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At last! Kanu equals Muda Lawal's record
by Kunle Solaja 04 November 2010, 10:30

It may still be a long way for a Nigerian man to hit 100 caps and join the exclusive 'FIFA Century Club', which no fewer than eight Egyptians and one South African, Aaron Mokoena, have been enlisted.

The towering Nwankwo Kanu, who at the close of Nigeria's campaign at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa announced his retirement from the Super Eagles, can look back and have a sense of fulfilment.

The last game he played for Nigeria was the 2-2 draw against Korea Republic, which saw the Super Eagles out of the 2010 World Cup. It was Kanu's 86th appearance for the Super Eagles. This equalled the record caps that the late Muda Lawal had held for 25 years when the midfielder last played in an African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia in Lusaka in 1985.

Muda had a 10-year career that spanned from January 22, 1975 when he made his debut in a 1-0 defeat of Cameroon in Lagos to August 18, 1975, when Zambia scored a last-minute goal that eliminated Nigeria at the last stage of the qualifying series for the 1986 African Nations Cup in Egypt.

The loss truncated the blossoming career of the player who had been the first African to appear in five consecutive African Nations Cup tournaments. He was at the berth of the sixth appearance when Zambian Jack Chanda's last-minute strike won the game 1-0 for the then KK Eleven, who qualified following an earlier 0-0 draw in Lagos.

Like Muda like Kanu

One glaring similarity of the two most-capped Eagles players is the fact that both were skippers. Muda Lawal came in as captain of the then Green Eagles in succession to Segun Odegbami, just as Kanu did for Austin Okocha. Both adorned jersey Number 4 in the national team, but had different numbers in their respective club sides.

They were also players with long spells in the African Nations Cup. Muda featured from 1976 to 1984, while Kanu extended his by one tournament, featuring from 2000 to 2010. That was not all for the two midfielders with great attacking instincts. In Muda Lawal's 10-year spell in the national team, he scored 11 goals while Kanu exceeded this by a goal, as his total was 12.

Some of those goals were memorable. Muda remains the only player to have opened and closed scoring in an edition of the African Nations Cup. This he did in 1980 when he scored the tournament's opening goal against Tanzania and scored the very last goal against Algeria in the final. But that is not just all for him; his goals were the last for Nigeria in final matches. He did this in 1976 scoring the winning goal in a 3-2 drubbing of Egypt in the third place match. It was that goal that started the long no-win streak that Egypt suffered in the African Nations Cup ties with Nigeria. The jinx was only broken at the Angola 2010 Nations Cup.

Similarly, Kanu scored Nigeria's equalising and winning goals against Brazil in the nail-biting semifinals encounter at the Atlanta '96 Olympics. That’s where the similarities ended.

Muda-Kanu: The contrasts

The contrasts are more intriguing. While Kanu failed to find the net in regulation time in the six editions of the African Nations Cup he featured in, Muda scored in every other edition and his goals were usually the last for Nigeria. This he did in 1976 against Egypt, 1980 against Algeria, and 1984 against Cameroon.

Muda subsequently retired from international duels. So good was Muda that he was only substituted in five of his 86 appearances. Those were the games of October 30, 1976 when Christian Madu replaced him, the African Nations Cup duel with Zambia in Accra 1978 when he was substituted by Baba Otu Mohammed, the July 18, 1981 duel with the then Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) when Bala Ali was the substitute, the September 26, 1981 friendly tie with Uganda when Muda replaced Tunji Banjo and the Olympic Games qualifier against Morocco on February 11, 1984 when he replaced Louis Igwilo.

Unlike Muda Lawal who played full time in virtually all his matches except on five instances, Kanu was a super sub who played full time only in 34 of his 86 matches. Despite both having the same number of match appearances, Muda therefore had more playing time. In Kanu’s remaining 52 matches, he was either a substitute or was substituted. But he breathed inspiration into the Super Eagles each time he got off from the bench. A new energy was put into the attacking line.

At the close of Super Eagles' 2008 African Nations Cup qualifiers campaign at the Warri Township Stadium on September 8, 2007, in the duel against Lesotho, Kanu's international appearances for Nigeria hit the milestone mark of 70. The event went unheralded. At the time, he became the third most-capped Nigerian international after Muda Lawal and Austin Okocha who had 70 on the dot.

There existed possibilities of Kanu exceeding the mark as he remarked that he would continue to play for Nigeria as long as his energy and skill didn't fail him. He was on the track of being the first Nigerian to hit the century mark.

Let's do it again

A 1975 film starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby has persistently come to mind the moment it was clear Kanu was at the brink of surpassing Muda's international appearances. Titled "Let's do it again", it was also a hit song for the Staple Singers who adapted it from the sound track of the film. Something kept echoing in the mind that Kanu could still do it.

Poor Kanu, he could have been the record holder if he had delayed his voluntary retirement by just one match, even if it was an inconsequential friendly match! He could have been the most-capped Nigerian male footballer if he had featured in some friendly matches that he failed to feature in. Like Austin Okocha before him who could also have notched up many international appearances, he kept skipping games.

One such game was the February 6, 2007 friendly with Ghana in London. Kanu sat all throughout the encounter that Ghana used to break a 15-year duck that had afflicted Black Stars' games with Nigeria. Ghana won emphatically, 4-1 to get their first defeat of Nigeria since the 2-1 triumph in the 1992 African Nations Cup semifinals in Dakar, Senegal.

A day after the London match, which incidentally had seen Ghana winning all subsequent ties with Nigeria, Kanu was notified of the impending appearance record in a chat at the Renaissance Hotel where the Super Eagles were lodged. He admitted oblivious that he had notched up 65 caps to shoot ahead of Peter Rufai's 62 and Stephen Keshi's 64. He appeared more resolute to become the first Nigerian to hit the 100th cap mark. "I will continue to play until my legs are tired,” he said, hoping to surpass Muda's record of 86 and going ahead to join the "FIFA Century Club". He met the first target, but has now missed the second.

Yobo: Nigeria's next Century Club candidate

Egypt with eight players lead the pack of the 11 African men to have clocked 100 international caps. The three others are Morocco’s Noureddine Naybet, Cameroon's Njitap Geremi and South Africa’s Aaron Mokoena who have 115, 109 and 104 caps respectively. The nearest active Super Eagles' player to hit the 100 game mark is Joseph Yobo, who perhaps unlike the preceding skippers, is more consistent. As at his last match against Guinea, he has put up 75 appearances. Twenty five more games, he will clock 100.

His consistency may as well augur well for him if he does not start picking matches to feature in as did Okocha in the last two years of his career when the erstwhile Eagles' skipper played just six of 23 matches.

In contrast, Yobo is the player that played every match, every minute of Nigeria's 22 African Nations Cup matches from 2002 to 2008. But for the injury he had in Nigeria's second match of the 2010 Nations Cup that ruled him out of the tournament, he would have extended his international matches to 79 matches by now and just few games to overtake Muda and Kanu.

Congrats, Maureen Mmadu, Nigeria's first Century Club member

It is becoming clearer that the women's folk hold a better record for sports in Nigeria. While one's mind is hardly at rest each time the Super Eagles take on any opposition, no matter how weak, games involving the ladies are watched with greater respite. That was the situation when the Falconets were on duty at Germany 2010 and got to the final. The Flamingos who reached the quarterfinals of the Under-17 tournament also did Nigeria proud. Little wonder then that it is a woman footballer that first hit the 100 international match records and the only African woman footballer enlisted in the exclusive FIFA Century Club.

According to FIFA’s record last updated on August 5, 2010, Maureen Mmadu has 101 caps to rank 125th in the world. But as it is, she remains unsung at home. This is a direct result of the glaring absence of sports data in the country.

KANU ‘S RECORD EQUALING 86 CAPS

5 May 1994 (F-Stockholm) Sweden 3-1 Nigeria
25 May 1994 (F-Bucharest) Romania 2-0 Nigeria (sub)
16 Nov. 1994(F-Wembley) England 1-0 Nigeria (sub)
21 Oct. 1995 (Afro Asian Cup-Tashkent) Uzbekistan 2-3 Nigeria
10 Nov. 1995 (Afro Asian- Lagos) Nigeria 1-0 Uzbekistan 0 (sub)
17 Aug. 1997 (WCq-Conakry) Guinea 1-0 Nigeria (sub)
22 Apr. 1998 (F-Cologne) Germany 1-0 Nigeria
5 June 1998 (F-Amsterdam) Holland 5-1 Nigeria (sub)
19 June 1998 (WC-Paris) Bulgaria 0-1 Nigeria (sub)
24 June 1998(WC-Toulouse) Paraguay 3-1 Nigeria
28 June 1998 (WC-Paris) Denmark 4 -1Nigeria (sub)
23. Jan 2000 (ACN-Lagos) Nigeria 4-2 Tunisia
28. Jan. 2000. (ACN-Lagos) Nigeria 0-0 Congo
3 Feb.2000 (ACN-Lagos) Nigeria 2-0 Morocco
7 Feb. 2000. (ACN-Lagos) Nigeria 2-1 Senegal
10 Feb. 2000 (ACN-Lagos) Nigeria 2-0 South Africa
13. Feb.2000 (ACN-Lagos) Nigeria 2 -2 Cameroon (3-4 penalty-shootout).
9 April 2000 (WCq-Asmara) Eritrea 0-0 Nigeria
22 April 2000 (WCq-Lagos) Nigeria 4 -0 Eritrea (sub)
17 June 2000 (WCq-Lagos) Nigeria 2-0 Sierra Leone
9 July 2000 (WCq-Monrovia) Liberia 2 -1 Nigeria
27 Jan. 2001 (WCq-Port Harcourt) Nigeria 3-0 Sudan (sub) 11 Mar. 2001 (WCq-Accra) Ghana 0-0 Nigeria
21 Apr. 2001 (WCq-Freetown) Sierra Leone 1-0 Nigeria (sub)
5 May 2001 (WCq-Port Harcourt) Nigeria 2 -0 Liberia
1 July 2001 (WCq-Ombdurman) Sudan 0 -4 Nigeria (sub)
29 July 2001 (WCq-Port Harcourt) Nigeria 3 -0 Ghana
21 Jan. 2002 (ANC-Bamako) Algeria 0 -1 Nigeria (sub)
24 Jan. 2002 (ANC-Bamako) Mali 0 - 0 Nigeria
28 Jan. 2002 (ANC-Mopti) Liberia 0 -1 Nigeria
3 Feb. 2002 (ANC-Bamako) Ghana 0 -1 Nigeria
7 Feb. 2002 (ANC-Bamako) Senegal 2 -1 Nigeria
9 Feb. 2002 (ANC-Mopti) Mali 0 -1 Nigeria (sub)
26 Mar. 2002 (F-London) Paraguay 1 -1 Nigeria
17 Apr. 2002 (F-Aberdeen) Scotland 1 -2 Nigeria
16 May 2002 (F-Dublin) Ireland 1-2 Nigeria
2 June 2002 (WC-Ibaraki) Argentina 1- 0 Nigeria (sub)
7 June 2002 (WC-Kobe) Sweden 2 -1 Nigeria (sub)
25 May 2003 (F-Lagos) Jamaica 3 -2 Nigeria
7 June 2003 (ANCq - Abuja) Nigeria 4 -1 Malawi
11 June 2003 (F - Abuja) Nigeria 0-3 Brazil (sub)
26 July 2003 (F-Watford) Venezuela 0-1 Nigeria
27 Jan 2004 (ANC- Monastir) Morocco 1-0 Nigeria (sub)
31 Jan 2004 (ANC- Monastir) South Africa 0-4 Nigeria (sub)
4 Feb. 2004(ANC-Sfax) Benin 1-2 Nigeria
8 Feb. 2004(ANC-Monastir) Cameroon 1-2 Nigeria (sub)
11 Feb. 2004(ANC-Rades) Tunisia 1-1 Nigeria (6-3 pens) (sub)
13 Feb. 2004(ANC-Monastir) Mali 1-2 Nigeria (sub)
9 Oct. 2004(WCq-Libreville) Gabon 1-1 Nigeria (sub)
26 Mar. 2005(WCq-Port Harcourt) Nigeria 2-0 Gabon (sub)
5 June 2005(WCq-Kigali) Rwanda 1-1 Nigeria (sub)
18 June 2005(WCq-Kano) Nigeria 1-1 Angola (sub)
17 Aug. 2005(F-Tripoli) Libya 0-1 Nigeria (sub)
4 September 2005 (WCq-Oran) Algeria 2 -5 Nigeria (sub)
8 October 2005 (WCq-Abuja) Nigeria 5 -1 Zimbabwe (sub)
16 November 2005 (F-Bucharest) Romania 3-0 Nigeria (sub)
23 January 2006 (ANC-Port Said) Ghana 0 -1 Nigeria (sub)
27 January 2006 (ANC-Port Said) Zimbabwe 0 -2 Nigeria (sub)
31 January 2006 (ANC-Port Said) Senegal 1-2 Nigeria (sub)
4 February 2006 (ANC-Port Said) Tunisia 1 - 1 Nigeria (5-6 pens) (sub)
7 February 2006 (ANC-Alexandria) Cote d’Ivoire 1 – 0 Nigeria (sub
9 February 2006 (ANC-Cairo) Senegal 0 -1 Nigeria (sub)
2 September 2006 (ANCq-Abuja) Nigeria 2 - 0 Niger (sub)
8 October 2006 (ANCq-Maseru) Lesotho 0 - 1 Nigeria (sub)
24 March 2007 (ANCq-Abeokuta) Nigeria 1- 0 Uganda (sub)
27 May 2007 (F- Nairobi) Kenya 0 -1 Nigeria (sub)
2 June 2007 (ANCq- Kampala) Uganda 2 -1 Nigeria
17 June 2007 (ANCq- Niamey) Niger 1-3 Nigeria (sub)
25 August 2007 (F- Skopje) Macedonia 0 -0 Nigeria
8 September 2007 (ANCq- Warri) Nigeria 2 -0 Lesotho
21 January 2008 (ANC) – Sekondi) Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 Nigeria (sub)
27 May 2008 (F – Graz) Austria 1-1 Nigeria
1 June 2008 (WCq – Abuja) Nigeria 2-0 South Africa (sub)
7 June 2008 (WCq- Freetown) Sierra Leone 0-1 Nigeria (sub)
14 June 2008 (WCq- Malabo) Equatorial Guinea 0-1 Nigeria (sub)
21 June 2008 (WCq- Abuja) Nigeria 2-0 Equatorial Guinea (sub)
19 November 2008 (F-Cali) Colombia 1-0 Nigeria (sub)
11 February 2009 (F-London) Jamaica 0-0 Nigeria (sub)
2 June 2009 (F-St. Etienne) France 0-1 Nigeria (sub)
7 June 2009 (WCq-Abuja) Nigeria 3-0 Kenya (sub)
20 June 2009 (WCq-Rades) Tunisia 0-0 Nigeria (sub)
6 September 2009 (WCq-Abuja) Nigeria 2-2 Tunisia (sub)
12 January 2010 (ANC-Benguela) Egypt 3-1 Nigeria (sub)
30 January 2010 (ANC-Benguela) Algeria 0-1 Nigeria (sub)
25 May 2010 (F- Alpenstadion) Saudi Arabia 0 – 0 Nigeria (sub)
6 June 2010 (F – Tembisa, S/Africa) Korea DPR 1 – 3 Nigeria (sub)
22 June 2010 (WC – Durban) Korea Republic 2 – 2 Nigeria (sub)

KANU’S INTERNATIONAL GOALS -12
21 Oct 1995 (Afro Asian Cup-Tashkent) Uzbekistan 2 -3 Nigeria (1)
5 June 1998 (F-Amsterdam) Holland 5-1 Nigeria 1 (1-Pen)
22 April 2000 (WCq-Lagos) Nigeria 4-0 Eritrea (1)
9 July 2000 (WCq-Monrovia) Liberia 2-1 Nigeria (1)
27 Jan 2001 (WCq-Port Harcourt) Nigeria 3 -0 Sudan (1)
5 May 2001 (WCq-Port Harcourt) Nigeria 2-0 Liberia (1)
25 May 2003 (F-Lagos) Jamaica 3-2 Nigeria (1)
7 June 2003 (ANCq - Abuja) Nigeria 4-1 Malawi (2)
26 Mar 2005(WCq-Port Harcourt) Nigeria2-0 Gabon (1)
8 October 2005 (WCq-Abuja) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe (1)
17 June 2007 (ANCq- Niamey) Niger 1-3 Nigeria (1)

Meen! I bow for kunle solajas statistics, More grease!

Kanu an asshole

a worldclass player in his prime but was definetly overrated should have reired since 2004 because after that he became useless still a legend tho