naptu2:
Memories

I don't remember who we were playing against or what competition it was, but I'll never forget that moment.


It was at the National Stadium in Lagos sometime in 1990, 1991 or 1992. The Super Eagles were playing and we needed a goal.

Suddenly the crowd started chanting, "Dimeji! Dimeji! Dimeji!"

Then Westerhof sent Dimeji Lawal to warm up. The crowd went crazy. They were cheering and chanting his name. Dimeji Lawal was smiling as he was warming up and he even waved to the crowd.

Then he came on and scored with his first touch of the ball. The noise was at an insane level and the fans resumed chanting "DIMEJI! DIMEJI! DIMEJI!"

Afterwards, journalists asked Westerhof if he brought on Dimeji because of the chanting of the crowd and he replied that no serious coach would introduce a player because of the crowd

naptu2:
I would give anything to get a proper highlights video of this match. All I remember was that it was an epic game and that there were some great players on the Italian side.


These matches were played in the middle of the night Nigerian time and I remember that I slept off during one of the matches and was woken up by a huge roar. The entire neighbourhood was still awake and it was as if everybody in the neighbourhood shouted GOAL! at the same time.

President Babangida came out on the street after one of our victories and he shook hands with people that were celebrating on the streets (this was at around 2am).

Nigeria was the defending champion at this competition and we got to the final again, but we lost to the Soviet Union and came second. President Babangida sent a presidential delegation to cheer the team after we won the semi-final. It was led by Admiral Aikhomu and my dad was in the delegation. We teased him afterwards that he brought bad luck to the team because they had won all their matches before the delegation got there and then they lost the only game that the delegation watched.


Afterwards my dad said that what we were doing in Nigeria was complete nonsense and a waste of money. Basically, Nigeria was preparing to host the tournament in 1991 and Government had spent a lot of money to renovate the stadiums. However my dad said that most of the things that we pent money on were totally unnecessary. He said that the important things were the state of the pitch, the toilets, communication facilities and transport, but instead of focusing on these things, Nigeria was wasting money by painting the stadiums. "They played in parks in Canada!"

This particular video was created to celebrate Dimeji Lawal's birthday, so it's mainly clips of him. I remember that the Super Eagles played a match at the National Stadium c1991 and there we needed a goal. Then the crowd began chanting, "Dimeji! Dimeji! Dimeji!" and then Westerhoff brought on Dimeji Lawal and he scored with his first touch of the ball. Journalists asked Westerhoff afterwards if he introduced Dimeji Lawal into the game because of the chants of the crowd and Westerhoff said that no serious coach makes changes because of chants from the crowd.

Dimeji Lawal got married sometime in 1990 or 1991 and he and his wife were specials guests at the next Eagles game.

This is a semi-final match at the 1987 FIFA Under 16 World Championships in Canada.

Nigeria 1-0 Italy.

Christopher Nwosu scored the only goal (I loved the funny way that the commentator pronounced Nwosu). This is also the game in which the commentator nicknamed Lemmy Isa "the smiling goalkeeper". Lemy Isa was wonderful throughout this tournament and he saved us many times. He was always smiling, even when Nigeria was under intense pressure.


(Dimeji Lawal was known as Dimeji Mohammed in this game. His full name is Dimeji Mohammed Lawal)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuOGRD5edkk

ndukwejoe:
Nigerians will never disappoint.

naptu2:
Dimeji Lawal is a former Super Eagles and Shooting Stars player who is now the acting General Manager of the club. He was one of the players that played at Saudi '89 and was signed by Real Madrid after the tournament.

U are a great Patriot. God bless u for this!!!

Khoielvis:




The culture of applying violent in replacing everything thesedays is just too appalling.