Post by Cheta Nwanze*
In 1989, an unknown Dutch manager, Clemens Westerhof happened upon the job of managing the Nigerian National Team, known at the time, as the Green Eagles. A year later, the team was meant to compete in the African Nations Cup, hosted by Algeria. Before the tournament, all hell broke loose as the usual issues of “fights to the finish”, “match bonuses”, “player power”, came to the fore. As a result, the senior players in the team, led by a certain Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, led a boycott of sorts by making outrageous sounding demands before playing for the country in Algeria 90. Westerhof called their bluff, and led the team consisting almost entirely of home-based players (Andrew Uwe, Rashidi Yekini and Friday Elahor being the exceptions) to the silver at the tournament. Bear in mind that this second place finish came after a 5-1 loss to the…