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 stadium 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 mesmerized, 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.
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