Former Nigeria defender, Taribo West believes former Arsenal and Inter Milan forward,Nwankwo Kanu was a gift to the world of football.
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Taribo told Supersport.com in an interview how he stood by the leggy Atlanta '96 Olympics captain after his heart operation in 1997.
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'He (Kanu) was very depressed (after he was diagnosed with aheart problem) but believed he would play again. He is a very strong-willed person.After the operation, he came back to the team. I stood by him and acted like an elder brother to him. We spent a lot of time together and I was sad when he left for Arsenal.Kanu is a gift to the world of football. He is a destiny child'',said Taribo. The ex- Partiizan Belgrade star also revealed the real reason behind Eagles woeful display at the France '98 World Cup as well as his displeasure with what happened during the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations in Mali.
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On France '98 misadventure he said: Our fitness level was not right before that game. After the 1997/1998 season, most of us "took the time off" to go and have fun.
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We believed we were superstars that could "turn on the engine" whenever we liked.
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The adrenaline carried us through in our first two games at the tournament (wins against Spain and Bulgaria) but finally against the super-fit Danes, we were badly exposed.
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We tested fate and suffered for it. We felt we had long seasons with our different clubs and wanted some time off. It was a mistake.
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Our coach at the time, Bora Milutinovic could have done more to curb the excesses. On the problems that tore the Eagles apart at the 2002 AFCON: There were too many selfish people around the team. Many people did not want our coaches at the time; Amodu Shuaibu and Stephen Keshi to take the team to the Fifa World Cup later that year.