ENYIMBA
ADVANCES TO THE GROUP STAGES OF THE CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:
A potentially –explosive contest of end-to-end action is
at hand when Nigerian champions Enyimba FC tackle Etoile Sportive du Sahel of
Tunisia in a third round, second leg encounter in Sousse on Wednesday. Both
teams are likely to recreate their ‘final battle’ of 2004, in which the
People’s Elephant edged the Mediterranean Stars on penalties at the National
Stadium, Abuja for their second successive title. Enyimba won the first leg in
Port Harcourt, Nigeria by 3 – 0, but the Peoples Elephants, who arrived Tunisia
on Monday ready for the return leg are going through torrid times in Tunisia.
In their two –legged CAF Champions League final in 2004, Etoile won the first leg 2-1 at the Stade Olympique, and Enyimba returned the compliment at the National Stadium, Abuja before winning the ensuing penalty shoot –out. Etoile Sportive du Sahel are the reigning CAF Confederation Cup champions. By pedigree and street wisdom, Enyimba should pull through, to make the group stage of the dollar –spangled Champions League. The loser on aggregate will drop down to the CAF Confederation Cup. Nevertheless, the peoples elephant as enyimba is fondly called advances to the next stage despitebeing a goal down in the first half.thus becoming the first nigerian team since 2009 to makeittothe group state of the ccl.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CLUB
enyimba
international football club,
or simply enyimba, is a Nigerian football (soccer) club
based in the city of Aba which plays in the Nigerian Premier League.
Their name means People's Elephant in Igbo language and is also the nickname used for the city of
Aba. Founded in 1976, the club rose to prominence in the 2000s and is
considered the most successful Nigerian football club as they won two African Champions League
titles, six Nigerian championships and four Federation Cups since 2001. The revenue of Enyimba FC is
around 10 million euros, making them one of the richest sports clubs in Africa.
Rise to prominence
Enyimba's fortunes began to change in 1999 when Orji Uzor Kalu was elected Governor of Abia State
in the first democratic elections held in the country after several years of
military rule. Kalu then proceeded to ensure generous funding for the local
team and appointed Felix Anyansi Agwu as the new chairman of the club, who in
turn appointed Godwin Koko Uwa as the club's first coach in the new era.
The appointment soon returned results, with Uwa leading
Enyimba to their first Nigerian championship title in the 2001 season, as well
as winning the Nigerian Super Cup in October 2001 by beating Dolphins 2–0 in Maiduguri. Their first silverware marked the beginning of a
period of Enyimba's dominance in Nigerian football.
The People's Elephant experienced international
football for the first time in August 2001, when they were invited to play Internazionale at San Siro in a charity friendly which marked the return of Ronaldo after a 21-month injury layoff and saw Enyimba
thrashed 7–0 with four goals from Christian Vieri.
They also had their first appearance in a continental
competition in the 2002 CAF Champions League.
Due to the lack of a good playing ground at their base in Aba, the club played
their home matches in Calabar, a neighbouring town and the
capital of the Cross River State. After
winning the first round tie against Étoile Filante 5–3
on aggregate, they were knocked out in the second round by the 1998 Champions ASEC Mimosas of Côte d'Ivoire.
The defeat proved to be another turning point in the
history of the club as it was the main cause for the club's rebuilding of what
used to be a substandard playing pitch into the Enyimba International Stadium,
a 15,000 capacity stadium equipped with floodlights, electronic scoreboard and
covered seats, which was later inspected by the CAF president Issa Hayatou and was officially approved for that year's CAF
Champions League matches.
The club went on to win their second successive Nigerian
title in 2002, and then became the first Nigerian club to win the continent's
premier international club competition in the 2003 CAF Champions League
by beating Ismaily of Egypt 2–1 on aggregate, under coach Kadiri Ikhana. This was also the first time since 1996
that a Nigerian club had reached the final of the competition. Several key
players from Enyimba's 2003 continental success have since gone on to play for Nigeria, including Vincent Enyeama, Muri Ogunbiyi, Obinna Nwaneri and Onyekachi Okonkwo.
Enyimba then successfully defended their title as won
their second consecutive African Champions League title in 2004, beating Tunisia's Étoile du Sahel in the
finals. After finishing runners-up in the national championship in 2004 (behind
Dolphins), Enyimba
won the Double in 2005,
winning their fourth Nigerian championship and their first Nigerian Cup.
Awards
In 2003,
Enyimba won the best team in Africa award while coach Kadiri emerged the best
coach. In 2004, the club retained the best coach award while the club's first
choice goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama won the
Champions league player of the year. These two Champions league victories in
the hands of North African teams, plus the second CAF Super Cup against Accra Hearts of Oak finally
brought Enyimba to the limelight of African football. The team signed a
$300,000 uniform deal with Joma in 2008.
