When the ball
ricocheted to him
on the edge of the penalty box on
the 10th of February, 2013, Sunday
Mba had one thing on his mind:
fashioning the shortest route to
goal.
Three touches later, the ball nestled
in the back of the net with
Abdoulaye Soulama rooted to the
spot. The FNB Stadium in
Johannesburg erupted, having
witnessed another decisive moment
in a cup final. In terms of execution,
this was the rival of Andres
Iniesta’s winner in the World Cup
final on the same ground some 30
months earlier.
Hoisted up in celebration, the then-
Warri Wolves player let out a
guttural scream. Joy, unbridled and
a measure of relief too, stood out
on Mba’s exultant face. He did not
know it then, but that goal was the
one to end two decades of hurt in
Nigeria’s football. Also,
unbeknownst to him, that was his
apogee.
The 25-year-old made his debut
just the year before that Nations
Cup campaign, a legacy of the
successful WAFU Cup team of 2010.
He scored a brace in his second
international, a friendly victory over
Liberia, but surely could not have
been the only one surprised to hear
his name read out as part of the
23-man Afcon squad. Indeed, he
was one of six Nigerian Premier
League players called up to the
Super Eagles.
This was not the norm.
Indeed, it was standard practice for
team handlers to opt for foreign-
based players upon qualification,
having given locally-based players
a run-out in the preliminaries.
However, coach Stephen Keshi kept
faith with the likes of Godfrey
Oboabona, Reuben Gabriel, Mba and
Ejike Uzoenyi.
Will it ever get this good again?
That faith would be repaid
handsomely: Oboabona forged an
impermeable partnership with
Kenneth Omeruo at the heart of the
defence, but it was the contribution
of Mba that proved truly decisive.
Keshi is often prone to
experimentation in the middle of
major tournaments, often leading to
strange selection choices (the same
quirk that saw Babatunde Michael
make a name for himself at the
World Cup). It worked a treat for the
pacy midfielder: his introduction in
South Africa brought verticality to
the Nigeria midfield, thanks to his
direct running and dribbling with
the ball. In a crowded midfield zone,
up against physical man-markers,
the ability to turn on the ball is
priceless.
This quality was on show against
perennial favourites Ivory Coast in
the quarter-final, incidentally Mba’s
second game of the tournament.
Both teams cancelled each other
out essentially, until he picked the
ball up from deep and roared
forward past a number of
challenges, before scoring off a
deflection with about 15 minutes
left on the clock. It was a goal that
encapsulated all that Mba is about:
quick thinking, intrepidity and
frightening acceleration. That winner against Ivory Coast
announced him, but it is for the
goal against Burkina Faso that he
will be remembered most fondly; a
strike thoroughly out of place in a
disappointing final. In a cagey, dour
match, his goal was a bright streak
of colour.
The epithet of the local deity of the
Igbo clan Amadioha speaks of his
propensity to take a man’s life at
the height of its sweetness. In
Mba’s finest hour, storm clouds had
begun to gather. An ill-advised
move to Enugu Rangers was
declared null and void in March by
the NFF due to an extant contract
with Warri Wolves. The Flying
Antelopes were directed to pay a
full transfer fee, but were unable to
come to a workable agreement with
Wolves as negotiations dragged on
and on.
In the interim, Mba’s career stalled
with no competitive football. When
eventually the matter was resolved,
it was agreed he would spend the
rest of the league season on loan
with Rangers, before returning to
Warri Wolves. Mba spoke of his
relief at the resolution to BBC Sport,
saying, “Both parties have agreed to
a new decision and this is good for
my football career. I wish to thank
both clubs, everyone that stepped in
and hope to take my career to the
next level from here.”
Unsurprisingly, having been inactive
for such a long period, Mba was
unable to hit the ground running.
However, that did not prevent a
call-up to the Super Eagles for the
FIFA Confederations Cup in June:
Keshi is fiercely loyal to his players,
and expects (and gets) the same
back.
The hope was that a familiar set-up
would evince the same game-
changing ability that brought Mba
to the limelight.
He thoroughly underwhelmed, and
Keshi would later ruefully admit to
Futaa.com, “I didn’t get Mba at the
Confederations Cup.”
Has Mba's Bastia move killed his
Super Eagles career?
However, it seemed the worst had
passed, as the very next month,
Mba was in sparkling form for the
Super Eagles Championship of
African Nations team as they
spanked their Ivoirian counterparts
4-1 to seal qualification for the
2014 tournament in South Africa.
He provided two goals and two
assists, and appeared back to his
best.
Having regained the trust of the
national team handlers, he seemed
poised to lead an impressive local-
based selection to victory in South
Africa. Then came yet another
misjudgement: a January move to
French second division side CA
Bastia, thereby rendering him
ineligible, on the eve of the Chan.
Keshi wished him well, but surely
viewed this as an act of disloyalty.
The Big Boss has a notoriously long
memory, and this showed itself
when preparations for the World
Cup began. Mba’s visa problems
kept him from hitting camp at the
right time; he was ultimately
dropped from the final 23, but it
was telling that Keshi had begun to
seek alternatives as early as the
Mexico friendly in March. He has not been called up since.
As the Super Eagles laboured to one
point against Congo and South
Africa in Afcon qualifying, the hero
of Nigeria’s finest footballing hour
of the past two decades was being
shown a red card in a French
National game against Chambly. In
his absence, Les Noirs rallied to
claw back a goal-deficit in
stoppage time.
From being indispensable to the
Super Eagles to being expendable in
the French Third Division in 18
months is as steep a fall as is
possible.
If ever Nigeria needed a hero, it is
now.
In 2013, Mba answered the call to
deliver glory. Like Disney’s Mr.
Incredible, he may be in no shape to
deliver once again, but God knows
we need him now.

Well ...shows you that in Nigerian football circle, you either perform or be bashed no sentiments. Only a few times such is not the case and we get bashed by such wrong judgment Sunday should sit up and stop whining about I'm afraid same thing might happen to Uzoenyi of the CHAN fame.

What most Nigerian players don't understand is when you want to go pro, sign up with good and established teams, forget the fact that you are made to fight for starting place, sit on the bench, learn the trade and the politics. Also get yourself loaned out to other good teams. But when you sign up for an archaic team that is unknown, you level of play suffers as well as your confidence. Very few players are exception to this rules - they play in obscure leagues, they shine both in the league and also for their National teams.

Sometimes too, you sign up for obscure teams just to save your hide from too much bashing by defenders but then be prepared to either improve your game or go with the obscure league tide