Dr Mumini Alao: “My dad almost withdrew me from school because of football. “

Award-winning sports journalist, columnist and Executive Consultant at Complete Sports, Dr Mumini Alao in this interview with JOHNNY EDWARD recounts his nervy touchline experience during Nigeria’s World Cup qualifying game against Algeria in Algiers

Growing up, what sport did you enjoy engaging in?

I played football, I also played table tennis, volleyball, badminton and I think I made a short appearance on the handball field when handball was newly introduced to my secondary school where I went to, Iganmode Grammar School in Otta, Ogun State.

But then they threw the ball and the ball hit me on the head and I had a headache throughout the day. So that was my first and last day on the handball pitch.

But for football, I played football all through my primary, secondary, HSC, all the way to the youth service. I played, I did my youth service in the old Anambra State. And I was a member of the Anambra State. So it was after I completed my NYSC that I hung my boots and I retired from playing football.

Did your parents ever discourage you from pursuing a career in sports?

Well, there was no time that I tried to pursue a career as a footballer. So, there was no point for them stopping me, but when I was in boarding school, the only place you will find me was on the football field and each time my parents came to look me up at the boarding house, and they say, oh, they’re asking for Mumini, from the football field, they would go and call me. That was certain back then.

So, in fact, there was an occasion my dad said he was going to withdraw me from school so that I could concentrate on football. So, I really played a lot of football, but I never planned to make a career out of it.

What do you make of the current Super Eagles compared to the Eagles of the past?

Well, I think it’s very clear to us that the current Eagles can’t be compared to the Eagles of old in terms of their performance or their achievements. How do we assess a team? It’s based primarily on their results and achievements.

When we talk about the golden generation of Nigerian football today, it’s because they qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 1994, they won the African Nations Cup in Tunisia and they won the Nation’s Cup for the first time for Nigeria in 1980. So, it’s usually the results and your achievements that will determine how you are rated whatever generation of Super Eagles we are talking about.

The current generation, unfortunately, there’s nothing that we can point to yet. I’m put the word ‘yet’ because they are still there. So, we hope that they can still achieve something but for now, there’s nothing to point to.

The Nation’s Cup that Nigeria used to, at least the minimum reach the semi-finals, we finished top place, bronze medal all the time. The last one, we didn’t even go beyond the round of 16.

And before that, we didn’t even qualify at all for the two Nation’s Cups before that last one in 2019. The current Eagles, they don’t have anything to show yet.

But if you want to look at some of the players, we do have some very gifted players in the current team, very talented players. But we have not seen a good team from this generation. Quite a number of the players in this Eagles squad are very talented and skilled. You see what they do for their clubs all the time. But as a team, they are yet to deliver.

What did you make of Victor Osimhen winning the African Player of the Year?

I am not a very frequent user of the social media. But when Osimhen won, that title and Asisat Oshoala also won the women’s version of the award. I posted on social media, just to celebrate what I consider a very momentous achievement for Nigeria.

For a long time now, Nigerian football has not been in the news. The Eagles have not been in the news on the African scene, on the world scene. A lot of countries have left us behind. Everybody now talks about Senegal. They talk about Morocco because they did so well at the last World Cup and you know, we didn’t even qualify for the last edition in Qatar. So, it’s like Nigeria was been put in the shades.

Osimhen and Oshoala have both brought the country back to the limelight again on that wonderful night in Morocco.

On how I felt, it was so satisfying. It was so satisfying to see Nigeria shining on the world football scene again because the news went viral, it was global news that Nigeria won the men and women African Footballer of The Year and it was the first time that was happening.

It is something really to celebrate and I am very happy with Nigeria. I am very, very happy with Osimhen and also pleased with Oshoala for bringing glory to Nigeria at such a big stage. My prayer and expectation now is that the teams, the Super Eagles and the Super Falcons, will be able to now translate the individual awards by these two players to team awards at the next AFCON, both for the men and women’s team.

Talking about the AFCON, how do you fancy Nigeria’s chances?

Well, you know better than me that we always have this cliche in sports that a team is as good as their last result. So, the fact that the Eagles were the AFCON winners three times, Ivory Coast have only won it twice and our two opponents, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea, have never even won an African title.

So if you look at the history and pedigree, you will just dismiss those other two teams in the group and say it’s going to be Nigeria and Ivory Coast to qualify from that group.

But if you look at recent results by those two teams, Equatorial Guinea for instance, they have qualified consistently for the last three editions of the AFCON and this is going to be their fourth AFCON appearance.

For a team that has not been qualifying for the Nations Cup in the past and they are qualifying for a fourth straight time is a big achievement and Nigeria cannot underrate them and the same for Guinea-Bissau. Those teams won’t be pushover anymore so the Eagles have to be ready. It’s not going to be a walk over at the AFCON but everything put together Nigeria should qualify from that group along with Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast, have always been a very difficult opponent for Nigeria even at the best of times in 1994 when we won the AFCON, it took a penalty shootout before Nigeria could beat them in the semi-final. The first-ever World Cup that Nigeria qualified for in 1994, Ivory Coast beat Nigeria in one of the qualifying games in Abidjan.

So they’ve always been a very tough opposition for Nigeria. The last time Nigeria defeated Ivory Coast that I enjoyed it the most was in 2013 when they had the likes of Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure and others. They were supposed to be the superstars but Nigeria upset them. Playing at home next month, the smart money will be on Ivory Coast.

Do you think players in the NPFL are good enough to play for the Eagles?

I think this is the longest-running debate in the history of Nigerian football. But I will take it from the Clemence Westerhoff era. When he came in 1989, he used home players from the Nigerian league for the Nations Cup qualifiers and he used overseas-based players mainly for the World Cup qualifiers.

There was a game the Eagles played in Enugu and the home base team struggled. I think it was against Congo.

And the fans in the stadium were singing, All we are saying, no more home base and Westerhoff was asked during an interview with BBC, what his reaction was to the song by the local fans. And he said, ‘I bring foreign-based players, they say they want home-based players. I bring home-based players, but they say they want foreign-based players.

So, who am I now going to bring that will satisfy Nigerians? I’m going to bring Eskimos to come and play for Nigeria?

He should be the one to determine who plays. It’s as simple as that. Talking about history, the late Stephen Keshi went to the 2013 edition with a handful of home-based players and he won the AFCON.

In the last four to six years, the home-based players have not been able to qualify for the African Nations Championship. So, it’s a double-edged sword In terms of what the home-based players have been able to do and what they have not been able to do.

I remember during the time of Joe Bonfrere, m he was also asked about home-based players.

He replied, ‘Who should I remove for the home-based players? Are they better than Austin Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu or Taribo West?

So if you look at the current Eagles team, are we going to say that Samuel Chukwueze is not good enough or the other players that we have? So, it is not a matter of the individual. It’s the problem of the team. So, if Jose Peseiro decides that he wants to use the home-based players, good for him. But if he says he wants to stick with the overseas-based players, good for him as well.

What’s your fondest Super Eagles moment?

It was when we qualified for the World Cup for the first time. It was after the game against Algeria on that very cold night in Algiers, when the final whistle went.

I remember before the final whistle blew Nigeria needed a draw to qualify ahead of Ivory Coast and George Finidi scored first for us before Algeria equalised. Then the last 20 minutes was like forever? I saw Westerhof on the touchline shouting to the referee. It’s over now. Let’s go to the USA now. It’s over now. You want to spoil everything and when the referee blew the final whistle, he started shouting; we’re going to the USA. We’ll go to the USA. We’ll go to the USA.

As a journalist, I joined them on the pitch just running all over the place. We didn’t know how to even celebrate it because it was something that had never been done before. If it was something that had been done before, you would know how to celebrate. So, it was a wonderful night, that night in August 1993.