By Daily Sports Nigeria on December 6, 2022

Nigerian football legend, Segun Odegbami, has joined fellow compatriots and ex-stars to share fond memories of the dilapidated and long abandoned National Stadium, Lagos.

 It’s been 50 years since the decaying edifice was built by the administration of former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon.

While the stadium, once one of Africa’s best, has been in a sorry state for close to two decades, Odegbami couldn’t hide his love for the sporting arena, after he was reminded that the stadium turned 50 on Sunday.

The 1980 Africa Cup of Nations joint-top scorer with three goals described the stadium, popularly known as Sports City, as “a slaughter house”, adding that visiting teams that played against Nigeria there were psychologically down before stepping onto the field.

“There are so many things to remember the National Stadium for, from its state-of-the-art facility to the trophies that Nigeria won there. We trained there day and night for months and we were used to everything about it, so to defeat us there was extremely difficult and we won many laurels there, from the African Games to the Nations Cup and even several Challenge Cup titles while we were playing for our clubs,” Odegbami said.

Odegbami, who featured prominently for Nigeria in the 1980 AFCON triumph on home soil, also recounted the excitement of scoring a brace in the final of the tournament inside the mainbowl of the stadium, among many other goals for Nigeria at the famous ground.

“Playing at the stadium was a dream and scoring there, especially twice in the 1980 AFCON final, was special,” he said.

Thanks to Odegbami’s two first half goals and another one from Muda Lawal, Nigeria defeated Algeria 3-0 to lift is first AFCON title in 1980. The country won two more titles in 1994 and 2013 afterwards.

Now dilapidated and undergoing repairs, the facility last hosted a national team game in 2004, and Odegbami hopes it will not suffer neglect again.

“The poor state was as a result of neglect and I hope that when they finish, it will recapture the old spirit and become relevant again for the main objective, which it was built for, which was for development of sports in Nigeria,” he said.

Odegbami who also played for Ibadan Housing Corporation and Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) of Ibadan scored 23 goals for Nigeria in 46 appearances.

Source Punch Ng

Posted December 6, 2022

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