Farewell to the dead ball king…Ayo Ogunlana

Dr Mitchell Obi

Still remember how he held with deep pain the Man Of The Match trophy but could not lift his eyes to watch Christian Chukwu’s Rangers collect the Challenge Cup in the 1983 final decided inside Sportscity Surulere.

Ayo played for DIC Bees and he was easily the toast of the team, the celebrated dead ball expert.
I had headlined my preview of the final in The Guardian, Nigeria’s Flagship newspaper then, as Chris and Chris Challenge For The Cup.

DIC Bees had the late Chris Udemezue, former Flying and Green Eagles coach. Rangers had Christian Chukwu in his first major coaching stint at club level.
The game had dragged to penalty shoot out and DIC Bees needed to score their last kick to carry the Challenge Cup to the North, precisely Kaduna.

Who else to take the million naira kick than Ayo Ogunlana. Rangers fans and the staduim crowd had surrendered to a Bees triumph. But they did not figure out the spirit and myth of the Okalas in goalkeeping.

Emman Man Mountain Okala had retired and his younger brother of blessed memory Pat Okala had stepped well into his shoes and this was his moment to announce himself to the world and shift from the looming shadow of his brother.

Ayo stepped up, wiped his face, waved to the crowd and then weaved a kick that was bound for the net corner. Alas, Patrick Okala, fully stretched, superbly tipped it out.

Bedlam.Ayo totally mesmerised, Okala receiving adulation from all corners, Rangers and Christian Chukwu had won the Challenge Cup.

This was the save that got Pat to the Green Eagles and kept, unexpectedly in his debut in the crucial Los Angeles Olympic qualifier against host Morocco in Casablanca.
He had many saves in the game from the Krimau brothers and even in the resultant shoot out which the Atlas Lions won when Badou Zaki made a mess of Henry Nwosu’s Nyansh- bending kick.

For Ayo Ogunlana, that penalty miss remained a shadow he could not separate himself from. But there was no doubt on his mercurial touch on the ball, his elevated vision, his discipline on and off the pitch and above all the humility and simplicity of a gifted player who found joy with the ball and gave joy with the ball.

A true captain, so easy to relate but had a commanding aura inside the pitch. Nigeria remembers a veritable Bee who provided the honey of silky skills as we know of the number 10s.
Fare thee well Ayo Ogunlana, your surname reminds us where Nigerian football had its home and where the professional football took off in 1990.

Dr Mitchell Obi FNIMN