India 99- Nigeria 1 The Match We All Heard But Never watched. Did It Really Happen?

Virtually everyone has heard about how Nigerian Football team was once upon a time thoroughly thrashed 99-1 by an Indian team. Many of the uncles, 'egbons' and  elders even swore to watching the match and with the way it was narrated, we couldn't help but believe the story as we believed the gospel.

We never bothered asking the year or the stadium the match was played as our memory already conjured up 4D visuals of Nigeria's
goalkeeper running for his dear life as the ball he was supposed to catch transformed to a Lion. The story has been so much polished that one finds it easier to believe it than disbelieve

and woe betides whoever challenges the story teller that the match never happened. Some of the facts conjured by the storytellers include;

1. The result of the match led to FIFA banning India from playing football because they used charms.

2. The Nigerian Players were unable to even kick the ball because the Indians used their magic powers to transform it into a stone.

3.The Scorer of Nigeria's only goal scorer(some of the tale bearers say it's samuel Okwaraji,other variations say it's Muda lawal) died in the process.

4. The Nigerian team won the game as they were able to score a goal.

Though there is a saying that 'there's an iota of truth in every lie', one can agree with the fact that Samuel Okwaraji and Muda Lawal are dead but the circumstances of their death is well known and documeted. Okwaraji died on the football Pitch while playing for Nigeria in a World cup qualifying match but it was not against India and he didn't score in that match either.

 India is a country that give so much priority to football hence their failure to excel in the game of football and  the only time they were banned was for choosing to play bare footed and refusing to
play with football boots.

The Match only took place in the stadium of our imagination and as long as the story continues to be transported from the lips of those who watched it to the ears of those who never did, many will still end up believing the match really happened.