I am one of those who have been thrilled by the performance of the U-20 national team at the on-going LMC Super Six Invitational tournament. Here is a group of boys who have ruled the world at the U-17 level and have graduated into the U-20. It is also believed that these boys should form the bulk of Samson Siasia’s U-23 team.
At the moment, Siasia is content with grooming his own team but this is only because the current U-20 team has the African qualifiers and World Youth Championship to prosecute. As soon as these campaigns are sorted out, most of those boys should be available for Siasia’s All Africa Games and Olympics campaigns. But if I may ask; which should we actually call the Dream Team; the U-23 team or the current Flying Eagles?
After the U-20 boys beat Enyimba 2-0 on Saturday, the U-23 boys filed out against Warri Wolves. I overheard the announcer introduce the U-23 team as Dream Team 6. A heated argument ensued between me and my friends. I was of the opinion that instead of terming the U-23 team Dream Team, we should evolve a name for it. I have been at the centre of this crusade for a long while and I am shocked nothing has been done about it. Qualifying every U-23 squad as Dream Team waters down the accomplishments of the 1996 set.
The fact is that the tag ‘Dream Team’ was used to capture the quality of players paraded by a particular set of U-23s. That nickname was given to the team by then NFF president Group Capt. Emeka Omeruah of blessed memory. And he was not even in a hurry to qualify the team as such. It took a while during the Olympics qualifier for Omeruah to append that sobriquet on the team. He didn’t do so after the Austin Okocha show in the Battle of Mombasa where the boys beat Kenya 3-0 to progress after a goalless draw in the first leg. The Kenyan fans were dazed by Okocha’s artistry and the overwhelming performance of the boys from Nigeria but Omeruoh was not swayed.
But it was after the next round of qualifiers that he appropriately nicknamed the team. After the first leg against Egypt ended 3-2 in Lagos, the team was in danger of being eliminated but the boys’ class shone through as the team drew 1-1 in the return leg in Cairo to progress. So after Victor Ikpeba’s goal made the difference, Omeruoh screamed; ‘oh, this is a real Dream Team’. That team did not disappoint as they went all the way to become the first African team to win an Olympics football gold.
That sobriquet ‘Dream Team’ was not misplaced. In that squad were a bunch of players who had won the U-17 trophy at Japan 93, won AFCON at Tunisia 94 and featured in Nigeria’s first ever World Cup outing at USA 94. The boys had been together for a while and oozed class and experience. It was the great Pele who pointed out that only a ‘gang’ wins the World Cup. That team was a ‘gang’. The boys knew each other so well that one could spot another’s run even with eyes closed. Let me reel out some of the gladiators of that team; Nwankwo Kanu, Austin Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Celestine Babayaro, Taribo West, Emmanuel Amuneke, Garba Lawal, Victor Ikpeba, Mobi Oparaku, Wilson Oruma, Okechukwu Uche, Tijani Babangida and Daniel Amokachi. Three members of that squad would go on to win the African footballer of the year four times with Kanu winning it twice. Since Kanu won the award in 1999, no Nigerian player has won it. That was a generation of footballers that brought honour to the nation.
Since 1996, we have had subsequent U-23 teams nicknamed Dream Teams 2,3,4,5 and now 6. But how many of such squads had produced African footballers of the year? None! That aptly describes the quality in those teams. Some of those squads even failed to qualify for the All Africa Games and Olympics, yet they were labeled ‘Dream Teams’. I am of the opinion that we have abused the Dream Team tag. Even before seeing the composition of this set of U-23s, it had been labeled Dream Team 6. The ideal thing is to wait till the team is constituted before knowing whether it is one to dream about. The assemblage of players may not even be enough. In Omeruoh’s case, he had to wait till the third round of qualifiers to be convinced it was a Dream Team.
The original Dream Team we have now is not even the U-23 team. For me, the U-20 team is more like it. We all saw how those boys lorded it over their peers at the U-17 World Cup in 2013. Now, under the same technical crew, the boys have continued their dominance at the U-20 level. Since the U-17 outing, the boys have joined illustrious clubs in Europe namely, Manchester City, Tottenham and Porto. It is now 16 years since a Nigerian won the African footballer of the year but I see these boys ushering in a new dawn.
In the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho, Musa Yahaya, Chidera Eze, Musa Mohammed, Abubakar Aliyu, Chidiebere Nwakali, Isaac Success, Taiwo Awoniyi and Dele Alampasu, the future of Nigerian football looks bright. I see these boys’ dominance lasting way beyond the U-17 days to the U-20, U-23 and Super Eagles. In that team I see the next golden generation of Nigerian football. If the Dream Team tag is reserved for teams brimming with talents, the current U-20 team should be so tagged. We have seen enough of the boys to term them as such. Siasia’s U-23 team could still metamorphose into a Dream Team but we should suspend the accolade till the U-20 boys link up after their U-20 assignment.
So as I watched the U-23 boys being termed Dream Team 6 at the Super Six, I shuddered over our collective ignorance and inability to pay attention to details. Should we continuously call every set of U-23s Dream Team? The onus is on the NFF to evolve a name for the U-23 national team. Some have suggested the name Olympic Eagles but since the team is also involved in the All Africa Games campaign, I will recommend U-23 Eagles. But that is only to institutionalize the name. Whoever has followed my articles closely over the years will notice I always introduced the U-23 teams as U-23 Eagles. I have consciously avoided being part of this Dream Team abuse. The Dream Team tag just doesn’t make sense to me and I don’t know if I’m the only one who gets embarrassed when any of those teams who had been so glowingly qualified perform woefully.
Nwankpa is an Abuja based author and journalist
