New Telegraph

How move to U.S. deprived Usiyan of AFCON 1980 medal, BY Felix Owolabi

Ex-international Felix Owolabi has said his late former teammate, Thompson Usiyan, who died in California, United States, on Tuesday, could not realise his ambition of winning the African Cup of Nations because he couldn’t break into the Green Eagles squad due to the poor level of football in the United States where he had moved to. Usiyan, who died on Tuesday in his Lamest, Redonda Beach home in California, the USA, at the age of 65, was born April 27, 1956, in Effurun, Delta State. Having excelled in the Academicals, he had his debut for the national team as a secondary school boy and scored in the game against Kenya in 1976. The 6ft1in striker was part of the Green Eagles that reached the semifinal of the 1976 African Cup of Nations in Ethiopia, before winning a silver medal with the Nigerian squad at the 1978 African Games in Algiers.

He was also a member of the Nigerian Olympic side that boycotted the 1976 Olympics. Until he left for further studies in America, the late Usiyan was the leading goal scorer for the Green Eagles. He dominated football space in America and many thought he could have broken into the Eagles but never made it. Owolabi, his former teammate said, Usiyan had what it took to rule football on the continent but the quality of football obtainable in the United States at the time, impacted negatively on his abilities as he could not displace many of his mates in Nigeria when he returned.

“It is always difficult to combine education with sports especially football; for some of us who were able to find that easy, it took the grace of God. Usiyan travelled to the US for studies and the American soccer was not as strong as it is today. It was not really competitive and by the time he would come back to the national team he didn’t quite fit in and again he needed to go back early. Godwin Odiye stayed behind but if you look at it you would see that Odiye was coming in as a substitute when the team would have stabilised or leading. Usiyan was a good player but couldn’t quite break in for the Nations Cup because the standard of football was very low where he was playing,” he said. Owolabi said he was shocked at the news of the death of the striker, saying Usiyan was one of the best strikers of his generation.

He said when he was still in the local league, the striker tormented many defenders and goalkeepers and evasiveness made it difficult to track him down. “It (the news of the death) came to me as a shock but then that is part of life. I spoke with Segun Odegbami about this when I heard and I remarked that he was about the best striker of our generation; he never missed the slightest of goal scoring opportunities.

“He operated like a snake who bites suddenly; that was Thompson Usiyan for you. He was a reliable and dependable striker who had the flair for the game of football. Anytime he was on the pitch, we were always confident because if he gets the ball, he would not miss a scoring chance, that was the man I knew. He could rubbish any goalkeeper in the world, ask Emmanuel Okala, he would tell you his experience with him.

“He was always good at cracking jokes, ever-smiling. During our time, it was not about Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa but about Nigeria. The love was there, we were together; there was no big player in our team unlike what we have now,” he said. Usiyan dominated football in the U.S.q and despite combining the game with his career as a tax consultant upon the completion of his studies, he was still far better than most of the players at that time.

He played for Montreal Manic, Tulsa Roughnecks, Oklahoma City Stampede, Tulsa Tornados, Los Angeles Lazers, Hamilton Steelers, St. Louis Ambush, San Diego Sockers, San Jose Grizzlies, St. Louis Storm and Hamilton Steelers in his 15-year playing career. He chose Appalachian, where he set an NCAA record of 109 career goals. Usiyan also set records for most career points (255), goals in a season (46 in 1980), and points in a season (108 in 1980). He was the Southern Conference Player of the Year in 1977, 1978,and 1980.

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