Austin Opara damages knee ligaments — 132 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 132 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Niger Tornadoes, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chukwueze Kalu and Niger Tornadoes agree another 3 years.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ismail Sarki is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Obed Ankrah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Olawale Emmanuel signs something — a contract at Niger Tornadoes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Efe Obiomo
SquadQuestions about Daniel Asante on the training pitch
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Niger Tornadoes can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Enyimba have kept their man, and Niger Tornadoes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Niger Tornadoes will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Austin Opara scored in the 87th minute, Kun Khalifat had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Niger Tornadoes took the lot.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ebere Osimhen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. John Olagunju has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Ogunjobi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Chukwueze Awaziem has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.