{"id":3796,"date":"2023-05-17T12:20:16","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T11:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3796"},"modified":"2023-05-17T14:33:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T13:33:08","slug":"nigerias-ugbade-shows-his-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2023\/05\/17\/nigerias-ugbade-shows-his-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\u2019s Ugbade Shows His Class<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9Satish Sekar (April 30th<\/sup> 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 29th<\/sup> the tournament opened in Algiers\u2019 Nelson Mandela Stadium, and Group B opened in Constantine\u2019s Stade Shahid Hamlaoui (named after a martyr of Algeria\u2019s liberation struggle who died in the struggle in Constantine in 1960.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Nigeria v Zambia in Constantine U17 AFCON<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was fitting that Zambia\u2019s campaign began against Nigeria, the team that beat their Miracle Team in the Final of the 1994 AFCON in Tunisia just a few months later. Zambia\u2019s Miracle Team had been led by one of Zambia\u2019s greatest ever players, Kalusha Bwalya \u2013 he and others based in Europe were spared the tragedy, but they remained deeply affected by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So were Nigerians. Few countries did more to help, certainly in Africa. One of them was a veteran of the great Nigerian team of the mid-1990s, Nduka Anthony Ugbade, who was the Head of Coach of the Golden Eaglets, Nigeria\u2019s team at the Under-17 AFCON.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people have unfairly criticised Ugbade for dedication of his team\u2019s 1-0 win \u2013 he responded to my question below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood evening coach, I\u2019m sure that you are aware that on the 28th<\/sup> of April 1993, one of the worst disasters to ever hit Zamb \u2026 African football, the Gabon Plane Crash, happened and months later Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations against Zambia\u2019s Miracle Team, and also Nigerians, such as John Fashanu, was very affected by the crash, and Nigeria tried its level best to help Zambia in its hour of need, so what I would like to know is with it being the 30th<\/sup> anniversary, will you dedicate the victory you had today to the victims of the Gabon Plane Crash?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Nduka Anthony Ugbade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ugbade needed no second invitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbsolutely, yes,\u201d Ugbade said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy? Because the nations of the world that heard \u2026 I was a footballer myself then playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I heard about the crash I was very, very saddened because it\u2019s a thing that doesn\u2019t happen so often except for just the natural ones, but that Zambia was able to raise a team again to go to \u2026 was it Morocco? \u2026 to play then, and then lost, was a very wonderful thing, so this game, no matter how tough it is for thirty years, the victory is dedicated to those that died and the ones that are living, and today, those that are representing Zambia in this competition, and thanks to CAF.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9Satish Sekar (April 30th 2023) Class On April 29th the tournament opened in Algiers\u2019 Nelson Mandela Stadium, and Group B opened in Constantine\u2019s [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,14,4,1],"tags":[453,120,342,415,292,452,374,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3801,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions\/3801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}