Nigeria and football, an exciting, acrobatic, pyrotechnic, yet mysterious association. Nigerian national team holds the record for victories (5) in the Under 17 World Cup and, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, rewrote football history by winning the gold medal (the first and only time for an African team) defeating Javier Zanetti, Diego Pablo Simeone, Ariel Ortega and other Argentinian legends.
The Olympics’ victory was a great highlight for the Super Eagles, but if you want to know more about Nigerian betting sites and football history, this article is what you are definitely looking for. Nigerian players are undoubtedly among the best exponents of African football in the world and in the next paragraphs we want to highlight the best Nigerian footballers ever.
Obafemi Martins
The Nigerian striker was “as fast as a train” and known all over the world for his acrobatic celebrations. Thanks to his unbelievable speed, since he was able to cover the 100 meters in 11”, Martins was a key player for every counterattack and verticalization.
To date, Oba Oba is the most prolific Nigerian footballer in UEFA club competitions with 23 goals, 10 of which were scored in the Champions League, for Inter, Newcastle United, Wolfsburg, Rubin Kazan and Levante. Martins, born in 1984, still plays in the Chinese SuperLeague at Wuhan Changjiang Zuqiu Julebu. Obafemi Martins has scored 18 goals in 42 appearances with the Nigerian national football team.
Taribo West
Forty-one appearances for the Nigerian national team, brought to Italy by Inter, he also played for AC Milan; West enjoyed coloring his hair according to the team he was playing with. Aggressive, picturesque, and instinctive with a few too many excesses, which had led him to be one of the most controversial defenders of his generation, at the end of his career he proclaimed himself a Pentecostal pastor, later founding the “Taribo West Charity Foundation” to help Nigerian children in need.
Sunday Oliseh
At just 19, during the 1994 World Cup in the USA, Oliseh was already having a pivotal role for the Nigerian Super Eagles. Reggiana noticed him immediately and catapulted him from Belgium to Serie A in the 1994-95 season (29 appearances and 1 goal).
Oliseh became a proper international top player while playing for Ajax, which prompted Juventus to invest 10 million dollars to have him in Turin in the 1999-2000 season. It didn’t work. On the other hand, he later became a pillar of Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.
George Finidi
Among the most representative symbols of Nigerian football (62 appearances and 6 goals for the national team), Finidi was a really prolific winger with burning progressions. Mostly remembered for his performances with Ajax, with which he won a Champions Cup in Vienna as a starter against AC Milan, Finidi also played for Betis Sevilla in Spain.
Nwankwo Kanu
As well as with the Nigerian national team, Kanu’s most important goals were scored for Ajax (as a very young footballer), Arsenal and Portsmouth. An elegant striker with long powerful legs, Nwankwo Kanu was named African Footballer of the Year in 1996 and 1999.
A heart problem prevented him from breaking through in Serie A with Inter, marking his career permanently.
Jay-Jay Okocha
With his quick dribblings and amazing feints, Okocha varied from midfield to attack with a rare elegance and vision of the game. In our opinion, Jay-Jay Okocha is the Nigerian footballer with the finest technique ever. Born in 1973, Okocha counts 73 caps and 14 goals for the national team, playing as captain of the great Bolton at the beginning of the millennium (after Alex Ferguson did not grant him even one presence at Manchester United).
He wore other very important jerseys such as Eintracht Frankfurt, Fenerbahçe, PSG and, at the end of his career, Hull City.
