It is not often that one stumbles on a coach whose team will later be an op­ponent of the Super Eagles. That was the case sometime ago at the palatial setting of the Marriot Hotel, Cairo dur­ing the fourth edition of the FIFA/CIES programme in sports management organised under the auspices of Cairo University.
Among ones’ course mates were FA officials from the gulf region, and also from Sudan. In fact, the chief coach of Su­dan, Mohammed Abdulla Magzoub, known as “Mazda”, was also in attendance.
So also were officials of Aspire Acad­emy for Sports Excellence in Qatar, Sheik Ahmed Thamer Al-Thani of Al- Khara­itiyat of Qatar, and the team where a for­mer Enyimba and Super Eagles’ player, Okonkwo Onyekachi a.k.a. ‘Tico’ featured for. Zamalek had, at least, four officials in attendance to acquire new knowledge in the ever changing sports management scheme.
At the time, the tensed atmosphere of constant political agitation leading to mass gathering at the famous Tahir Square dur­ing the first module of the course soon gave way to a more convivial situation, allowing free movement and interaction in the highly congested city of Cairo. Mazda, the Sudanese coach was always thankful of the ‘gift’ presented him by the Super Eagles. The ‘gift’ in question allowed his team’s qualification for Gabon-Equatorial Africa Cup of Nations.
If there is anything Sudan banks on in today’s Africa Nations Cup qualifying en­counter with Nigeria, it is good luck. The last outing of Sudan in the premier African football competition was precipitated by good luck and cruel fate on Nigeria. That was at the last hurdle for the 2012 edition, the last to be held in the odd year.
On current form, the odds weigh over­whelmingly in Nigeria’s favour. Not only are the Super Eagles the current African champions and one of the African duo to have advanced from the group stage of the last World Cup, it will take a rigorous search of the record books for a researcher to pick the last time Sudan scored a major victory outside club level.
In Sudan’s last 16 matches since August 26, 2012, the team managed to win only two matches.
In contrast, the 3-2 home loss to Congo last month was the last defeat of the Super Eagles by any African side since October 2011. But as bad as the statistics may por­tray the foundation member of CAF and the Africa Nations Cup, the coach had, sometimes, been lucky, hence, the unex­pected ‘gift’ Nigeria handed him three years ago.
One may be wondering, what gift, when and how? Well, he spoke about the October 8, 2011 last match day for the qualifying series for the 2012 African Nations Cup. Up till the moment that the Super Eagles conceded the last minute goal against Guinea, the Sudanese were out, having lost 2-0 to Ghana at home in the game played simultaneously with that of Nigeria versus Guinea in Abuja.
In fact, the coach said he was already rueing what he considered another miss in the competition when the Sudanese FA Treasurer, Osama Atta Elmanan (another course mate) came 30 minutes after his press conference to inform him of the ‘great gift” from Abuja by the generous Super Eagles!
“So, as at the 89th minute of our match with Ghana, we were out and your Super Eagles were in. But within a minute, there was an ‘exchange’. The Super Eagles were out, and we were in. Thanks very much for your generosity”, Mazda joked. He spoke of influx of many Nigerian players into Sudan and said he had almost lost count of them.

How my team upstaged Nigeria – ‘Mazda’, Sudan’s coach