20 years after Nigeria’s victory at the Olympics men’s football event, Goal talks to the man who discovered one of the key actors of that triumph
In Owerri, the name of Uche Ejimofor is synonymous with football since the 1980s. A former footballer who became a journalist and then a club administrator, Ejimofor is famous for surviving a plane crash with Iwuanyanwu Nationale in 1994 that left two players dead and others maimed.
He wears it proudly as a badge of honour. “No team administrator has won five national titles and if they do, they haven’t survived a plane crash,” Ejimofor proudly told Goal in Owerri.
It was such resolve that helped him to sign former Nigeria star Nwankwo Kanu to his first professional contract in 1992. Ejimofor had heard about the impressive talent making heads turn on the local school football circuit in Owerri. So he went to watch him play and immediately knew there was something in the young boy.
“He was good but he was slim, like something that could break,” said Ejimofor.
Mazi Uche EjimoforHe struggled to find the fees to sign the lad from the amateur club that he had been attached to while fending off interest from Enyimba, the club from the rich market town of Aba. The influence of Kanu’s father, a Nationale supporters’ club member, also played a major role in ensuring his success.
Though very young, Kanu was promoted into the first team at Iwuanyanwu but still faced tough times as he sought for opportunities to prove himself to the coaches. But Ejimofor never gave up.
“I kept encouraging him and even took him to a game in my car one day when he and another young player had been dropped from the match day squad. When we got to the game, he was eventually selected and he scored the winning goal. I asked the team to pay me back my money for transporting him to the game,” said Ejimofor.
From under Ejimofor’s watch, Kanu went on to become a member of the Nigeria U17 squad that won the Fifa title in 1993. Afterwards, things moved so fast and Kanu left Ejimofor’s care for the Netherlands where he signed for Ajax.
Then international acclaim came for the player as he led Nigeria to win the continent’s first Olympic men’s football gold in 1996 at Atlanta. Further moves were made to Inter Milan, Arsenal, Portsmouth and West Brom before he called time on his career.
Papilo FC
There was a time Ejimofor became very afraid for his protégé. In 1996, weeks after the Olympic win, Kanu’s transfer to Inter Milan was stalled after it was discovered he had a hole in his heart that could threaten his football career. The player sought treatment at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States.
“Initially we were told he wasn’t going to be able to play football again, it was sad,” said Ejimofor. “It’s the miracle of the century as he started playing again.
“He does not talk much about that operation, he believes it’s a miracle from God.”
Today, Ejimofor works as chairman of Papilo FC, the team that Kanu founded two years ago in order to help talented young footballers in Owerri achieve their dreams of playing professional football.
“He’s a special being and we may never have someone like him again,” he said.
The football legend has given Owerri the Kanu Nwankwo Sports Complex, a members-only facility with a synthetic football pitch, basketball court, boxing ring and a club house.
“He is giving back to the town that made him. This is one of many things to come,” Ejimofor said.
Source : Goal
