I put into the game.
Could you recall how you got the name Da Bull?
The name came from Westerhof; he said I always bullying his defenders. Even when I was not in the first team, he always put me as a striker against Keshi and the others. Westerhof would tell me to go and bully them and in the camp everyone started calling me Da Bull and the name stuck since then. If anyone calls me Daniel now I will ask the person to complete the name as Daniel ‘Da Bull’.
Winning the AFCON; Olympics football gold; qualifying for the first World Cup and scoring; the Champions League historical goal and your club career; which one do you cherish most?
I enjoy everything I do in life and I don’t pick one out of them. I had fun with Ranchers Bees starting from my college, Government College, Kaduna. I had fun winning the Adebajo Cup, the FA Cup with Ranchers Bees, having my first callup to the national team at the age of 16, going to Europe, winning the league in Belgium, the FA Cup with Everton, the AFCON, the Olympics and also qualifying Nigeria for the first World Cup. I cannot pick just one out of all these feats. I will be ungrateful to God choosing one as the best. I am bless to have played to that level despite the few years I put in the game because I had to stop when I was just 28 due to injury. Every day I look up and say ‘thank You God.’ God had reasons the injury came and surgery not successful; I keep giving glory to Him.
