Who remembers MONDAY ODIAKA?

[omey2k4]

I think the sending off ended his career.Once he got sent off he never recovered and refused to come back to the field.

[original skeepolah]

The Flying Eagles of the eighties feared no one and ruled the African terrain with relative ease...Cameroon chopped five goals in that return leg with Odiaka getting a hattrick...those were the days...

I also remember Oliha's heroics when we beat Egypt away in freezing cold by if I remember rightly 4 goals to 1 in another WYC qualifier.

YEAH THAT WAS THE 87 TOURNEY QUALIFIERS WITH OKON,ESIN & NIEKETIEN........

[mister dolly]

The Flying Eagles of the eighties feared no one and ruled the African terrain with relative ease...Cameroon chopped five goals in that return leg with Odiaka getting a hattrick...those were the days...

I also remember Oliha's heroics when we beat Egypt away in freezing cold by if I remember rightly 4 goals to 1 in another WYC qualifier.

YEAH THAT WAS THE 87 TOURNEY QUALIFIERS WITH OKON,ESIN & NIEKETIEN........

...not forgetting my boy Nosa Osadolor...of Great Ife fame...

[Jimi]

The Flying Eagles of the eighties feared no one and ruled the African terrain with relative ease...Cameroon chopped five goals in that return leg with Odiaka getting a hattrick...those were the days...

I also remember Oliha's heroics when we beat Egypt away in freezing cold by if I remember rightly 4 goals to 1 in another WYC qualifier.

YEAH THAT WAS THE 87 TOURNEY QUALIFIERS WITH OKON,ESIN & NIEKETIEN........

87 edition was in Chile right? Flying Eagles of those days ruled the African landscape but for some reason never won the WYC..They always entertained though. Look at what the Flying Eagles have become now.. But maybe the Siasia nostalgia factor will get things off and rolling..

[SAwosika]

Figo and the glorious generation of Portuguese players stopped them @ Saudi '89. The score was 2-0 against Nigeria in the final and our goalkeeper was one nervous wreck, even at one point pleading to be taken out of the game. We were however injury and card-hit by the time we got to the finals, or else probably would have fared a lot better. Man, the likes of Joao Pinto etc were quite a delight to watch.

[Enugu II]

Monday Nkemdilim Odiaka.Now,that was a striker!I was up close with the ACB of Lagos team that he was part of,before and after his u-20 World Cup exploits,but I believe his efforts at going abroad did not quite pan out.He was no frills,could not dribble much,but had a rather direct attitude towards scoring.He was part of the Franklin Howard led Flying Eagles of 1985.

I thought Andrew Uwe led the 1985 Flying Eagles.

Odiaka was a striker that was good enough for the Flying Eagles then. Not really a striker with finesse. He did his best while it lasted. Got some call ups to the senior national team but never really made it big there.

I remember him vividly. But like Jimoh Balogun, he never made it to the Senior team.

He made it TO the senior team, he just didn't make it IN the senior team, being oddly enough kept out of the SE by Samson SiaSia among others.

CICOB has already offered a good explanation of why this may have been so.

Actually he DID make it INTO the senior team. He played at least three games. His debut was against Cote d'ivoire on Jan 4 1987 and he played two more games later in the year against Togo and Liberia.

Remember Paul Hamilton (who took the team to the 1985 WYC) was the Coach then and he drafted in many plyers from that team into the senior side including Odiaka, Osaro Obobaifo, Mike Odu, Mark Annunobi etc.

Nigeria was desperately in need of a quality striker at this time. Yekini was still very raw, Wole Odegbami was too inconsistent, Siasia was also very young so Odiaka had the chance to claim the spot for himself. Unfortunately he failed to step up to the plate and faded out of the scene soon afterwards.

HeavyD:

Just one minor correction. Monday Odiaka's debut was a bit earlier than you stated. His first game was actually on December 7 of 1986 in a 3-1 win over Liberia. The game against Ivory Coast was his second appearance and he was substituted in that game by Uwem Ekarika.

[Guest]

Monday Nkemdilim Odiaka.Now,that was a striker!I was up close with the ACB of Lagos team that he was part of,before and after his u-20 World Cup exploits,but I believe his efforts at going abroad did not quite pan out.He was no frills,could not dribble much,but had a rather direct attitude towards scoring.He was part of the Franklin Howard led Flying Eagles of 1985.

I thought Andrew Uwe led the 1985 Flying Eagles.

Odiaka was a striker that was good enough for the Flying Eagles then. Not really a striker with finesse. He did his best while it lasted. Got some call ups to the senior national team but never really made it big there.

I remember him vividly. But like Jimoh Balogun, he never made it to the Senior team.

He made it TO the senior team, he just didn't make it IN the senior team, being oddly enough kept out of the SE by Samson SiaSia among others.

CICOB has already offered a good explanation of why this may have been so.

Actually he DID make it INTO the senior team. He played at least three games. His debut was against Cote d'ivoire on Jan 4 1987 and he played two more games later in the year against Togo and Liberia.

Remember Paul Hamilton (who took the team to the 1985 WYC) was the Coach then and he drafted in many plyers from that team into the senior side including Odiaka, Osaro Obobaifo, Mike Odu, Mark Annunobi etc.

Nigeria was desperately in need of a quality striker at this time. Yekini was still very raw, Wole Odegbami was too inconsistent, Siasia was also very young so Odiaka had the chance to claim the spot for himself. Unfortunately he failed to step up to the plate and faded out of the scene soon afterwards.

HeavyD, English na wahala for you? You actually did not correct TD there. You want correct TD, the grammar bombastic bomber? While he featured in a few games he didn't last long. He didn't have the longevity of Samson Siasia which explains why TD say he did not make it IN the senior team.

[TD]

Monday Nkemdilim Odiaka.Now,that was a striker!I was up close with the ACB of Lagos team that he was part of,before and after his u-20 World Cup exploits,but I believe his efforts at going abroad did not quite pan out.He was no frills,could not dribble much,but had a rather direct attitude towards scoring.He was part of the Franklin Howard led Flying Eagles of 1985.

I thought Andrew Uwe led the 1985 Flying Eagles.

Odiaka was a striker that was good enough for the Flying Eagles then. Not really a striker with finesse. He did his best while it lasted. Got some call ups to the senior national team but never really made it big there.

I remember him vividly. But like Jimoh Balogun, he never made it to the Senior team.

He made it TO the senior team, he just didn't make it IN the senior team, being oddly enough kept out of the SE by Samson SiaSia among others.

CICOB has already offered a good explanation of why this may have been so.

Actually he DID make it INTO the senior team. He played at least three games. His debut was against Cote d'ivoire on Jan 4 1987 and he played two more games later in the year against Togo and Liberia.

Remember Paul Hamilton (who took the team to the 1985 WYC) was the Coach then and he drafted in many plyers from that team into the senior side including Odiaka, Osaro Obobaifo, Mike Odu, Mark Annunobi etc.

Nigeria was desperately in need of a quality striker at this time. Yekini was still very raw, Wole Odegbami was too inconsistent, Siasia was also very young so Odiaka had the chance to claim the spot for himself. Unfortunately he failed to step up to the plate and faded out of the scene soon afterwards.

HeavyD, English na wahala for you? You actually did not correct TD there. You want correct TD, the grammar bombastic bomber? While he featured in a few games he didn't last long. He didn't have the longevity of Samson Siasia which explains why TD say he did not make it IN the senior team.

BNR,

Thank you jare.

[quickie]

The Flying Eagles of the eighties feared no one and ruled the African terrain with relative ease...Cameroon chopped five goals in that return leg with Odiaka getting a hattrick...those were the days...

I also remember Oliha's heroics when we beat Egypt away in freezing cold by if I remember rightly 4 goals to 1 in another WYC qualifier.

YEAH THAT WAS THE 87 TOURNEY QUALIFIERS WITH OKON,ESIN & NIEKETIEN........

...not forgetting my boy Nosa Osadolor...of Great Ife fame...

not forgetting Ikpowonsa Omoregie, Ladi babalola, Deolu Adekola and jonathan. Another awesome team but sadly failed to deliver.

Anyone remember Willy Opara rooted to the spot against the brazilian Cruz's freekick?

Bad boys in Lagos tormented that guy for years after. Anytime in goal in Lagos, the guys behind his goal would start shouting "Cruz dey come, Cruz dey come" much to the poor guy's annoyance.

Q

[Goldleaf]

My memory of Monday Odiaka was when he beat the last defender in the box 18" in our WYC qualifier against Ethiopia and I was thinking "ok, place the ball in the corner". The ethiopian keeper was on his knees as Odiaka smashed a hot shot past him. That was the match where Sportscity fans were throwing bread at the ethiopians because of their famine. Their fans took revenge by beating our boys up in the return leg in Addis Ababa. I remember Uwe arriving at MM Airport with a heavy plaster at the back of his head.

The 5-1 victory against Cameroon in '85 ranks amongst the greatest performances by our national team. I believe our first goal came from a free-kick from either John Ene Okon or Austin Igbinaro. Odiaka followed with a hat-trick and when Francois Oman-Biyik pulled one back, Michael Dominic shut them up for good.

Monday Odiaka was all heart..

[Toxicarrow]

Monday Odiaka: 34 years after, my Guinness record goal still special
The Nation
December 29, 2019

Monday Odiaka of ACB Football Club and Nigeria’s prolific striker cannot remember the numbers of goals he has scored. He rose to fame at the 1985 World Youth Championship in Soviet Union, now Russia, where he represented Nigeria’s Flying Eagles and scored the fastest goal ever recorded at the youth tournament. Though, Odiaka, who is now a youth coach in Ajegunle (AJ City), claims he netted the goal at 12 seconds, world soccer ruling body FIFA recorded 14 seconds and the Nigerian as the record holder of the fastest goal at the U-20 World Cup.
Odiaka still feels high about that goal that stayed in the Guinness world record book for 34 years. It was only broken this year by Senegalese Amadou Sagna, who scored for the Young Lions of Teranga after just 9.6 seconds against Tahiti at the 2019 World Youth Championship in Poland.

He says: “I also scored many goals for the flying Eagles. But a memorable one is the one I scored against Canada at the 1985 World Youth Championship. It was the fastest goal of the competition and it gave me the opportunity to be in the Guinness Book of Record. That is how I became a world renown player. The goal is indeed special, though I’ve scored finer goals than that in my career. What made it special was how quick it came and the fact that it became the fastest goal in history. I still remember the goal very well. Canada kicked off the match and we intercepted the ball and a pass came to me and I saw the opening and slotted home. The goal was scored in 12 seconds. It stunned the stadium and the record lasted for 34 years. No player came close to it for 34 years until this year when a Senegalese player broke it. It lasted for 34 years, unbroken.”


Odiaka says he’s, however, not happy that his country is yet to acknowledge that feat that kept Nigeria’s name in global record for 34 years.

“I’m not happy. I’m a sad man in the sense that I’m the only Nigerian player whose name got into the Guinness Book of Record and up till now I’ve not been honoured. I deserve to be honoured because I served my country with my all. I need to be honoured. To hold a record for 34 years? Nobody has done that.”


Odiaka speaks with Taiwo Alimi on growing up, his football odyssey and the present. Excerpts:

Football odyssey

I started football from primary school. My father was an athlete. He did not play football and he did not stop me from playing football. I was here in Kirikiri-Lagos and I was playing for my school when local scout spotted and invited me to Badagry division. In our days, the football catchment area was divided into divisions and from Apapa to Seme; that is Badagry division. It was the same time that the late Kanayo Nwobum that played for First Bank was also invited. There was also Jombo Awala. These were my teammates at the time. I grew up from there and at a point I left Lagos for my home town, Issele-uku in Aniocha North local government, where I had my secondary school education. On getting there, I was also invited to the Aniocha division. After my secondary school education, I came back to Lagos State to team up with Lagos Division 2 side, National Supply FC. At the end of my first season there, I was highest goal scorer. We also played in the Oba Cup and defeated Leventis United. We played Edo Tigers and Berger FC. The exploit at National Supply FC further exposed me to bigger clubs and that was how Lagos United invited me to their camp. Lagos United is made up of the best players in Lagos. At the end of the season, the state FA would gather them together and select the best of them to fly the flag of Lagos State. I played two matches for them and scored in both and that was where ACB saw me and asked me to join them. ACB was among the biggest clubs in the elite division of Nigeria League.


That is how I began my career in professional league. I scored many goals in ACB and there was a season that I played and scored in every match. Any match that I played I scored and that made me to be very popular. My name was on the lips of everyone and people came to the stadium to watch me.


I was invited to the Nigeria junior team, the Flying Eagles, in 1984 and by 1985 I was part of the Nigeria team to the FIFA World Youth Championship.

Green/Super Eagles


I later moved on to the senior team and played for the Green Eagles, the Super Eagles and the Olympic team. So, I can say I am one of the few Nigerians that played for the junior, Olympic and senior national teams of Nigeria. In one of the matches for Olympic Eagles, we were playing against Cote d’Ivoire when I was injured for the very first time in my career. A defender from France marched me and that led to my injury.

Playing abroad

I only had the opportunity to go for trials but I did not sign for any European team. But all over the west coast, I was able to play for Dragon of Benin Republic, then went to Senegal and played four seasons in Dakar.

Memorable matches


One match I will not forget in the local league was ACB versus NNB (New Nigeria Bank) in 1985. What made it memorable was that NNB had 11 players in the national team that year and they had been unbeaten. The worst any team can get home or away was a draw. To top it all, I was in the camp and my team ACB was not doing well. Our fans were saying it was due to my absence, so it came to this very match and it fell on our two weeks off from national camp. That same weekend we were to play NNB of Benin and the press made noise about my coming back and the assertion that my presence would turn around the fortune of ACB. I did score in the match and we defeated NNB to end their unbeaten run. It was a special moment for me. We beat them 2-1. I was carried shoulder high. That match was a great match. Another one is in Junior World Cup qualifier between Flying Eagles and Cameroon. We lost the first leg 3-0 in Cameroon and I played for only five minutes in the match. A lot of things happened in Cameroon that made the match a difficult one for the whole team. So, we lost the match 3-0.

On getting back to Nigeria, the late coach Udumeze was assigned to us and we won the second leg 5-1. I scored three times in the match and we qualified for the World Cup. They could not believe their eyes. I will not forget that match also. The third one is the semi-final match against Brazil at the 1985 Junior World Cup. Though I did not score, it was a great match. The Brazilian will never forget the match, even though we lost the match not because they were better than us but because of the infighting within our camp before the match. We had issues with the Nigeria FA because of the adidas kits they refused to hand over to us. It created a lot of mess and we refused to play unless the kit was distributed to us. We were still arguing about it till about 3 am on match day. We played well but they did the scoring.

Hit the ball hard

I train hard and sacrificed a lot. But what I can attribute it to is that it is a gift. It is gift from God. I’m not the best player on the pitch but when I’m on the ball I can do wonders with it. I know how to take positioning.

Children

My last born, who is 14 years, is showing traces of my skill and one day should he continue like this, Odiaka will once again be in the mouths of football fans. He plays for a club now in Ajegunle and through him you might hear the name again. His siblings are concentrating on their schooling.

Life after football

I am happy. I have a home. God has blessed me with good children and they are doing well. I thank God that I’m still alive and kicking. I am still coaching. I coached Oceanic Bank FC and Bolowotan and won laurels with them. I am also a football administrator.

Players I admire

I admire many players. Henry Nwosu, the late Muda Lawal and Baba #$% Mohammed. I don’t have players that I feared. It is defenders that feared me. What I only had was that there were players that I respected. Defenders that I respected were Bright Omokaro and Sunday Eboigbe of NNB. And it was a mutual feeling because they respected me too.

Nigerian football

Nigerian football is not moving forward. It is not. The standard we left is such that by now we ought to have gone far beyond where we are now. It has gone down and when you watch our football these days, you hardly come back happily with what you have seen. When you talked of strikers and went to see Nigerian league matches in our days, you would be happy in our days. It is no longer the same because our league is no longer among the best in Africa. That time, when you talked about strikers, you would see the like of Rashidi Yekini was there. Friday Ekpo, Uwem Ekarika, Celestine Igbokwe, Davidson Owumi; it is no longer the same again. When you watch them play you want to go back again and again because they would keep delivering. Not what they are playing these days. Today’s players only play for money, not passion for the game. We played for the love of the game and patriotism. Our football has dropped. Today, players are invited to camp because of who they know. In our days, it was the press that would be writing about you and the national team scouts would watch your game for some time before inviting you to camp. And your trial was based on correct estimation of you and not one person giving you letter to come to camp. And when you get to the national team, you would have to learn the rope first. You would have to pick ball first and learn from the established players. The right people are not there. That is why our clubs are not doing well in the African championships again. The league is for the highest payers now. How can we be playing Niger and we are afraid and Chad will play Nigeria and our blood pressure is rising?

Wilfred Ndidi

Among the players we have now, Wilfred Ndidi has stood out. He plays with vigour and determination. He is showing that quality. He is growing every day. Odion Ighalo is not doing badly too.

AJ City

Ajegunle is known for football and those of us living there know that we still produce quality players. I have a team here that I train and these are children from common homes and football is changing their lives. It is a place that you come and you see great football. You will be happy when you come here and see young players doing great things. From Maracana Stadium here, we have produced players like Ighalo, Taribo West, Samson Siasia, brown Ideye, Ikpe Ekong, and Emmanuel Amuneke. We have good footballers who only need exposure to explode.

source: https://thenationonlineng.net/monday-od ... l-special/

[Dammy]

My memory of Monday Odiaka was when he beat the last defender in the box 18" in our WYC qualifier against Ethiopia and I was thinking "ok, place the ball in the corner". The ethiopian keeper was on his knees as Odiaka smashed a hot shot past him. That was the match where Sportscity fans were throwing bread at the ethiopians because of their famine. Their fans took revenge by beating our boys up in the return leg in Addis Ababa. I remember Uwe arriving at MM Airport with a heavy plaster at the back of his head.

The 5-1 victory against Cameroon in '85 ranks amongst the greatest performances by our national team. I believe our first goal came from a free-kick from either John Ene Okon or Austin Igbinaro. Odiaka followed with a hat-trick and when Francois Oman-Biyik pulled one back, Michael Dominic shut them up for good.

Monday Odiaka was all heart..

That free-kick by Austin Igbinabaro from the centre circle is one of the best goals I have seen scored by a Nigerian national team. The 5-1 defeat of the Cameroonian team led by the Biyik brothers was one of the greatest comebacks by a Nigerian team after losing the first leg 3-0.
Odiaka was just another Samson Ozogula, great for club but not for country at senior level