Years after hanging his boots, former Super Eagles ‘ winger, George Finidi shares some of his best career memories for both club and country in an interesting conversation with CHIJIOKE EZEALI.
Former Super Eagles’ winger, George Finidi, has revealed one of the best secrets of his playing years, explaining how he missed out of playing for the storied Spanish side, Real Madrid.
According to him, he would have been the first Nigerian ever to play for the 13-time UEFA Champions League winners with a dream move to the Spanish giants in the summer of 1996 after he was crowned the Dutch champion with Ajax Amsterdam but the deal to take him to the Bernabeu fell through.
“I would have really loved to play for Real Madrid,” Finidi, a European Champions League winner with Ajax, told our correspondent in an interview. “I was really close to signing a deal with the Spanish giants when I left Ajax but at the end of the day it did not happen.”
Finidi eventually moved to Spain as he signed for Real Betis; and showed Real Madrid what they missed out on as he helped the Andalusians finish fourth in his debut season and narrowly failed to win the Copa Del Rey final after a 3-2 loss in extra time to FC Barcelona.
He was a right winger that loved scoring goals as much as he liked providing them, which was evident during his time at Betis by scoring double digits in nearly all of his four seasons with the club.
At Betis, Finidi played with the exceptional Brazilian Denilson, who was at the time the world’s most expensive footballer.
“Denilson was a vibrant and talented player who came into the league,” explained Finidi, as he shared his admiration for the step-over specialist. “He did his best for the team; he was a good guy on and off the pitch and I really enjoyed playing with him.”
Unarguably one of the best number seven that ever represented Nigeria in the beautiful game of football, Finidi’s running style was unique and almost mirrored to that of American and legendary Olympian Michael Johnson, who looked so degage during most of his races but got the job done.
The former Ipswich of England star was quick and unbelievably accurate with his special deliveries into the box for the strikers to finish.
‘Finito’, as he was fondly referred to, was technically the best in his position on the continent during his heyday and received global recognition following exploits at Ajax Amsterdam, Real Betis and the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States of America.
After emerging as a raw bubbling talent on the local scene playing for the likes of Calabar Rovers, Iwuanyanwu Nationale (now Heartland) and Sharks (now Rivers United) of Port Harcourt, he was fast tracked into the national team by Clemens Westerhof.
Finidi moved to Holland in 1993 and became a student of the famous Dutch football school which produced the likes of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Johan Cruyff, Edgar Davis and Clarence Seedorf at Ajax.
He was wrought into one of the hunky-dory right wingers in the history of Ajax by a knowledgeable manager in the shape of Louis van Gaal, who led some young crop of players including Nigeria’s Nwankwo Kanu to win back-to-back Eredivisie title and the prestigious UEFA Champions League during the 1994/95 season.
At the USA’94 World Cup, Finidi created two assists in the 3-0 win against Bulgaria to mark a memorable World Cup debut for the African giants.
Nigeria’s first World Cup goal had Finidi written all over it. He ran onto a pass from Daniel ‘The Bull’ Amokachi before releasing a well-timed pass for Rashid Yekini to score Nigeria’s first ever World Cup goal and the celebration that followed was epic.
The second half of that game saw a master class from the Nigerian team as they danced around the more star-studded Bulgarians and Finidi, again, provided a phenomenal pass for Emmanuel Amuneke to score with a diving header.
The pass showed Finidi’s technical brilliance, vision and charm and just like we say in local palace ‘a good pass is half a goal’ – he is a dream winger for any striker because he serves it on a plate and makes a schoolboy professional look like a genius. That is why the Port Harcourt-born star is the ideal standard for right wingers for Nigeria.
He followed up that performance against Bulgaria with mesmerising display against Argentina before grabbing his World Cup goal against Greece in the final group match with a superb lob that defined his technical prowess and a cheeky celebration which still resonates among his die-hard supporters.
Though Nigeria was eventually eliminated in a close round of 16 showdown against Italy, the Super Eagles left their mark, thanks to superb displays from the likes of Finidi and FIFA duly recognised that team as the second most entertaining side of the US 94′ tournament only behind eventual winners – the Samba boys from Brazil.
“My best moment would be scoring at the US ’94 World Cup against Greece,” he revealed. “It is never easy qualifying, but scoring for Nigeria in her first World Cup was fantastic.
“If you look at the squad to the USA 1994 World Cup, we had a mixture of young and mature players that were hungry to win every game and the balance was right.
“Apart from the maturity, the majority of these players were playing top flight football in their various club week-in-week-out which we don’t see these days.
“The World Cup is the biggest event in football and to participate and give two assists and scoring in our first World Cup was sensational. Scoring in any game is important, but at the World Cup means more than just scoring a goal. It was a good goal (against Greece) but I did not plan for the celebration. It was spontaneous.
“We lost to Italy because of our own carelessness and we paid the price. We felt very disappointed after all the effort and got nothing out of it. Some players cried because we lost the opportunity to get to the semis or even win the World Cup.”
The Super Eagles class of 1994 arguably remains the best in the history of Nigerian football. Before them, the 1980 squad with the likes of Christian ‘Chairman’ Chukwu and Segun ‘the Mathematical’ Odegbami held sway as the numero-uno of Nigerian football but the 94′ team swept that title with their brand of soccer, passion and wow factor.
The 47-year-old is now a certified coach, having completed his coaching courses and armed with a certified license. He has already tested the waters with youth teams but he is hoping for tougher challenges especially back home with any of the national teams.
Finidi craves the attention of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) just like France with Didier Deschamps, Spain (Fernando Hierro), Senegal (Aliou Cissé) and Zlatko Dalić of Croatia.
“I have worked as youth coach at Mallorca several years and hoped for a higher position which did not happen because the club was undergoing changes, so I left,” he volunteered.
“I managed the U-15 and U-16 of Mallorca in 2013 and was assistant manager that played in the second division B in 2014. I also was the assistant coach of the second team of PEC Zwolle in Holland in 2016.
“It was a great experience for me to have managed the youth teams. I had to show these players what it takes to play and compete on the highest level. It was a great experience teaching these young players. However, since the opportunity (to manage a top side) was not forthcoming in Europe, one has to try and see what’s possible back home.”
He continued: “Yes, I was interviewed by the committee of the NFF for the U-17 job but for one reason or the other the job was given to someone else. I was not even called by the FA to tell me what happened, I only saw it on the news.
“In other countries, ex-players are recognised when it comes to coaching and advice, but back home it’s all about who you know and where you’re coming from.”
Finidi gave an insight to what his coaching style may look like and also revealed who his best teammate of all-time was.
“My best team mate in the Super Eagles was Ike Shorumu. We started way back in the early 1990’s, going to camp together, had same dream that one day we would represent Nigeria, so we built on that relationship till today.
“The best manager I have worked with at club level would be the late Spanish coach Lius Aragonés, winner of Euro Cup 2008. I worked with Aragonés for two seasons at Betis and two seasons at Mallorca. He was a coach that made every player better through motivation and believing in his players. I had more confidence playing under him and he believed in me as a player.
“At the national team level, it has to be Clemens Westerhof, who transformed Nigeria football in the 1990s.”
Meanwhile, Finidi opined that the Super Eagles would’ve won more than three Africa Nations Cup (AFCON) if not for political reasons and he is still pained by that missed opportunity.
“Looking back, I will say if it was not for political reasons, maybe we (the 94′ squad) would’ve gone on to win two more Africa Nations Cup. CAF had to sanction Nigeria for pulling out of the 1996 AFCON held in South Africa. I’m not satisfied for that reason,” he stated.
“The 1998 World Cup would have been a perfect one if we had learnt from our past mistakes but it didn’t seem that way. After beating Spain and Bulgaria to qualify for the next round, we lost to Paraguay and I thought that would have motivated us to beat Denmark.
“We were given a day and half to relax and players got carried away, had less rest because most players went to Paris and did not sleep early and I think that affected the team and we were shadows of ourselves in the match against Denmark.”
Asked to assess the performance of the Gernot Rohr-led Super Eagles at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, he replied: “The World Cup was not a good one for Nigeria. I was not satisfied with their preparation and team tactics during the tournament.”
Finidi is not keen to run for the office of the Nigeria Football Federation but has some key changes he will like to make if he finds himself there.
He said: “Politics in Nigeria is difficult. It’s costly and there’s no guarantee you can win it genuinely if I run, so I will not want to waste my time in politics.
“However, if I’m opportune to make a change, I will start restructuring how the league is played. The referees should be paid very well rather than being influenced by many factors. I will try to change that as well.
“The FA should generate its funds instead of waiting for the government to give them money. If the FA is run by a private entity or entities, we will not have all the fighting and embezzlement of funds. That could be changed,” noted Finidi who earned 62 caps with Nigeria and a proud winner of the 1994 Africa Nations Cup (AFCON) in Tunisia.
