Oluwatosin Enesi
Chukwu, who was fondly called ‘Chairman’ during his playing days, pointed out that the team was called ‘Green Eagles’ when he was first invited to the national camp in 1974.
He went further back and remembered his early days of kicking footballs on the backstreets of Enugu, but recounted how his parents almost dissuaded him.
Chukwu recalled, “My father was a teacher. There were seven of us, and he trained all of us very well – two boys and five girls.
“My parents refused to allow me play football, and it was through the help of a leading coach of that time that I was able to start playing fully.
“It was Coach Dan Anyanwu, who came to plead with my father and mother to allow me to play football. That’s how they eventually allowed me to play actively.
“Otherwise, in those days, parents did not allow their children to play football. They also did not like comedians and entertainers.
“All they wanted to see you be was a doctor or lawyer. That was what I faced when I started, but God saw me through, and I had a successful football career.”
Chukwu, who went on to become one of Nigeria’s first set of coaches to handle an African team, when he took charge of Kenya’s Harambee Stars in 1998, then recalled his early days as a player in the Nigerian national team, which he later took charge of in 2003.
“I was invited to the national team, then known as the Green Eagles, in 1974. That was when I was first invited.
“When I got to the national team, Dominic Ezeani was the captain. Not quite long after, though, he travelled to the United States of America.
“That was how I was picked to captain the Green Eagles then. I started captaining the team in all our matches, and, in 1976, we bronze at the Nations Cup in Ethiopia and another bronze in 1978 in Ghana.
“Then, in 1980, we won the Nations Cup in Lagos, and the name of the team was changed to Super Eagles,” Chairman Chukwu disclosed.
He also recounted the rewards they got from Nigeria’s then president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, while stressing that the players’ character and companionship made a lot of difference for the team.
“I remember the appreciation Shehu Shagari gave us. He showered us with houses, cars and so on.
“In those days, we were young and, in terms of character, we behaved like brothers and sisters,” Chukwu reminisced.
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