Kanu named among world’s 50 Legends

FORMER Nigeria international Nwankwo Kanu was on Wednesday named  by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) among the top 50 legends of the game.

Obviously the most decorated player in the history of football, Kanu earned his place among other legends like Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele) and Diego Armando Maradona, two players, who are considered as the best ever seen.

Kanu won the  U17 World Cup in 1993 in Japan and two years later, he teamed up with George Finidi to become the first Nigerian duo to win the UEFA Champions League with Ajax Amsterdam. Also with Ajax he won the UEFA Super Cup. While with Ajax, he won the Dutch League titles in 1994, 1995 ,1996 and the Uefa Cup in 1998.

In 1996, he was named African Footballer Of The Year, a feat he repeated in 1999.

On joining London giants, Arsenal, Kanu won two English Premier League titles in 2002 and 2004 and the FA Cup titles in 2002, 2003 and lastly while with lowly Portsmouth in 2008.

As a sportsman, Kanu’s greatest achievement is leading Nigeria to win men football gold at Atlanta ‘96 Olympics.

Now retired after 17 years, he is an official football ambassador of Nigerian football.

Other Africans on the list include Liberia’s George Weah, Algeria’s Rabbah Madjer, Roger Milla of Cameroon and Egypt’s Mohammed Aboutrika.

THE TOP 50 LEGENDS

Rabah Madjer (Algeria); Alfredo Stéfano di Stéfano Laulhé and Diego Armando Maradona Franco (Argentina); Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele), Garrincha, Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima (Brazil); Roger Milla (Cameroon) ; Hao Haidong, Sun Jihai (China); Mahmoud El-Khatib, Mohamed Aboutrika (Egypt); Michel Platini, Zinedine Yazid Zidane (France); Franz Anton Beckenbauer, Gerd müller, Lothar Matthäus (Germany). Ferenc Puskás (Hungary); Baichung Bhutia (India); Ali Daei (Iran); Dino Zoff, Roberto Baggio (Italy); Hidetoshi Nakata (Japan); Cha Bum-kun (Korea Rep.); Jasem Yaqoub Sultan Al-Besara (Kuwait); George Weah (Liberia); Antonio Carbajal, Hugo Sánchez Márquez (Mexico); Hendrik Johannes Cruijff, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit (Netherlands); Wynton Alan Whai Rufer (New Zealand); Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria) ; José Luis Félix Chilavert González (Paraguay); Eusébio, Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo (Portugal); Majed Ahmed Abdullah Al-Mohammed (Saudi Arabia); Francisco Gento (Spain); Tanju Çolak (Turkey); Oleh Volodymyrovych Blokhin (Ukraine); Bobby Charlton, David Beckham, Stanley Matthews (United Kingdom); Juan Alberto Schiaffino (Uruguay); Landon Timothy Donovan (USA); Lucas Valeriu Ntuba Radebe (South Africa) ; Ryan Joseph Giggs (Wales).