Afrigather After Bayern Munich’s newest shock consequence on this season’s
Bundesliga — an inexplicable implosion away at top-flight rookies
Heidenheim on Saturday, contriving to lose a recreation they led 2-0 by
the fiftieth minute — Victor Boniface’s
Bayer Leverkusen are now just one victory away from bagging
their first home title.
Remarkably for a membership that hasn’t gained main silverware in 21
years, ending Bayern’s untrammelled ten-season run as German
champions — a formality, at this level — could not even be the excessive
level of this marketing campaign. Xabi Alonso’s charges
could end the season with multiple trophies (they’re within the
DFB Pokal last and in addition within the hunt for UEFA Europa League glory)
and now have an unbeaten run to protect.
One would think about, although, that each one Leverkusen’s gamers can
consider proper now’s the league — first issues first, proper? — and
that features the Nigerian duo of Boniface and
Nathan Tella, who’ve each figured considerably within the
splendid season Die Werkself are having.
And why not? They’re on the verge of changing into the primary
footballers from the
West African country to be topped kings of Germany in over two
many years — solely the third and fourth to obtain that exact
honour ever, actually.
Learn all in regards to the first two under.
Pascal Ojigwe (Kaiserslautern,
1997/98)
The Aba-born defender/midfielder began and ended his enjoying
profession with hometown membership Enyimba, however he spent all of the intervening
years in Germany, turning out for some effective sides and reaching
nice success.
The membership Ojigwe first moved to was Kaiserslautern, in 1995, at a
time when the Rhineland-Palatinate outfit had been enjoying lower-tier
soccer.
Two years later, promotion to the Bundesliga was secured, and,
stunningly, of their very first season again, they gained the
title.
It was unprecedented then — no workforce freshly promoted had ever
achieved such a feat — and, even now, it stays unrivalled. Victor
Boniface’s Bayer Leverkusen could also be set to make historical past, however even
they might not have achieved one thing fairly as inconceivable.
Ojigwe didn’t characteristic prominently in that triumph — actually,
with simply 5 minutes of soccer underneath his belt, he hardly
featured in any respect — however he did simply sufficient to earn a Bundesliga
winners’ medal, changing into the very first Nigerian to obtain
one.
The 17-time capped Ojigwe got here near successful the league as soon as
extra (once more as a largely peripheral actor), in 2002, as a part of a
Leverkusen workforce that blew a snug benefit on the prime of the
desk to overlook out on the title on the ultimate day, earlier than extremely
ending as runners-up within the DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Champions
League that yr.
Sunday Oliseh (Borussia Dortmund,
2001/02)
It was Borussia Dortmund that beat Leverkusen to the league
title which might have been Ojigwe’s second, and that class of
victorious Schwarzgelben themselves had a defensive-minded Nigerian
participant of their ranks: Oliseh.
Oliseh had joined the membership on the flip of the century after an
underwhelming yr in Italy with Juventus, seeking to revive his
profession at a facet that promised extra alternatives than he had discovered
in Turin.
And whereas Oliseh by no means fairly turned an undisputed common within the
well-known yellow shirt, he definitely was a dependable squad participant — the
former Nigeria captain performed in 18 video games throughout that title-winning
marketing campaign, 11 of them as a starter, and contributed one purpose from
his place deep in midfield.
Sport
It might be solely the second league title of Oliseh’s profession —
the primary of which was gained just a few years earlier at Ajax Amsterdam in
the Netherlands — and it got here in a month that
Oliseh would in any other case not bear in mind too fondly.
Simply 4 days after the league was gained, Dortmund fell to
Feyenoord within the UEFA Cup last, however a extra crushing blow would
quickly observe, when the outspoken Oliseh was not noted of Nigeria’s
2002 FIFA World Cup squad.
He’d retire from worldwide soccer nearly instantly, however
that Bundesliga medal stays a beneficial memento from such a dark
interval.
