ABDUL SULE was a member of the exciting Stationery Stores team which took the Nigerian league by surprise in 1992, playing with style as they won converts for the Adebajo Babes. He also got called up to the Super Eagles in just his first year of top-flight football…..
Originally from Kogi state in North Central Nigeria, the young Abdul was born and grew up in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria’s most cosmopolitan city where he mixed freely with children from all over the country. Though tribes and tongues differed, one common factor that joined him with these other kids was their love for the game of football.
He recalls: “Coach Bebe and I lived in the same neighbourhood and I knew he was handling NUB FC, a division two team at the time. One day he came to watch us play and I guessed he was impressed with my performance because he offered me the chance of a trial with NUB. It was a dream come true for me and I could hardly eat because of excitement. I went and trained with the team and I got signed on. Just like that.”
Coach Bebe was a hard driver, even though a fair one. He pushed his players to aim for their very best and, in no time, he had the young Sule in the first team as an attacker. His game improved with each passing game and he soon became one of the most feared strikers in the lower league. Sule was with NUB for three seasons and won his first trophy when they clinched the Kaduna state FA Cup in 1991. That victory, however, signaled the end of his romance with the club as he was soon on his way to greater things.
UP FLAMING: The great Stationery Stores team of 1992
Coach Bebe, surprisingly, got offered the job of managing Stationery Stores FC of Lagos, one of the most fanatically supported side in Nigerian football. It was going to be a challenging job because Stores’ fans demanded immediate results and were not known to be very patient with the handlers of their team.
In preparing for the task ahead, Coach Bebe sought to recruit some of the best legs in the league although he had to do it on a shoestring budget because Stores were not one of the better-funded teams even though they demand the best from coaches and players.
Sule, along with Ibrahim Babangida, Yusuf Sanusi, Sunday Audu and Okwuosa were conscripted from NUB and followed coach Bebe to Lagos. At Stores, they teamed up with other youngsters like Hakeem Ogunlade, Lati Alanamu, Julius Akpele, Teslim Fatusi, Leye Akinde, Hassan Santos, Ganiyu Ajide, Arthur Moses, Stephen Botchway et al to rewrite the story of the club in Nigeria’s football history.
Stores were FA Cup champions in 1990 but crashed out of the CAF Winners’ Cup in the first round in 1991 so the fans were hungry for silverware. Bebe and his band of young, talented and hungry-for-fame players made an immediate impact by playing a brand of attractive but purposeful football rarely seen in Nigeria. From Enugu to Maiduguri, from Kano to Port-Harcourt, from Ibadan to Ijebu Ode, the fame of Bebe’s boys grew as they won league games with effortless ease.
For Sule, three things were responsible for that amazing feat:
Truly, the performances did not go unnoticed as Sule, with teammate Ganiyu Ajide got called up into the national team which was playing the qualifying series of the 1994 African Nations Cup as well as the World Cup.
ROLLING WITH CHAMPS: Sule with other Super Eagles players on the commemorative photo-stamp during the 1994 World Cup qualifiers
Sule made his international debut against Uganda in a Nations Cup qualifier and helped the team to a 2-0 win on August 29, 1992 at the National Stadium Surulere. This was the first of many national team caps for him but Sule reckons his best game for the Super Eagles was the 6-0 demolition of Ethiopia on July 24, 1993 in the final qualifying game for the 1994 African Cup of Nations which Nigeria went on to win. His last game for Nigeria was the World Cup qualifying game against Cote d’Ivoire which ended 4-1 in favour of the Super Eagles at the national stadium, Lagos.
Back at Stationery Stores, Abdul Sule and his teammates took the club to the semi-finals of the African Champions Cup before losing to an Emmanuel Amuneke-inspired Zamalek FC of Egypt.
ON DUTY: Sule in the colours of AC Horsen
His stint with El-kanemi was very brief, lasting just two months, before he jetted out to Asia to join Qatar Sports Club where he played for two seasons before moving to Europe to sign for Denmark’s Herning Fremad.
Retired but certainly not tired, he got employed by top scouting agency, European Sports Managent (ESM) to work as Consultant/Project manager while working on getting his coaching badges.
This feat obviously impressed HIK Copenhagen which promptly engaged him as youth coach. Again, like he did with the street soccer side, Sule led the HIK youth team to victory in an international cup competition and he was deployed to the first team as reward for his industry.
In 2013, he got the call from his home state of Kogi to come home and help revive the fortunes of the state-owned teams. For him, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“Even though I grew up in Kaduna, Kogi is my home state and when I got the call, it was impossible to say no because I had always wanted to give back to the society. I was already involved in a youth foundation in Denmark and set up a replica in Nigeria. Probably that was what some people saw and got interested. I came back and got the job of Technical Director of Kogi United and Confluence Queens, both owned by the state government. I’ve since been moved to Technical Adviser and, recently, Chairman of both teams. I have used my influence to secure favourable deals for them from Hummels and I can boldly say that we are one of the best-kitted teams in the country in terms of quality. It is a long-term project and, by God’s grace, Kogi United will soon be a force to reckon with in the country.”
Sule, second from left, in the Johor FC line up
If you know how far this Kaduna boy has come, you won’t bet against him achieving all he has set his mind to do.
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