There are not that many unique footballers I can think of in history.
By that I mean players who stood out based on their style of play. The only ones that come off the top of my head are Romario, Ibrahimovic, Pirlo....and then a cat whose career was cut short due to illness, Mr. Nwankwo himself.
There was always this belief. If you are about to play football with strangers, and it has come time to pick players, since you have never seen them play, you can only use the eye test to choose.
So you have to look at their body structure. The dudes with pot-bellies or those that are really tall, you pick last. Those with the bellies would be too slow and not quick enough to dribble or fast enough to run after a through ball. The ones that are taller, just won't have the quick change in direction to get past any players or really be able to pass the ball and move quickly.
The eye test. A lot of times it works, but there are those times it does not work.
Looking at the apparent deficiencies you may see in a chubby or taller player, the beauty of football is there are so many different ways to play it. And speed or strength or not the main attributes you need, no matter what idiotic coach may try and tell you.
Now let's talk about a Nigerian legend, Kanu. When I first saw him, I made that natural assumption that he wouldn't fit into the Nigerian framework, because he just did not look like he could dribble or even have the coordination to have the same kinds of moves that Okocha or Finidi George would have.
How wrong I was.
It all began in one of the greatest days in Nigerian football. That Olympic 96 football semi-final against Brazil, where the Eagles were beaten. How many teams can say they have come back to beat Brazil (pre-Fred and Oscar) after being 3-1 down?
But lead by Kanu's genius, scoring one of the most underrated goals, with his back to goal, chipping the ball up and turning to put the ball in the net from a ball put into the box. And of course finishing off with the winner in extra-time.
It introduced him to the world, and it was the first time that I had ever seen a player that tall who had such amazing football skills. His mastery of the ball and control of it was something I just did not think was possible with someone with his body structure.
The true brilliance of Kanu was the way in which he would be able to bamboozle defenders without the use of speed. It was all in the mind, the way in which he would jinx the defenders by subtle movements of the ball at his feet. Again, this is all psychological, without having to be the "perfect" image of a footballer. He redefined how you viewed footballers of that ilk.
Saddest thing were the heart issues that he had. Because of a hole in his heart, he had to have operations, to get himself fixed. And after such surgery, he wasn't able to really be at his very best. That is one of the most unfortunate things. Because Kanu was not Owen, whose talent was based on his speed. For Kanu, age would not have depreciated him since he did not need the youth of pace to be able to be effective.
With the dust settled, Kanu will be remembered as a footballer who reminded us all of that famous saying that we don't seem to always live by.
"Don't judge a book by its cover"
HH
