Soccer is Nigeria's national sport and the country has its own Premier League of football. Nigeria's national football team, known as the Super Eagles, has made the World Cup on four occasions 1994, 1998, 2002, and most recently in 2010. They won the African Cup of Nations in 1980 and 1994, and also hosted the Junior World Cup. They won the gold medal for football in the 1996 Summer Olympics(in which they beat Argentina).
The nation's cadet team to Japan '93 produced some international players notably Nwankwo Kanu, a two-time African Footballer of the year who won the European Champions League with Ajax Amsterdam and later played with Inter Milan (Italy), Arsenal FC (London, UK), West Bromwich Albion (UK) and Portsmouth F.C. (UK). Other players that graduated from the Junior teams are Celestine Babayaro (of Newcastle United, UK), Wilson Oruma and Taye Taiwo (of Marseille, France).
According to the official May 2010 FIFA World Rankings, Nigeria was the second top-ranked football nation in Africa and the 21st highest in the world. Nigeria is also involved in other sports such asbasketball, cricket and track and field.[96] Boxing is also an important sport in Nigeria; Dick Tiger and Samuel Peter are both former World Champions.
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| ABUJA STADIUM |
Football(Soccer) is Nigeria's favourite pastime.The Nigeria national football team, nicknamed the Super Eagles, is the national team of Nigeria and is controlled by the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF). The team has ranked as high as 5th in the FIFA World Rankings, in April 1994. They won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the Africa Cup of Nations on two occasions, and have reached the World Cup finals four times.
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