Legendary Brazilian soccer star, Edson Arantes do Nascimentor, popularly known as “Pele’’ will be in Nigeria from August 11 till August 12 for a two-day programme on youth development and empowerment.

Many soccer fans are already excited about the visit and so is Pele himself.
“It has been nearly 50 years since my first visit to Nigeria. I look forward to being there again on August 11/12,” he tweeted recently.

Here are a few things we think he will be very excited to know about Nigeria, 47 years after his first visit.

No more civil war


Pele’s first visit was in January 1969. At that time, Nigeria was going through a terrible civil war. A small region in the southern part of the country was trying to secede to become the Republic of Biafra. Legend has it that when Pele visited, Nigeria and Biafra had to reach a two day ceasefire to allow for matches to be played between Santos, Pele’s club side and the Green Eagles of Nigeria. Another game was also played in Benin City.

The country now has more stadiums

The first match Pele’s team, Santos played in Nigeria was at the Lagos City Stadium, now known as the Onikan Stadium. At that time that was probably the best stadium in the country. Formerly known as the King George V, stadium, Onikan is the oldest stadium in the country. It was built in 1930. The second match was played at the Ogbe Stadium against the Mid-western team. There were only few stadia with facilities needed for such high profile matches.
However, 47 years after, Pele would be happy to see that Nigeria has more than 50 stadia with acceptable facilities, albeit neglected.

There are now football academies in the country

Though football has always been a big sport in Nigeria, there was hardly any football academy in the country in 1969 when Pele visited for the first time. Currently though, there am more than a hundred of such outfits in the country, starting with the Pepsi Football Academy established in 1992. The academy has been responsible for discovering and breeding many talented footballers in the country including internationals like Osaze Odemwinge and Mikel ...

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