By Amaechi Agbo

In what could be described as a national embarrassment, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF Friday failed to celebrate one of the iconic coaches of the Super Eagles, Clemens Westerhof when he marked his 79th birthday yesterday, May 3rd, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report.

Clemens Westerhof became Nigeria’s senior men national team coach in 1989 to 1994 and went on to establish himself as the most successful foreign coach in Nigeria football.

The Beek, Netherlands born coach is most noted for his success with the Nigerian national team. Under Westerhof, the Super Eagles won the 1994 African Cup of Nations and also qualified for the second round of the FIFA World Cup that year, a feat that has remained unsurpassed 25 years after.

In late 1989, Westerhof was signed by the then Nigerian Football Association, NFA, to coach the national team. After the team failed to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup by failing to get at least a draw away to Cameroon on the last day of qualifying, Westerhof set about rebuilding the team.

His effect was immediate, as Nigeria reached the final of the 1990 African Cup of Nations where they lost 1–0 to the host nation Algeria .

In the lead-up to the 1992 African Cup of Nations , the Nigerian team which had adopted the nickname “Super Eagles” dropping “Green Eagles” since losing controversially to Cameroon in the 1988 African Cup of Nations final match, tried to justify the tag thanks to their recent winning run under Westerhof. They placed third at that tournament, losing to archrivals Ghana in the semi-final.

In 1992, Nigeria began its quest to qualify for its first-ever FIFA World Cup, which would be held in the United States two years later.

Placed in a group with South Africa and
Congo, Nigeria finished top of its group in the first round, winning 3 games and drawing 1, and did not concede a single goal in all 4 games.

For the second and final round, Nigeria was grouped with Ivory Coast and Algeria . The Super Eagles won 2 games, drew 1 and lost 1, and finished equal with Ivory Coast on points but advanced to the World Cup with a superior
goal difference .

Westerhof is credited with turning Nigeria into a perennial powerhouse in African football and showing that they, and other African nations, can compete on the world stage.

He is responsible for what is unarguably the golden era of Nigeria football – won the nations cup, reached World Cup finals for the first time and played in knock out stage also for the first time at the global stage.

Players such as Jay-Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh,
Nwankwo Kanu, late Rashidi Yekini, Daniel Amokachi and others, who all went on to successful careers with various high-profile European clubs, entered the world spotlight while playing under Westerhof.

It is a man of this pedigree in Nigeria football, without whom the history of Nigeria football would not be told, that the current NFF administration failed to celebrate on his birthday on May 3rd, 2019.

In what could be regarded as an after thought, the NFF early this morning wished the Dutch coach a belated happy birthday.

Tweeting on its official Twitter handle @thenff, the NFF said
“Hurray! Former @NGSuperEagles coach Clemens Westerhof was 79 yesterday. Many happy returns coach, thank you for the memories.”

The post was made at 12:23am this Saturday