At MINA.NG, as part of our Advocacy for Made-In-Nigeria, we will be profiling some exemplary individuals as our Made-In-Nigeria Ambassadors. The idea is to celebrate our living Ambassadors, projecting the best of Nigeria to the world. We understand that the world is readily available to report our negatives, we must make conscious effort to project our positives to the world.
Our Made-In-Nigeria Ambassador (M-I-NA) of the Week, Nwankwo Kanu OON (born 1 August 1976) was a member of the Nigerian national team.
He is regarded as one of the best players in African football history. Kanu played for Nigeria’s Iwuanyanwu Nationale, Dutch side Ajax, Inter Milan of Italy, and English club Arsenal, West Bromwich Albion and Portsmouth.
A born winner and proudly Nigerian, Kanu won a UEFA Champions League medal, a UEFA Cup medal, three FA Cup medals, and two African Player of the Year awards amongst others. He is one of few players to have won the Eredivisie, Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup, an Olympic Gold Medal, and FIFA U-17 tournament.
Kanu is a member of the “Invincibles”, the Arsenal side that finished the 2003–04 season of the Premier League undefeated. Popularly known as Papilo, it is worthy of note that his transfer to Arsenal FC attracted lots of Nigerian football fans to the English Premier League. He played 197 games for Arsenal, scoring 44 goals including a memorable hat-trick in fifteen minutes against Chelsea to turn a 2–0 deficit into a 3–2 victory.
Kanu played for the Nigerian national team from 1994 to 2010, he won 86 caps and scored 13 goals for his country, a world cup veteran, he participated in the 1998, 2002 and 2010 FIFA World Cups. He is greatly remembered for his exploit in winning the Olympic gold in the football event at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he scored the winning goal in the 4–3 semi-final win over Brazil, his second goal of the match.
Never giving to the setback, he underwent surgery in November 1996 to replace an aortic valve and return to his club, Inter Milan in April 1997.
A true Made-In-Nigeria Ambassador, he is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and African brand ambassador for digital TV operator StarTimes. He is also the owner of Kanu Sports TV, an Internet Sports Television which position to be the first indigenous sports TV in Nigeria, Kanu Sports Television. As part of his contribution to the society, he founded the Kanu Heart Foundation, an organization that helps predominantly young African children who suffer heart defects and whose work was expanded to provide aid for homeless children in 2008.
We celebrate our Made-In-Nigeria Ambassador of the Week, Kanu Nwankwo OON.