Nigeria 1998 World Cup Squad – The FULL List

A lot of the players who featured at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic football game found their way into the Nigeria 1998 World Cup Squad – obviously because they won the gold medal.

Whether it was worth it or not is a different story.
France 1998 was the Super Eagles’ second appearance in the World Cup Finals.

But as far as I’m concerned – as most of you will agree with me – it wasn’t the best. The 1994 maiden appearance still stands out for me, ranking 5th position in the world!

No doubt Philippe Troussier did a great job qualifying Nigeria to the World Cup. But what was the Nigeria Football Association, NFA (as they were then know) and sports ministry thinking?!
Troussier wasn’t a world class coach and so what?!

Is the current coach of the Super Eagles a world class coach? Was the one before him a world class coach? Has Nigeria even ever hired a world class coach?!

Obviously, the football federation never knew times like this will come.
They eventually showed Troussier the exit door and hired a ‘’world class coach’’ in the person of Bora Milutinović few months to the World Cup finals in France.

Clearly, appearing in three World Cups impressed the NFA.
But did they know that Milutinović did not qualify any of those teams to the World Cup finals.

Mexico in 1986 and USA in 1994 – they were hosts and did not have to play qualifying matches. There was also Costa Rica in Italia 1990, they fired the coach that qualified them to the World Cup and hired him.

You would expect a football governing body to know these things, right?
But NO!
Nigeria hired him and he led us to France ’98 World Cup, giving Milutinović a fourth World Cup appearance without the rigors of qualifying games.
Those qualifiers would have put Bora’s competence to test.
Denmark mauled Nigeria 4-1 to send us out of the tournament in the second round.
The Nigeria 1998 World Cup Squad just couldn’t match the resilience and flair of the Super Eagles squad 1994 in the US.
Only the 3-2 victory against Spain can be said to be classical and spectacular as it remains memorable.
Nigeria 1998 World Cup Group/Fixtures
1998 World Cup Group D

• 13th June: Nigeria vs. Spain (3:2) in Nantes
• 19th June: Nigeria vs. Bulgaria (1:0) in Paris
• 24th June: Nigeria vs. Paraguay (1:3) in Toulouse

Nigeria won their group thanks largely to their opening game victory against Spain.
Knockout Stage (2nd Round)
28th June: Nigeria vs. Denmark (1:4) in Saint-Denis.
The 1998 Nigeria world cup squad cannot totally be condemned when you look at their impressive displays in the group games against Spain and Bulgaria. The Super Eagles qualified already after just two matches against the Europeans while losing an unimportant match to Paraguay.
It was when the Bora Milutinović’s side – as group leaders – were drawn with Denmark in the round of 16 that many saw the coaches deficiencies.
The Scandinavians condemned the Nigeria squad 1998 to a humiliating 1-4 defeat breaking the Super Eagles feathers.
Nigeria 1998 World Cup Squad

Jersey No.	Position	Player	DOB	Club
22	GK	Abiodun Baruwa	FC Sion	16/11/1974
12	GK	Willy Okpara	Orlando Pirates	07/05/1968
1	GK	Peter Rufai	Deportivo La Coruña	24/08/1963
3	DF	Celestine Babayaro	Chelsea FC	29/08/1978
17	DF	Augustine Eguavoen	Torpedo Moskva	19/08/1965
19	DF	Ben Iroha	Elche CF	29/11/1969
16	DF	Uche Okafor	Kansas City Wizards	08/08/1967
5	DF	Uche Okechukwu	Fenerbahçe	27/09/1967
21	DF	Godwin Okpara	RC Strasbourg	20/09/1972
2	DF	Mobi Oparaku	KFC Turnhout	01/12/1976
6	DF	Taribo West	Inter	26/03/1974
8	MF	Mutiu Adepoju	Real Sociedad	22/12/1970
11	MF	Garba Lawal	Roda JC Kerkrade	22/05/1974
10	MF	Jay Jay Okocha	Fenerbahçe	14/08/1973
15	MF	Sunday Oliseh	AFC Ajax	14/09/1974
18	MF	Wilson Oruma	RC Lens	30/12/1976
14	FW	Daniel Amokachi	Beşiktaş	30/12/1972
13	FW	Tijjani Babangida	AFC Ajax	25/09/1973
7	FW	Finidi George	Real Betis	15/04/1971
20	FW	Victor Ikpeba	AS Monaco	12/06/1973
4	FW	Nwankwo Kanu	Inter	01/08/1976
9	FW	Rashidi Yekini	FC Zürich	23/10/1963
	Manager	Bora Milutinović		07/09/1944