Sporting Moments that defined Nigeria in 2015

FIFA U-17 World Cup triumph

Nigeria defeated African champions, Mali 2-0, to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile. Victor Osimhen, who finished as the tournament’s top scorer and Funsho Bamgboye scored in the second half, to seal a record fifth title for the Golden Eaglets. They also become the second country after Brazil, to have successfully defended their crown. Emmanuel Amuneke’s boys impressed fans around the world, with their power and pace, losing only once throughout the competition.

Winning World Scrabble Championship
A Nigerian man, Wellington Jighere, became the first African to win the English Language World Scrabble Championships, after beating Lewis Mackay. Jighere, who described the game as “a battle between one man and a whole continent,” fought off severe jetlag to win four straight games in the best-of-seven final round against the Briton. Mackay is ranked 19th by the body’s players’ association, while Jighere is not even listed on the website. The 32-year-old from Benin, was sponsored by the Nigerian government and romped to victory using words like “dacoit”, which means a member of a class of robbers in India and Burma; “yow”, an Australian slang for keeping a look-out and “katti”, an alternative spelling for a weight used in China.

D’Tigers emerged champions at AfroBasketball 2015
In August, Nigeria’s senior men’s basketball team, D’Tigers, won the AfroBasketball competition, after they beat African superpower, Angola, in the final. D’Tigers beat the Southern Africa nation 74-65, to win the competition for the first time ever, in what was a re-match of the AfroBasket 2003 final, when the Angolans topped the Nigerians 86-65 in Alexandria, Egypt. Oguchi was the star player, as Nigeria created history in Rades, on the outskirts of Tunis, Tunisia. They have now secured direct qualification for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Enyimba clinch record 7th NPFL title.

Enyimba Football Club of Aba won the 2014/2015 season of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL). The People’s Elephant held fellow contenders, Warri Wolves, to a goalless draw in front of over 40,000 fans at the Enyimba International Stadium in Aba, to be crowned champions for a record seventh time. They finished with 70 points, after a great campaign that saw the Aba team lose only six times and keept 19 clean sheets. Enyimba won 19 games, with five of those coming at away grounds.

Sunday Oliseh’s appointment

In July, Sunday Oliseh was appointed as Stephen Keshi’s replacement. This bold decision represented a shift away from the usual practice of recycling coaches. There is no Nigerian coach in Oliseh’s class. The former Juventus and Borussia Dortmund midfielder, possesses a UEFA Pro License. It is one of the highest and most respected coaching qualifications worldwide. Mutiu Adepoju and Emmanuel Amuneke are the only Nigerians that have it. For full context however, it must be noted Oliseh is possibly the only African to have coached abroad. The results have not been overly impressive, but in 2016, we can expect more improvement.