Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

Do you think you will get the answer correct if you are asked "What is the most common last name ever used by players of the Nigerian national team?" This was the question that I set out to answer by examining last names (Surnames) of players that have played for Nigeria since the first game in 1949. Note, however, that these last names are assumed accurate based on their frequent usage in the media. However, there are possibilities of errors. For instance, one of Nigeria's players goes by the names Kalu Orji and then Kalu Orji Okagbue . In this case, we have entered his last name as "Orji." In any case, there are numerous last names that came up multiple times.  Because of this and lack of space, I decided to ditch last names shared by only two players and consider only those that had at least three entries. Ultimately, the name with most multiple entries is not surprising if you think about it. The most common last name used is Mohammed ( Table 1 ).  I...

This is World Cup Year 2018 and Russia is quickly beckoning. Nigeria has reached the last 16 at three of five World Cup appearances but what does 2018 promise? While many believe that Nigeria is destined for a final 8 appearance, that will depend (at least in part) in Nigeria's ability to build substantive depth with quality players that can be easily called up into play without diminishing the on-field productivity of the team. Nigeria has not always demonstrated that depth and the question is whether the 2018 team is going to be different.  I proceed to address the issue of depth in two major ways. The first is to qualitatively grade the team's unit in terms of individual players and the unit as a whole. Then go beyond assessing quality to assess experience playing for the team. I strongly believe that these types of assessments help in evaluating how good the team is and its prospects in Russia. The Quality Factor On quality, the key assessment is performance of...

We are barely six months to the start of the 2018 World Cup with hopes that Nigeria will finally break pat the Round of 16 hurdle. Sure, you are perhaps left wondering why one is writing about breaking past the Round of 16 hurdle when the team isn't guaranteed of coming out of its group. But does it really matter? It might be the case that it isn't guaranteed but that should not stop Nigerians from dreaming and hoping. After all, the 2018 team is as good as any that Nigeria has produced in recent times. Its march through the World Cup qualifiers is a pointer to that. It was one of Nigeria's toughest World Cup qualifiers. The now revered 1994 team did not have as tough a schedule and needed all games to get to the World Cup finals in the USA. The 2018 team did not just impress with results but put out an exclamation point with the way the team dominated and before the last day it had already qualified. Several of the players who led the 2018 team are expected to be pres...