JULY 20, 2013
Akpoborie.
Until he joined Hansa Rostock in 1995 and his heroics helped turned the former East Germany club to German Bundesliga title-contenders, not many would remember that Jonathan Akpoborie once won a trophy for Nigeria.
Akpoborie is Isoko from Delta State but was born in Ajegunle, a slum in Lagos. He was part of a history making win for Nigeria in the maiden FIFA Under-17 World Cup in China’85. The then 16-year-old turned heads at the Workers’ Stadium, Beijing when he scored a gem of a goal against Germany barely four minutes into the final of the tournament on August 11, 1985. Victor Igbinoba later hit the back of the net to help the Golden Eaglets to a 2-0 victory over the Europeans.
The striker was selected by coach Chris Udemezue for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Chile two years later. Despite the Flying Eagles’ brillant array of stars, Nigeria failed to progress past the group stage of the competition won by Yugoslavia.
Akpoborie joined Julius Berger after Chile’87 and was an important player for the outfit. But his romance with the Lagos club ended when he got a scholarship to study Computer Engineering at Brooklyn College, New York at the end of the season.
He became a prominent member of the school team and this affected his studies.
“I couldn’t complete my studies because I later moved to Germany for professional football,” Akpoborie told our correspondent on the telephone during the week.
“I am considering going back to school to complete the course, but I’ve not decided yet.”
He joined FC Saarbrucken in 1990 and was there for two years.
Despite banking on Rashidi Yekini for goals, Super Eagles coach Clemens Westerhof could not afford to ignore Akpoborie’s goal scoring form in Germany as he selected him for the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal, where Nigeria won bronze.
But Akpoborie soon fell out of favour with Westerhof and he was denied the chance to pull on his country’s green-white-green at the Tunisia ’94 Africa Cup of Nations won by the Eagles.
However, he was a member of the squad that won silver at the 2000 Ghana-Nigeria Africa Cup of Nations.
He said, “Westerhof harboured personal malice against me and he didn’t want to see my face. I can’t remember offending him but I think the decision to exclude me from the tournament was political. There was dirty politics in camp and I didn’t want to be part of it. Again, Westerhof had his boys and he was not ready to drop anyone for me.”
Akpoborie also had spells with FC Carl Zeiss Jena and Stuttgart Kickers, where he scored 37 goals in one season (1994/1995) before joining Waldhof Mannheim. His nine goals in 18 games for Waldhof Mannheim attracted Hansa Rostock, who signed him in 1996. After a brilliant season at the club, VfB Stuttgart came for him, and the move was the turning point in his career.
Akpoborie became VfB Stuttgart’s goalmachine and earned rave reviews in the media for his efforts.
Coach Shaibu Amodu gave Akpoborie the opportunity to revive his international career by selecting him for a 1998 World Cup qualifying game against the Harambee Stars of Kenya in Nairobi in 1997 and he equalised for the Eagles in the game that ended 1-1. Frenchman Philippe Troussier, who took over Amodu, also played him in the 2-1 defeat of Guinea in Lagos. Daniel Amokachi scored both goals for Nigeria while Titi Camara scored for the Syli Nationale.
But Serbian coach Bora Milutinovic, who was employed by the Nigeria Football Association to take the Eagles to the France ’98 World Cup finals after Troussier was forced to resign, surprisingly excluded Akpoborie from his squad for the tournament, in spite of the fact that he played a majority of the qualifiers.
Although the 44-year-old regrets not winning a trophy with Eagles, he is still pained by the manner of his exclusion from the World Cup.
“Yes, I regret not winning any title with the senior national team,” Akpoborie said.
“But if I go back to the way things played out then, I would be proud of how I managed to keep my dignity intact.
“Some of the people who worked against me are still playing big roles in Nigerian football. I won’t mention their names.
“Some officials of the NFA begged for certain people to be considered for a place in the World Cup squad but I refused and travelled to America.
“I was scoring regularly for my club (VfB Stuttgart) and we played in 1998 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and lost to Chelsea in the final. I was the second highest goalscorer (with six goals) in the competition and people expected me to beg to make the France’98 World Cup. Why should I meet or beg some people to represent my country when I didn’t offend them. I think they didn’t just want me.
“Selection for tournament or invitation to the national team should be on merit. I believe I merited a place in the World Cup squad.”
Despite the disappointment, Akpoborie, who dumped VfB Stuttgart for German topflight VfL Wolfsburg to become a cult hero for Wolves fans, insists he had a fulfilled career.
“My career was not based on playing for Nigeria alone. For a kid from Ajegunle, I have done well for myself,” he said.
Akpoborie dismissed the suggestions that he had some problems with Jo Bonfrere, hence the Dutch coach decided to name him in the alternate squad for the Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games men’s football event won by Nigeria.
He said, “Nothing. In fact, I was taken from the stands of the National Stadium, Lagos to play a friendly game with the Olympic-bound team. But Bonfrere made it clear to me that I was going to be one of his alternate overage players for that tournament. That is, I was not going to be in the main squad.
“I was with the squad all through the preparations in America, and I must say, it was one of the best experiences I had with the Nigerian team.”
The Sani Abacha administration rewarded each member of the Olympic-winning squad, including those on the alternate list, with N1m. Each player was also conferred with MON (Member of the Niger). But Akpoborie, who left camp before the beginning of the competition, was not part of the largesse.
He said, “I travelled to Germany from America. I am still being owed all the gifts that were given that team, although I have not requested them yet. “
Akpoborie believes he is misunderstood and a lot of people have the wrong impression of him.
“People who say I’m arrogant do not know me,” he said.
“I’m a shy and quiet person. But a lot of people take that for arrogance. But I’m not.”
In his heyday some believe Akpoborie had a playing style similar to Portugal and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and would have been one of the big hitters in world football if he is still playing. But the retired player says he has no regrets playing at the time he strutted his stuff in Germany.
He said, “Everybody has his time. I bet you, a lot of ex-players would have been megastars if they were playing now.”
Akpoborie is not happy with the situation of Nigerian football despite the country winning the Africa Cup of Nations thrice, the FIFA U-17 World Cup thrice and the Olympic men’s football gold once.
The FIFA licensed players’ agent said, “We are far from developing football in our country. So many things are disappointing. And if you look back to when we won the Under-17, there is no visible improvement in our football.”
He is not also happy that Nigerian players are not attracting interest from the likes of Barcelona, Arsenal, United, Real, Bayern Munich and AC Milan in the summer transfer market, blaming it on the poor development of the game in the country.
Akpoborie said, “In football you never know what might happen. But it seems we have a lot of players that lose focus after just one success. You have to stay hungry and focused in this profession. Getting to the top takes hard work, and it’s even harder to stay up there. I am missing that kind of concentration in most of our players now.”
The former Flying Eagles forward, who missed out on a place in the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup squad after featuring in a number of games ahead of the tournament, won’t follow in the footsteps of his ex-teammates who are now coaches.
“Just because you played football does not guarantee you to be a good coach. Besides, the stress of coaching will be too much for me,” he said.
Like most of his peers, Akpoborie did not have the support of his parents when he was playing football in Ajegunle. Also, he was not influenced by a particular player then. “Everybody in Ajegunle struggled for survival. In fact, life was that of survival of the fittest, which was not good for kids growing up there.
“Of course my parents weren’t happy that I was playing football. But it was pretty tough at the beginning. I went to see my brother play a game with his mates and they were not complete, so they asked me to play.
“I was reluctant at first, but I was forced to play. That was how the journey started for me. In fact, I had to squeeze my way into the national Under -17 team.”
“I used to watch the national team a lot, and we had a good school team at Igbobi College, Lagos. So there was not just one idol for me, but plenty.”
Akpoborie regrets that kids growing up in Ajegunle are being denied the opportunity to develop themselves in football because of the structures springing up in every available space in the area.
The father of two said, “(growing up) is pretty different from what the kids in Ajegunle are going through now. Back then, there was a lot of space everywhere for us to play football and we enjoyed it. We did not have all the money and toys to play with, but football was supreme.”
In 2001, Akpoborie made the headlines when a boat, managed by his family, was stopped in Benin Republic after allegations that it was carrying children into slavery in Gabon. Following the incident, Wolfsburg suspended him.
He returned to Saarbrücken where he called it quits with the game at the end of the 2001/2002 season.
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