麻豆社

African players make a big contribution to elite football leagues around the world and there will be five African teams at the World Cup in Qatar. The team that can be credited with a lot of this progress is Nigeria's national squad of 1996, known as the Super Eagles.

It was a dangerous, turbulent time in the country politically but under their Dutch manager Clemens Westerhof the young team achieved big things. They won the Africa Cup of Nations twice and then went in search of success at the 1996 Olympic Games in the US.

Their extraordinary story is told in a documentary by British Nigerian director Yemi Bamiro.

It鈥檚 showing at The London Film Festival and Yemi told Nikki Bedi why he wanted to tell the story of the Super Eagles 96.

"I always knew that this was the most profound sporting achievement in Nigeria's history and it always surprised that this film hadn't been made before... so it was a complete no brainer," Yemi says.

"These guys are superheroes. They're national treasures and it was just an opportunity to educate the rest of the world about how phenomenal this football team was but also how this football team changed the perception of Nigeria with what they achieved."

(Photo: Yemi Bamiro Credit: Jaime Ackroyd)

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