George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

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George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by The Eagle »

Not sure I remember George Hassan. He is said to have been an international under George Penna, Sam Eto Amaechina, Marotzke and Tiko, but I will have to take Uncle Ohsee's word for that. Started his career as a trialist for Water Corporation, entered the world of management as an administrator for Leventis United, and somewhere in between played for Stationery Stores, so probably not a favourite of Toxicarrow and YemiParacetamol. :)
George Hassan : The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED
Posted By: Morakinyo Abodunrinon: December 07, 2014

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THEY were the team to beat in the 1980s. Leventis United. The Ibadan-based side played football with an uncommon gusto and élan and won everything in sight as they shot from the third division to the then first division in three seasons – a record in Nigerian football!

But what made Leventis United, a club founded by a Greek, John Mastoroudes, Director of Carpet Royal Nigeria Limited – an arm of the Leventis Group of Companies tick? Perhaps, no one is more qualified than George Hassan, who dutifully served as the team’s Team Manager in those halcyon days when the ‘Sensational’, as the team was nicknamed by a section of the media, ruled the Nigerian football space like a colossus, to answer that question.

“Our success’ secret at Leventis United had nothing to do with juju (black magic) and had nothing to do with the Bunmi Adigun’s factor,” Hassan, one of the honorees at this year’s Federation Cup Finals in Lagos for his outstanding performance as a player and administrator, told The Nation Sport & Style.

“We too heard the story then that whenever Bunmi Adigun scored, nobody could score against us, inferring that we were fetish but that was just a crap because we had nothing to do with juju.

“One of the key factors that helped Leventis United then was a simple thing that most of the clubs we have today are no longer doing or are not doing at all.

“At Leventis United, I advised the management not to pay big salary to the players like the rest of staff working with the Leventis Group of Companies. Before I was employed, the players enjoyed good salary but I advised the management against doing such because it doesn’t encourage hard work since win or lose the salary of the players were guaranteed at the end of every month.

“But what was our winning formula? Rather than pay huge salary to players, we adopted another way of rewarding them by paying huge match-winning bonuses and this is earned because if you are not playing, you can’t share from it

“At some point, players who were not dressed were paid half of the winning bonus, but with time, we only paid players who were dressed and played. This was an effective weapon as it stimulated stiff competition in the team and also made the players to be winning conscious.

“Then the salary of the players could be as little as N15, 000 but they earned twice that amount as winning bonus and thus made more money. That was one of the reasons our players didn’t joke with matches because they knew their lives depended on it.

“I had a free hand in managing the team and I really pushed the players to give their best. I doubt if any club is doing that today and that has accounted for some apathy on the part of many players in our domestic league today.

“Apart from this, we also had other good welfare packages at Leventis United and our medical staff led by Dr. Michael Olusanmi was second to none. A team depleted with injuries cannot play up to their maximum standard but we had a very good medical doctor who ensured that our players were very fit. “Those were some of the things that made Leventis United very unique that time and I wish we can see such commitments in our present teams and players, but sadly our football is going down,” Hassan said even as he went down memory lane. Excerpts…

Playing career

I had an exciting playing career and I played for teams such as Lagos Leventis in 1966 and 1967 from where I went to Stationery Stores. I was in the team that won the FA Cup (now known as Federation Cup) in 1967 and 1968 I later went to Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN), otherwise known as NEPA of Lagos, and we won the FA Cup also in 1970. It was at NEPA that I met the likes of Peter Anieke and Peter Fregene, amongst others. I went to Mighty Jets of Jos but I didn’t stay there too long because they couldn’t win anytime. You ask yourself, how can Mighty Jet get to as many as nine FA Cup finals yet they failed to win anyone? I was looking for a winning team but unfortunate the reverse was the case with Mighty Jets and I had to leave. I later featured for Asaba Textile Mill as well as New Nigeria Bank. I won the Challenge Cup with Shooting Stars too along the line and later went to Leventis United.

Life at Leventis United

At the inception of Leventis United from what used to be known as Carpet Royal in Ibadan, I actually wanted to be in their playing squad but when I met Mr. John Mastoroudes, he said he wanted younger players but would appreciate if I could help manage the team because of my vast experience. I remember the first question I asked him was if he wanted to win laurels or satisfied just running a club? I asked him such question because what I met on ground were low-class players which I felt would not be able to contest against the best teams of that era. We needed first class players and that was the reason we sacked about seventy-five percent of the team I met on ground. In fact, I was given a blank cheque to get as many as possible good players for Leventis United. I bought in Alausa; Edward Ansah (the Ghanaian goalkeeper); I went to Calabar Rovers and we got James Etokebe and Uwem Ekarika. I went to Benin to get Henry Ogboe and Matthew Onyeama; I went to Kano to get Sam Pam. It was at NEPA Oshogbo that I got John Benson – the shot midfielder who could jump higher than anybody on the pitch. These were some of the players that I bought to reinforce Leventis United at the very starting point. We had Phillip Boamah as the coach and later Emmanuel Okon; they did their best with the team because we started winning trophies straight from our days in the third division. In fact, we won all our matches in the third division and also the FA Cup when we beat Abiola Babes 1-0. We also won the Cup of Champions by beating Rangers International of Enugu. We were that good, but be that as it may, I was not satisfied with the standard of coaching and that was how I encouraged Mastoroudes to go and bring a Greek coach to further strengthen the team; that was how Teofanis, a Greek, came on board. We also won the Second Division League in our first attempt and finally gained promotion to the Division One which was the equivalent of The Premier League we have today. In our first year in Division One, we won the league playing against traditional big teams such as Shooting Stars, Rangers, Iwuanyanwu Nationale, New Nigeria Bank, amongst others; we also won the FA Cup that year by beating Abiola Babes again.

Old versus new generation of Nigerian players

Hey! I don’t think there is need for us to compare our generation with the current generation of players we have. Is it football these ones are playing? The standard of Nigerian football during our time was higher and far, far better than what we have today, both at the national team level and at the domestic league level. Most of our players today are not as talented as what we used to have in the past. Unfortunately, they are not even ready to apply themselves and what you see is fear when they are playing football. Football is meant to be enjoyed but I’m sorry I hardly watch the Super Eagles matches these days because there is no zeal and passion when they are on the field. I had the opportunity of watching the Super Eagles’ training in Abuja sometime ago, but I was not pleased with what I saw. In fact, I drew the attention of Coach Stephen Keshi to the fact that the boys were simply not fit and when you are not generally fit, you can’t play good football. During our time, some of us were lucky to work with great coaches who would push you very well in order to be very fit. I found it very funny when I hear about escapades of players even when they are in camp preparing for matches and my conclusion is very simple: they are not being pushed to the limit, hence they still had some energy to roam the street. If you have had serious training, the only thing on your mind would be to have good sleep because you know you are in for another hard routine maybe later in the evening or the morning after. But in a situation whereby anything goes, we cannot get the best from the present crop of players. We need to push them more and harder in order to do much better than what we have at present. I wish I can still get the opportunity of managing a team and it would be a good opportunity to show our present administrators that what we did at Leventis United in the 1980s can still be done if not better even now.

Kudos to Governor Fashola

I think one of the reasons we don’t see many great players today has to do with the fact that we don’t have many playing pitches in our neighbourhood as we used to during our growing years. All available pitches have been converted for commercial use and football and sport in general, continue to suffer. That is the reason I appreciate the efforts of the Lagos State government, especially under my friend, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), who has ensured that there are mini stadia scattered all over Lagos State. This is one way that the game can develop again. Fashola is really dear to my heart for all what he has been able to do for our football since he came on board. He has seen to the welfare of so many distressed footballers than any governor for that matter. He’s a Manchester United fan like I am too. Oh! I’m a diehard Manchester United fan and I don’t care about the present condition of the team. I have been supporting Manchester United since the 1960s when they had a very fantastic player called George Best – he was my name sake. He was the best dribbler I have ever seen and that was when I was in the secondary school. That was how my love for Manchester United started and people call me today ‘Baba Man U.’ So, I care less about our present position because we are going to come back stronger and better. Just wait and watch.

My family

I have a very good family and me really thank God. I actually have two boys and two girls; and they are doing well too. The little girl in that picture is about 15 years old now. My first son is in England working and by the grace of God, his wife will soon deliver our first grandchild, so I’m an expectant grandfather (general laughter). My son is a diehard fan of Chelsea. My other boy is still in school here and wants to play football.

Life in retirement

I’m very grateful to God that I’m living well even in retirement, unlike some of our mates or older generation who are struggling to survive. I have a thriving sport shop and company with office at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna which I manage with my brother. We are into lying of tartan tracks and give God the glory.

Unfortunately, it is always sad to hear that some of our past heroes are not doing well as a result of negligence and neglect by the society. It is said that a majority of clubs and administrators don’t even care about the welfare of the players, particularly when they are set back with injuries, which is sad and unfortunate. Sometimes, most of their injuries were badly managed and I can give you a specific example with my own case when I was playing. I have reasons to thank God because I was able to quickly treat a serious injury which could have probably ended my playing career while I was playing for IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan. We went to Calabar to Play Rovers and that was when I had the injury which almost broke my spine and probably affected my heart. But I promptly travelled that night and got to Ibadan around 3am to see a specialist, Professor Falade. And if I had not done so, I would have been seriously damaged. I still have the mark at my back but thank God I was able to deal with it that time. But not many of our older players were lucky because some of the injuries they had later affected them in life. If players are well taken care of medically, I think they would always want to give their best. I remember the case of Onyeama when we were at Leventis United. It was his wife that was seriously ill and the management flew the wife to London, but I doubt if any local player can be attended to like that today.
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Enugu II »

Nice read. George did play for Nigeria as the story mentions. His trademark was his huge Afro hairstyle. He was a good midfielder in his days but was often tagged as "Bad Boy" of Nigerian footballer at the time. Why? Simply because he changed clubs quite often and is liable to doing the unusual. I remember him "mooning" Enugu fans in one game against Rangers.
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Dammy »

Was he not a Ghanaian?
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Metho scorpion »

Enugu II wrote:Nice read. George did play for Nigeria as the story mentions. His trademark was his huge Afro hairstyle. He was a good midfielder in his days but was often tagged as "Bad Boy" of Nigerian footballer at the time. Why? Simply because he changed clubs quite often and is liable to doing the unusual. I remember him "mooning" Enugu fans in one game against Rangers.
...E 11, you remember the FA final drew in Lagos but replayed in Ibadan because of flood night to avoid need for third replay...Bendel Insurance VS Mighty Jet? George played for Bendel or Jet?
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Enugu II »

Metho scorpion wrote:
Enugu II wrote:Nice read. George did play for Nigeria as the story mentions. His trademark was his huge Afro hairstyle. He was a good midfielder in his days but was often tagged as "Bad Boy" of Nigerian footballer at the time. Why? Simply because he changed clubs quite often and is liable to doing the unusual. I remember him "mooning" Enugu fans in one game against Rangers.
...E 11, you remember the FA final drew in Lagos but replayed in Ibadan because of flood night to avoid need for third replay...Bendel Insurance VS Mighty Jet? George played for Bendel or Jet?
Metho,

I do not think he played for either team at that time. I believe he was still in Lagos at that time.
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by The Eagle »

Dammy wrote:Was he not a Ghanaian?
George Hassan Osaile is said to be a Lebanese-Nigerian who grew up in the poorer areas of Lagos.

PS: Of course, the way West Africa is, you might be thinking of a Ghanaian with the same name.
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

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Kai, Bunmi Adigun used to torment "The Antelopes" :taunt: back then.
If Noah had been truly wise, he would have swatted those two flies. -- Helen Castle

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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Enugu II »

Here is George Hassan's statistics in the colors of Nigeria:

International Career: 1970-72
Appearances: 10 games
Debut: November 22, 1970 v Congo (Brazzaville) in CAN Qualifier
Last Game: February 13, 1972 v Cameroon (Intl. Friendly)
Goals: 1 goal v Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) on January 9, 1972
Disciplinary Record: One disqualification v Senegal on April 18, 1971
The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Sir V »

George played for UI at the 1980 NUGA games held in Benin.
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Gotti »

Enugu II wrote:Nice read. George did play for Nigeria as the story mentions. His trademark was his huge Afro hairstyle. He was a good midfielder in his days but was often tagged as "Bad Boy" of Nigerian footballer at the time. Why? Simply because he changed clubs quite often and is liable to doing the unusual. I remember him "mooning" Enugu fans in one game against Rangers.
Bro, I think it's much more than that...
Dude constantly argues with refs - and even his own teammates!
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by FATHER TIKO »

The George Hassan I remember is the player who played for AsabaTex.
Walloped by Rangers 3-0 in a league game; Hassan spent the entire 90 mins arguing with the ref.
Would have got a red card for dissent for similar attitude today.
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by ohsee »

Enugu II wrote:Nice read. George did play for Nigeria as the story mentions. His trademark was his huge Afro hairstyle. He was a good midfielder in his days but was often tagged as "Bad Boy" of Nigerian footballer at the time. Why? Simply because he changed clubs quite often and is liable to doing the unusual. I remember him "mooning" Enugu fans in one game against Rangers.
Don't remember that. I saw him play live, a couple of times but my memory fails me now; I can't remember the details of the games, though I do remember that he was a very skillful dribbler. I think he played for Mighty Jets against Rangers in their first Challenge Cup win in 1974. I was at the National Stadium for the game but if he was there, he did not shine. I saw a game he played at the Enugu Sports Stadium for Jets, and he was the talk of the game--"Who is that guy, where is he from" etc. However, I cannot remember if it was against Vasco or Rangers.
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by ohsee »

The Eagle wrote:
Dammy wrote:Was he not a Ghanaian?
George Hassan Osaile is said to be a Lebanese-Nigerian who grew up in the poorer areas of Lagos.

PS: Of course, the way West Africa is, you might be thinking of a Ghanaian with the same name.
Yes, a fair-skinned bobo with a big 'fro.
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Enugu II »

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I responding to this thread so that it can come back up on the reported passing of George Hassan.

This particular piece and Cybereagles were quoted in a recent story in the Nigerian media concerning the passing of George Hassan following illness from COVID.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by TonyTheTigerKiller »

I recall that George Hassan was one of the finest dribblers ever to play the game in Nigeria. The last I recall, he was a Raccah Rovers player but he did play for a number of other teams❗️


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Re: George Hassan: The untold story of LEVENTIS UNITED

Post by Aswani »

He called the Challenge Cup the FS Cup :(

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