Mutiu Adepoju

Adepoju is reserved. He is reticent to the point of being accused of shyness. He looks anything but a celebrity yet this 44-year old has lived all his childhood dreams and even surpassed his own aspirations while growing up and schooling in Ibadan where he was born into a family of football lovers. His father played football but it was his uncle, Bayo Adepoju who played professionally and was later, as a coach, to take his young nephew under his wing.

For him, it was always going to be football and nothing else, that he was very clear about, even though he didn’t know the trajectory his life’s path was going to take.

“I had always known it was football and nothing else for me. I don’t know what else I would have taken as a career if not football. Haven realized this, I took the game very seriously and was always willing to give my best, whether in training, during set football or in match situations. I started from CRIN (Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria) Staff School and Prospect High School, both in Ibadan. I was fortunate to play in the same team with Dimeji Lawal who also went to those two schools.”

His first club was the CRIN FC, where he started with the youth team before graduating to the senior side. The team played in the Ibadan Football Association (IFA) league. He was soon off to Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Football Club and then the Nigerian Breweries FC, all in the IFA League which was very competitive with a lot of good players in different clubsides.

Though slightly-built, he was a prolific goalscoring midfielder and it was not long before his talent was recognized. He was a member of the Oyo State Academicals team to the National Sports Festival in Ilorin tagged Kwara ’85 and helped the team to the quarter-finals before they were eliminated.

However Femo Scorpions of Eruwa, bankrolled by the late millionaire businessman Adeseun Ogundoyin, had seen enough and signed him up to play for the team which was campaigning in the National Division Two.

This was a step up for the young lad who, hitherto, had been playing in the IFA League. He spent three seasons with Femo Scorpions from 1985 to ’87 and some of his teammates included Emma Okocha (Jay-Jay Okocha’s older brother), Jimoh Balogun (Saudi ’89 Flying Eagles), Binebi Numa and Dele Abubakar (both 1985 Golden Eaglets) among others.

Mutiu himself had been invited to the Golden Eaglets in 1986 and was set to be named in the team to the 1987 U-17 World Cup but was withdrawn by club proprietor Chief Ogundoyin because the team was not doing well and facing relegation.

Sad but not downcast, Mutiu returned and helped his team to battle relegation. Femo Scorpions had escaped the drop but Mutiu’s days in Eruwa were numbered. IICC Shooting Stars (now 3SC), which had been relegated to the lower division, approached him and he signed on for the 1988 season.

Though he had previously played in Division 2 but it was at IICC that he really came into national consciousness. Still playing in his midfield position, Mutiu scored lots of goals and helped the team back to the elite division that season. He was also his team’s topscorer and one of the highest in the division.

Mutiu had built a reputation as a ruthless scorer of goals with his head and subsequently got the nickname ‘Headmaster’ though he’s at a loss as to the origin of the moniker which has become like a second name even now after his career.

“Back then in secondary school, my mates were always scared to use their head to drive the ball into the goal post. I, on the other hand was very eager to use my head. It was a very big advantage to me because I could jump so high. I jumped higher than my mates who were taller.”

His exploits for Shooting Stars prompted coach Tunde Disu, who knew him back from the Golden Eaglets days, to invite Mutiu to the Flying Eagles team which was preparing for African qualifiers of the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Again, despite being a midfielder, Mutiu hit the ground running and emerged the team’s topscorer with five goals in six games as the Flying Eagles won the Tessema Cup, securing a World Cup ticket in the process.

He had conquered Africa but little did Mutiu know what was in store for him at the World Cup. In Saudi Arabia, the Flying Eagles beat the hosts 2-1, with Mutiu getting the opening goal. They lost to Portugal and drew 1-1 against Czechoslovakia to round off the group stages and this was when the competition became very interesting.

In the quarterfinals, having qualified behind group winners Portugal, Nigeria met the USSR in the match which famously came to be known as the ‘Miracle of Damman’ after the Eagles came backi from four goals down to beat their opponents. It was the stuff dreams are made off and, 25 years after, Adepoju still gets excited talking about that unforgettable day.

“Playing the USSR, we came up against a very technically good team who were very efficient. They scored twice before we knew what was going on. They scored twice again in the second half and we found ourselves trailing by four goals with less than half an hour left.

“We came into the game wanting to win but, as it were, we had to struggle to do damage limitations. We resolved to reduce the tally and make the loss a little bit more respectable. We got a free-kick and our dead-ball specialist, Chris Ohenhen, stepped up and scored. We got another free-kick and he scored again. I think that was the point where we decided that we could try and get another goal and because the third goal from Samuel Elijah came immediately after the second, we went all out and got the equalizer through Nduka Ugbade. We held on in extra time and won on penalties.

“The feeling, that night at the team’s hotel, was unbelievable as we danced and drummed into the night. Nobody had done this before and I couldn’t sleep as I kept pinching myself. We knew we had done something special but we didn’t know what it meant to the people back at home until we got reports of how people celebrated the victory back in Nigeria. It was a feeling I can’t get over, even now.”

If the quarterfinal victory was a team effort, personal glory was soon to come for Adepoju. The semi-final was against USA and Adepoju’s two headed goals against the brilliant Kasey Keller after the game was drawn to extra time gave Nigeria a 2-1 win and a spot in the final of the U-20 World Cup.

This was a first for an African team and European scouts trailed the lads from Nigeria everywhere they went in Saudi Arabia. Athough the team lost the final to Portugal but Adepoju had done enough to impress the scouts.

Prior to the World Cup, there’d been negotiations with Julius Berger of Lagos so on his return from the World Cup he moved to Lagos to join them. However, he was not to stay long as he travelled out six months later to join European giants Real Madrid. How did the deal, to join one of the world’s biggest clubs, come about?

He recalls: “Real Madrid scouts had watched the Flying Eagles play in Saudi Arabia and penciled down four of us. Chistopher Nwosu, Dimeji Lawal, Chris Ohenhen and myself were taken to Spain. Dimeji and Ohenhen left first before Nwosu and I went to join them two months later.

“However, because of complications in the deal which meant we couldn’t sign a contract in the first season, Nwosu said he couldn’t wait and opted to go to Belgium where there was another deal waiting for him. I signed and was sent to the B team playing in the second division under the name of Castilla.

“The club was relegated to the Segunda B before I could get a chance to play for them but by the second year my contract was regularized and I was cleared to play. I started playing and, fortunately, we gained promotion at the end of the season and I was the team’s top scorer.”

The manager wanted to promote him to the first team but was constrained by the rule which stipulated only three foreigners in the team. Given the choice of taking any of the big-money superstars on their books or a 19-year old rookie just out of Africa, the club management chose their big stars but the manager was so smitten by Mutiu’s talent that he mooted a change of nationality to help circumvent the rule.

However, two things stood against that suggestion. One, Mutiu was just in his third year as a resident in Spain but the rules prescribed five years residency. Secondly, Mutius’ heart was still with Nigeria, where his family and friends were so he turned down the suggestion.

This inability to play in the first team with Real is still one of Mutiu’s few career regrets but he’s still a staunch supporter of Madrid. In an interview three years ago, Adepoju lamented:

“My greatest regret is not playing for the Real Madrid senior team. I was good enough to play in the senior team but the rules then didn’t help my case. Clubs were forbidden from having more than three foreign players in their first team. Also, I was very young and the likes of Hugo Sanchez, Roberto Suarez, Emilio Butragueno, Fernando Hierro, Gheorghe Hagi, (Ricardo) Rocha and (Robert ) Prosinecki were more experienced and doing very well.

“There were other big players in the team but the coach paid special attention to me and was always impressed with my game (in the Segunda Division).But he couldn’t give me a chance in the team mainly because of the rules over the use of foreign players. It was my dream to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world. It’s very painful that I couldn’t realise my dream, not because I wasn’t good enough but because of the rules and the fact that there were great players in the team when I came. Nevertheless, I’m a great supporter of the club today. I watch their games here and follow what goes on in the club.”

After Saudi 89, he was among a few of the Flying Eagles who were invited to the senior national team but he was soon on his way out of the country. In 1990, he made his official debut on August 2 against Togo in a 1992 Nations Cup qualifiers which the Eagles won comfortably 3-0.

He was with Real Madrid until 1992 before he moved to Racing Santander who were also campaigning in the Segunda division. As he did with Shooting Stars and Castilla, Mutiu helped them gain promotion to the top-flight in his first season with the team and Santander maintained their La Liga status for many years until he left them four years later.

He helped Nigeria qualify for the AFCON in Senegal ’92 and was one of the stars of the competition, coming in narrowly behind Ghana’s Abedi Pele in the race for player of the tournament. Nigeria won bronze but Mutiu had established himself as a super regular in the Super Eagles, a position he was to hold for the next decade.

Two years later, he was in the AFCON-winning squad at Tunisia ’94, having won a World Cup ticket a few months earlier which was the first time in the country’s history. The Super Eagles of that era, known as the ‘1994 Eagles’, is regarded as arguably the best ever so one is curious to know what made the team so successful.

“The secret, if I can really call it that, was hardwork. I was proud, am still proud, to be a part of that team that took Nigeria to her first World Cup. We had a crop of talented players who were ready to do whatever it took to get Nigeria to the World Cup.

Other generations of equally talented players had tried before us and failed so I guess you could say we were also lucky but our luck met preparation and determination. We had a group of players who wanted to be part of history. We worked hard. You needed to see us in training.

Everyone knew he had to make an extra effort to be in the team because the coaches had more than one option for each position. This really brought out the best in each of us. Besides, we were at that point where we wanted to move to the next level in our club careers so playing very well for the national team was always going to help. All in all, it was a combination of factors that made the team what it was.”

Next port of call was Real Sociedad who were an established La Liga side. They narrowly missed the Champions League after coming third (at the time, only two teams qualified from Spain) but in his third year they finally played in the UEFA Cup.

He was a part of the Super Eagles team that qualified for the FIFA World Cup for a second time and made the squad to France ’98. Preparations were shoddy and pre-competition results dismal so nobody gave the team a snow’s chance in hell in the World Cup, especially as they were facing the impressive Spain in their opening game.

Surprise, surprise, they stunned the world by shocking the Spaniards with a 3-2 victory, Mutiu getting on the scoresheet.

“The Spanish team had been unbeaten in 32 games over the previous two years and everyone thought we would be roasted. I took two video tapes to camp and we studied them with the technical crew. Finidi George and Peter Rufai also played in Spain at the time so I could say we understood how the Spaniards were going to play.

“They always do zonal marking at cornerkicks so all I needed to do was just to move away and lose my marker. We had already practiced it in training where I scored a replica of that goal so it was not by mere luck that we scored. Besides, Bora had previously coached in Mexico so he knew their football philosophy. Yes, we sweated on the day but we deserved our victory.

“Against Denmark, the game we lost to Paraguay really exposed our weaknesses, especially in the defence and that was what the Danes capitalized on. Other off-the-pitch incidents also did not help but the main reason was that we were brutally exposed and our opponents exploited it.”

The Eagles were bundled out in the second round after a 4-1 thrashing and the World Cup adventure was over. So it was back to Sociedad where he was until 2000, after spending four years.

In 2000, he helped Nigeria to the final of the AFCON on home soil although they lost to Cameroun on penalties. It was his third Nations Cup (Nigeria had missed the previous two editions) and, though he didn’t know it at the time, it was his last. The penalty loss to Cameroun was so painful and difficult to take, being in front of the home fans.

“I was devastated that we lost the AFCON at home in front of our fans. It was my third AFCON after the four year absence and I was desperate to make up for lost time. We did well leading to the final. Only Senegal gave us a scare in the quarterfinals but we were unlucky against Cameroun in the final. It was really sad to lose, especially in such circumstances.”

Aged 30, he had spent the last 11 years in Spain and wanted a change of scenery so he moved to Saudi Arabia to join Al-Ithihad. He came back to Spain to be closer to his family and signed for Salamanca.

Nigeria had qualified for both the 2002 AFCON in Mali and the World Cup in Japan and South Korea but his name was surprisingly missing on the squad list to the AFCON. This signaled that his national team career was over but, like a phoenix, he resurrected and made the team to the World Cup, thus holding the record of being one of just five players (Austin Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Joseph Yobo and Vincent Enyeama being the others) to have attended three World Cups for Nigeria.

However his inclusion raised some eyebrow with some questioning what he had to offer the team.

He explained: “In 2002, I had missed the AFCON and was not happy about it because I felt I was still playing well to merit a call-up but I took it in my stride. We cannot all play at the same time so I wished the team to Mali well. They came back with a bronze and we all remembered all the chaos that led to the World Cup.

“During the preparations, I was invited to the camp in London and I was lucky to make the final squad. I didn’t have any special relationship with coach Onigbinde so it was not a favour to me but what he said was that he was taking a very young squad to the World Cup and would like to have senior players who could motivate and encourage them. And that was exactly what I was doing although I would have loved to play but the coach had the final say.”

That competition marked the end of his 12 years national career with a Nations Cup, a silver and a bronze medal as well as three World Cup appearances to show for it.

After the World Cup, he was soon on his way out of Spain for trysts in Turkey and Cyprus before coming back to Spain where his European adventure began to draw the curtains on an illustrious career in 2005. He proceeded to get his coaching badges and obtained the UEFA Pro B licence with which he helped out his local clubside in the Alicante area of Spain where he lived.

He was at this when he got a call from his home state government in 2008 to come and help steer the ship of his former club 3SC which was languishing in the lower league. Just like he did twenty years earlier as a player, he helped returned the team to the top-flight as General Manager/ Technical Director , a position he held for five years before resigning in 2012.

He also established the Lagos International Football Tournament (LIFT), a pre-season annual tournament where top football teams are invited to come and play against Nigerian domestic league teams.