Since the formation of the Major League Soccer in 1993 as part of the United States’ successful bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup, with the first season taking off in 1996, Nigerian players have been playing dominant roles in the league which has 17 teams from the United States and three in Canada.
Players from the West African country had preference over those from other parts of the African continent, following the brilliant display of soccer artistry by players of the Nigerian national soccer team, the Super Eagles, which took the world by storm at the USA 94 World Cup finals with classical star players like Rashidi Yekini, Peter Rufai, Daniel Amokachi, Emmanuel Amuneke, Chidi Nwanu and Samson Siasia among others.
At the moment, we have top Nigerian stars in 12 of the out of the 20 club league format, making rave headlines, with their various clubs depending heavily on their form to do well. In Seattle Sounders, we have Obafemi Martins who was signed as a designated Player in 2013. He has asserted himself as one of the League’s most electric talents.
He was the 2014 MLS MVP runner-up scoring seven goals, four assists in 11 appearances for Sounders FC this season. Prior to joining Seattle, Martins spent four seasons with Italian giants Inter Milan and three seasons in the English Premier League with Newcastle United.
He has scored 18 goals for the Nigerian national team and made two appearances at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This marks the second consecutive year that Martins has won the AT&T/EA SPORTS “More Than a Vote” Tournament. His career in the green of the Sounders has flourished, while it has faded in the green colours of the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
The 30-year-old was the fifthjoint top scorer in MLS last season and, in tandem with Clint Dempsey, will be hoping to add to his trophy cabinet in the current season.
Defensive midfielder, Fatai Alashe, plays for San Jose Earthquakes after he was drafted to Major League Soccer in January. Another Nigerian player in the club is former Sacramento State forward, 22 years old Chimdum Mez . Nigerian-born Switzerland international, Innocent Emeghara, is the third Nigerian star in the MLS club.
He has said openly that he is happy to help the team do well in the league. Perhaps not a player with a marquee name, Emeghara marks the first significant signing of a rising international player since the Earthquakes returned to MLS in 2008. After turning professional as a teenager, the Nigerian-born but Swiss raised Emeghara played for three Swiss clubs over the first five years of his career. While a member of the Swiss U-21 national team, he played his success into a move to France and Ligue 1 side FC Lorient. His progress continued with appearances for the full Swiss national team and a high-profile move to Italy’s Serie A and time with Siena and Livorno. A brief sojourn with Azerbaijan Premier League club Qarabag marked his last European stop before signing with San Jose.
In Chicago Fire Football Club, we have an all-Nigerian strike force; the rapid Kennedy Igboananike partnering Quincy Amarikwa up front terrorizing the goal area of opposing teams. Igboananike turned 26 years old in February. He played in Sweden since 2007 for Vasalunds, Djurgårdens and AIK. He has dual citizenship in both Nigeria and Sweden. “Kennedy is a dynamic goal scorer with a track record of producing.
He’s young and exciting, a player with incredible pace, and we look forward to adding him to our roster to bolster our attack,” Fire head coach Frank Yallop said in a club statement. A product of Dynamos Football Academy in Nigeria, Igboananike made his professional debut with Djurgårdens of the Swedish Allsvenskan on June 19, 2007.
In 2008, he transferred to lowerdivision club Vasalunds and scored a league-high 18 goals, garnering the Division 1 golden boot in 2008. After scoring 12 goals in 2009, the Nri-Igbo, Nigeria native returned to Djurgårdens in 2010 and later departed for fellow Stockholmarea side AIK in 2013. He scored 14 goals that season and five goals in 26 matches during the 2014 Allsvenskan campaign.
At Montreal Impact FC, Nigeria international defender, Gege Soriola became the club’s superstar when he helped improved the one time leaky defence line of the club which had over the years made it the jokes of Major League Soccer with their hopeless, leaky defence. Soriola improved immensely in South Africa since leaving the Nigerian Premier League. It is hoped that the 26-year-old can make the most of this tough brief in Canada.
At Portland Timbers FC, we have Fanendo Adi whose move to the club from FC Kobenhavn a Champions League team for Major League Soccer was tagged a wise one.
The penchant of the former Super Eagles chief coach, Stephen Keshi’s for the United States encouraged Adi that he might take the ‘Bright Dike’ route to the national side by moving across the Atlantic. Adi has looked great in the CONCACAF Champions League-scoring two in four-but his real value will surely be judged by the goals he scored in MLS. Amobi Okugo never dream of playing club football side by side with world soccer icon, Kaka, until he joined MLS club Orlando City FC.
This actually made his last season at Philadelphia Union non-regrettable. Both Kaka and Amodi featured in Orlando City’s MLS several tough league games.
Despite starring regularly in defence for the Union last season, Okugo was reinstalled to his preferred position as defensive midfielder against New York City. When Toronto FC fans thought that the team would never be stable again after the departure Jermain Defoe, the Canadians had the luxury of depending on Nigeria hit-man Bright Dike to replace him. The powerful striker hasn’t been seen in action for the Super Eagles since the early part of 2014 when he tore his Achilles tendon.
The injury ruled him out of the World Cup and he hasn’t been seen for Nigeria since. His comeback at Toronto was sooner than expected but he soon faded out of the first-team picture with doubts raised about his fitness. It remains to be seen what role he will play this term considering his peripheral part last year and the arrival of both Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore.
Formerly of New York Red Bulls, 26-year-old Andre Akpan moved to New England Revolution at the end of last season after few opportunities came his way due to competition from the likes of Tim Cahill, Peguy Luyindula and Thierry Henrry. Akpan, is a hard-worker, a proficient target man and boasts a decent turn of pace. He was born in Grand Prairie, Texas to a Nigerian father and an American mother.
In 2013, the 2010 MLS Cup winner was traded to the New York Red Bulls in exchange for a conditional 2015 Super Draft pick. In his first season with the Bulls, Akpan played in seven regular season matches, recording two assists.
He was also the team’s top scorer in the MLS Reserve League scoring 10 goals. He was a member of the United States U-20 team for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
He scored a hat trick in qualifying and appeared in the quarterfinals. The 27-year-old attacker has also defended the colours of Westchester Flames, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, Real Maryland and FC Tampa Bay in his career. In Sporting Kansas City, Ike Opara, is one of the heroes of the MLS club. On return from a six-month ankle injury, Opara became a better scorer. He was born in Durham, North Carolina and has featured for the United States at U-20 and U-23 levels.
His showing against NYRB saw him included in the Goal MLS Team of the Week. Former Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders defender, Jalil Anibaba, is another Nigerian in the club. He joined the Chicago Fire FC in the offseason and raised the possibility of Sporting fielding an all-Nigerian centre-back pairing. He is another former USA youth international. At Real Salt Lake FC, Nigeria-born, Boyd Okwuonu, is embarking on his first season with Real Salt Lake and will look to provide competition for the right-back position. Sam Adekugbe, who grew up in London and Manchester- before emigrating to Canada when he was nine years old plays for Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
He is a Manchester City fan and, according to the club’s official website, models himself on Ashley Cole who, like Adekugbe, is a left-back. Kay Banjo, the second Nigerian star in the club was selected in the latest MLS Super Draft. He is a powerful striker with an eye for the spectacular, and the Canadians will be satisfied to have acquired this fine raw talent. Tesho Akindele, is a Nigerian-born striker, who plays for FC Dallas in the American Major League Soccer (MLS).
He has committed his international future to Canada after months of persuasion by the Canada coach. Akindele, it was learnt, was born in Canada to a Nigerian father and a Canadian mother and moved with his family to the United States at the age of eight. He played four years of college soccer at the Colorado School of Mines, where he became the school’s all-time goals leader with 76 goals scored, and was a four time All-American.
In January last year, Akindele was drafted in the first round – 6th overall – of the 2014 MLS Super Draft by FC Dallas, becoming the highest drafted Division II player in MLS history.
According to Canada coach, Benito Floro, the 23-year-old MLS Rookie of the Year, who scored seven goals in twentysix appearances, is “99 percent committed to playing for Canada.”
Floro had last November called the Akindele into camp ahead of a friendly against Panama. But after initially accepting Floro’s offer, Akindele then changed his mind after interest came from the United States, for whom he is also eligible to play. “He needed to choose and I think he committed a mistake, because he first agreed to attend our camp,” the Canada coach said.
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