Emeka Amadi

February 28, 1989 was the day the history of world football was re-written. Time on the clock was 58 minutes and the scoreboard read USSR 4-0 Nigeria. It was the quarter-final match of the FIFA U-20 World Youth Championship and it was as good as over for the Nigerian lads with just half an hour left and a seemingly impossible mountain to climb.

Yet, in the space of 24 crazy minutes, the Flying Eagles scored four cracking goals to take the game into extra time and then win the ensuing penalty shootout. Pandemonium struck and the usually serene Kingdom of Saudi Arabia erupted in wonderment as the news reverberated around the world. The impossible has just happened!

It was the first time ever that a team will come back from being four goals down to equalize and then go on to win a FIFA World Cup game at any level. It was a match to remember for those who saw the game and a moment to treasure for those who were lucky enough to play a part in the making of such an epoch-making event.

Smack in the middle of it all was Emeka Anthony Amadi, the gentle looking but agile as a cat goalkeeper who broke Soviet hearts by stopping one of their penalty kicks. Ironically, Amadi nearly failed to make the World Cup team but for the ‘stubbornness’ of his coach.

He recalls: “I sustained a serious injury after our semi-final win against Cote d’Ivoire in the semi-finals of the African qualifiers and could not participate in the final round against Mali. Luckily my teammates won that fixture and we started preparing for the World Cup. I was still nursing the injury and it was looking like I was going to be dropped but coach Disu stood his ground that as long as the doctors think I have a decent chance of shrugging off the injury, he was willing to risk putting me in the team and that was how I got into the World Cup squad.” And the rest, as they say, is history.

The young Amadi was born and grew up in the University town of Nsukka in Eastern Nigeria’s Anambra State. He played soccer on the streets like any other neighbourhood kid of that period. He was in his school team at both primary and secondary school and participated in several youth competitions but did not join a structured club until he got signed by Monarch FC.

“Mornarch was my first ever club and that was the first time I earned money from playing football even though it wasn’t much. Some of my teammates then at the club included Festus Agu, Onwudinwe, Donald Agu (not a relation of Festus), Emeka Nwobodo who all went on to play for Rangers before travelling abroad to play professionally. “

He secured a place at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) to study Health and Physical Education. At Nsukka, he had the chance to represent the school at the NUGA and also played for the old Anambra state Academicals in different competitions. He helped the team to a silver at the KWARA ’85 sports festival in Ilorin with some of his teammates in the Academicals team such as Onochie Alumona, Reginald Ashinze, Emeka Nwobodo, Solomon Oko etc going on to become household names.

His excellent performances were not unnoticed and soon he got the call to come and join Rangers International. Was it easy to make the decision to leave Monarch, seeing as they are his first love?

“Yea, the decision was not hard to make for me. First, it was a move up the ladder and more importantly, we were talking about Rangers International, the dream of every boy playing football in the East at the time. I left Monarch and joined Rangers in 1988 and it proved a step in the right direction for me career-wise. I was still at UNN then but I was able to combine my studies with football through the understanding of my coaches and the management of the club.”

His performances at the 1987 NUGA Games as well as the PEPSI Cup for Higher Institutions where UNN were beaten by the University of Ife in the semi-finals saw him being voted as the MVP for the tournament as well as for Rangers International during the 1988 season made national team selectors to sit down and take another look at Amadi. He got an invitation to the Flying Eagles shortly after.

“I want to believe my performances during that season (in particular the epic game versus BCC Lions at their dreaded Gboko Stadium) and the fact that I was within the age limit helped to convince the national team coaches to invite me to the Flying Eagles team which was about to play the semi-finals of the African Qualifiers for the U-20 World Cup. We met Cote d’Ivoire and I was in goal for the home and away legs of the fixture.

“It was easy to blend in with the other players in camp because most of them were either my teammates at one point or I had played against them in the league so it was easy to get along. I sustained an injury shortly after and I couldn’t be a part of the team that played Mali in the final qualifying leg. Angus Ikeji, my Rangers teammate, and Fancy Maduka were the other keepers and they did a good job to ensure we qualified for Saudi ’89.”

Unlike now that national teams embark on all sorts of foreign tours, the Flying Eagles had to prepare for the World Cup at home. Despite the fact that the 1987 set, arguably the most talented set of Flying Eagles ever to be assembled had fumbled spectacularly in Chile, the new team was taken to the Liberty Stadium (now renamed Obafemi Awolowo Stadium) in Ibadan to train and prepare for the World Cup under the tutelage of coach Tunde Disu and Kelechi Emetiole. The only friendly match of note that the team played while in camp was against Requiems FC of Benin Republic in Cotonou.

According to Amadi: “That was about all the preparations we had for the World Cup. However, on the way to Saudi Arabia for the competition, we stopped in transit in Holland and trained for a day or two but we did not play any friendly matches there. The injury I had was not fully healed but coach Disu named me in his squad as one of only two goalkeepers. The other was Angus Ikeji.

“In the final squad, we had about nine players from the 1987 U-17 Golden Eaglets as well as Nduka Ugbade who captained the 1985 set. Naturally, because of my injury, I was not first-choice in goal. Angus was and he did well to keep us in the competition up till the quarter-finals against the USSR.”

Nigeria started the competition with a 2-1 over host country Saudi Arabia but lost 1-0 to Portugal in the next. The final group game against Czechoslovakia was a tense affair as both teams had equal chances of going through although a draw would be enough to see the Flying Eagles through.

The Czechoslovakians scored first in the 14th minute and when it appeared as if they were facing the exit, Christopher Nwosu’s wonderful solo goal with just 18 minutes left to play saved the day and set up an enthralling quarter-final date with USSR.

“Though the USSR won all three group games and were very good, we were spoiling for a fight with them for obvious reasons. They had met and defeated Nigeria in the final of the U-17 World Cup in controversial circumstances two years earlier. Players like Dimeji Lawal, Angus Ikeji, Taiwo Enegwea, Oladuni Oyekale, Anthony Emoedofu, Peter Ogaba, Christopher Nwosu, Bawa Abdullahi and Philip Osondu who were in that team at Canada ‘87 were pumped up that they wanted their pound of flesh back from the Soviets. Ikeji was in goal and we were very optimistic of victory but at half-time, we were two goals down. The coaches asked me to dress up and go in to replace Angus.”

Was that substitution a deliberate strategy or the coaches were just going out on a limb?

“Hahahahaha, you will have to ask the coaches. Thank God they are both alive and still healthy. Well, whatever their reason for asking me to go in, we conceded two additional goals within 15 minutes of the restart. At 2-0, it was difficult but four goals down appeared impossible to overcome. What kept us going was our resolve not to be disgraced. If we are going to be eliminated, we should leave the competition with our heads held high.

“Luckily for us, Christopher Ohenhen scored our first goal three minutes after the Soviets had scored their fourth. He got another one and we were happy that the scoreline was a bit respectable, after all, 4-2 was better than 4-0 but when Samuel Elijah got the third one for us, we began to see possibilities where there was doubt before. The Soviets panicked and we went all out. A minute later, Nduka Ugbade scored the historic goal that drew us level. We held on through 30 minutes of extra time before eventually winning on penalties.”

So, you want to know, what was the mood in camp like afterwards?

“My brother, all hell was let loose after the game. The team bus and later our hotel became a madhouse with celebrations. That was the day I knew the power of football. All of us, drawn from different parts of the country, were speaking and screaming at once and we could actually understand what the other person was saying. It is a memory that still leaves me with goose bumps whenever I remember it. When the press dubbed the game ‘Damman Miracle’, I only nodded my head that it was indeed a miracle.”

The Flying Eagles defeated USA in the semi-finals but lost the final to Portugal 2-0 (after losing 1-0 to them in the group stages) but they had done enough to earn the respect of the whole world and the appreciation of their countrymen and women.

Amadi goes down memory lane again as he recalls the reception on the team’s return from Saudi Arabia.

“The Federal Government had declared a public holiday on the day of the final and it was sad that we lost but on our return Nigerians treated us like heroes. I’m not sure we could have gotten a better reception even if we won the trophy. Each player got N75,000 (seventy-five thousand naira) which was a lot of money at the time and 10,000 units of AP shares. Unfortunately, I don’t recall any of the players who got anything from the shares as they were fraudulently converted by God-knows-who. Imagine how much those shares would be worth today, 25 years after!”

On memories, no prize for guessing which was his toughest game of his career would be.

“The USSR game as well as the league game between Rangers and BCC Lions in the 1988 season are my most memorable matches because I stopped a penalty in each of the games and they retain a special place in my heart forever. Joe Ashinze remains the most difficult striker I’ve had to face because of his trickery and precision in front of goal.”

Amadi returned to Rangers for the 1989 season but by the following year he was on his way to Bendel Insurance of Benin where he played for two years before travelling to Germany in 1992 to further his career.

“I played for several clubs in Germany such as Celle, Hannover etc until 2002 when I retired from football. I had studied Social Education which makes me a Social worker and I was, at a point, the principal of a school in Germany. I started coaching even before I got my badges because you’re allowed to coach in certain divisions if you’d played at a higher division in Germany.

“In 2009, I did my coaching courses and was certificated. In 2012, I came back to Nigeria and was appointed goalkeeper trainer of the Golden Eaglets and we eventually won the U-17 World Cup in 2013. I was particularly happy because it was my first career gold medal and I was also lucky that my boy was voted best goalkeeper at the competition. That Eaglets team had everything going for us. Good team, good technical crew and the hand of God. The future is indeed very bright for all of us.”
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