Dr Felix Owolabi Recounts How Nigerian Market Women Cheered The Green Eagles To Afcon Victory 22 Years Ago

Felix Owolabi, a member of the golden 1980 Green Eagles team that won the African Cup of Nations,  as well as the dreaded IICC Shooting| Stars has shared his memory how the Eagles flew past Algeria on that fateful day in Surulere.


Owolabi said that though the Eagles were very gifted two things ensure a Nigerian victory. First was then President Shehu Shagari's motivational speech on match day.



Owo-Blow as he was fondly called shared:


“We have a blend of young and old players in the team but as one of the young ones, I observed some crucial points on the final day.  As we gather for our breakfast, it was a big shock that the President of the country then, Shehu Shagari, joined us and had breakfast with us. He gave us a short message and charged us to go and win for Nigeria. It was like a dream and we were fired up for victory."




The second he said was the support from the fans and the market women.


He continued:


Also on match day, on our way to the stadium, the market women lined up at both sides of the road along Badagry expressway to cheer us. We were in the FESTAC ’77 bus and these women were praying for us to go and win the trophy.
As if that was not enough, as we entered the stadium the fans that had been so sceptical about our performances from the start were all out displaying absolute confidence in the team and roared till the stadium shook.



“We could have beaten the best team in the world on that day."

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