Obafemi Martins

By Modupe Ogunbayo
Monday, September 29, 2003

The new Nigerian sensation in Italian football is set to take the world by storm. He's young, dynamic and made for the sport

Obafemi Martins, Nigeria's rising football star, is the new sensation in Italian league where he plays for Inter Milan. On September 17, during the last Union of European Football Association, UEFA, Cup match against Arsenal, in which he features for his club, Martins lived up to his pre - match rating. That night, Martins played a vital role as Inter beat Arsenal 3-0 at Highbury, Arsenal's home ground.

As it turned out, Martins was the star of the night. His deft moves were a torn in the flesh of Arsenal. Martins did the first damage to Nwankwo Kanu's team when he headed the ball to Julio Ricardo Cruz for the first goal. He repeated this, when he assisted Andy Van Der Meyhe to get the second goal. And four minutes to end of the first half of the match, he netted a third goal. Although Kanu later played in the same match, there was no doubt who was the star of the day. Some commentators at the match described Martins as chief tormentor of the Arsenal side.

From his debut in the Serie A against Parma, a match that saw Inter Milan breaking an age-old jinx, by beating Parma on their own ground, his profile had soared. The match, played on December 22, last year, was very crucial because Inter needed to beat Parma to remain at the top of the Serie A. For someone making a debut in such an encounter, Martins' performance was received with accolades. His moves ensured victory for his team over Parma. Inter won by a 2-1 goal margin.

Although he did not score during his debut, he did well enough to gain the confidence of the coach and team mates. His first goal for the senior side came in his sixth match for the club. It was in the club's last match of the UEFA Champion's League second group match against Bayern Leverkusen in Germany. After missing some scoring chances, Martins single-handedly started mounting pressure on Leverkusen's defence from the 36th minute. His relentless efforts paid off in the 44th minute when Russian centre referee, Valentine Ivanov awarded a penalty to Inter after Leverkusen's Thomas Kleine brought down Obafemi from behind. Although Dominica Morfeo failed to convert the penalty kick, Inter went on to win the match by 2-0. This drew further, the spotlight on Martins especially with his now famous moves many of which have resulted in providing scoring chances and goals. The young Nigerian also likes to celebrate his goals with somersaults.

He scored his first league goal for Inter against Atalanta and because of his performance, Martins was picked as the man-of-the-match by Tele Plus, a television network. He punished Paulo Maldini of AC Milan, by converting a miscalculated pass from Maldini into goal in the second leg of the UEFA Champion's league semi-final match against AC Milan.

When Inter re-opened for the 2003 season, the club considered it paramount to graduate Martins from its youth team to the senior team with a five-year contract. Prior to this, in an opinion poll conducted by the club, Inter's supporters were asked to vote on whom between Martins and other strikers, should pair with Christian Vieri in the attack. They were emphatic in their preference for "Oba-goal."

Nineteen - year-old Obafemi Martins started his football career with Ebedei of Lagos in 1998. In 2000, Churchill Oliseh discovered his potentials and took him to Reggiana, a third division side in the Italian league. He was in Reggiana's youth team until 2001 when Hector Cuper, an Argentine and Inter's coach, expressed interest in him. He paid $750,000 for his transfer to Inter's junior team. This was after his breath-taking performance for Reggiana's senior side against Como, another third division clubside though still in the youth team.

At Inter, Martins was instrumental to the team's success in winning the Italian youth league, 'Nerrazurrinni' title in the 2001/2002. He scored 23 goals. Throughout the season, he only missed one game due to disqualification. He was also instrumental to Inter U-18 winning the prestigious Viareggio youth tournament, the foremost youth competition in the country. This tournament brings together top youth teams around the world.

Cuper invited him to the senior side when preparations started for the 2002/2003 Serie A season in June. This was a big achievement for Martins, who now joined established and international stars such as Christian Vieri, Alvan Recoba, Luigi di Baggio and Herman Crespo in Inter's star-studded squad. During Inter's training match against Bormiese, Cuper replaced Sierra Leonean Muhammed Kallon with Martins. The Nigerian youngster scored two brilliant goals as Inter won by 13-0. His profile rose further as he scored in the various segments of the team during practice sessions. After three weeks of intensive training, he made his debut for the senior side in the Pirelli Cup tournament against Roma.

When the season itself started, he was released back to the youth team where he scored three goals in a 7-1 victory of Vicenza during Italian Cup tournament and repeated this feat, a week later. Despite his return to the youth side after his spell at the senior side of the club, Martins remained focused.

"I am contented … my aim is to play for the Serie A next year after doing well at the youth team," he said then. Few days later, he was recalled to the senior side after Inter's tie with Lyon of France. With only two days of training, he was selected for Inter's match against Piacenza. Despite being on the bench throughout the match, he remained upbeat about it as he played brilliantly in the youth team's match against Venezzia the following weekend. In six weeks, he scored six goals, increasing his goal tally to 36 in 55 matches played since joining Inter 18 months ago. Football analysts were not surprised that on his return to Inter Milan FC after the winter break in January, he signed a five-year contract with the youth team.

O.B. Kareem, a football analyst, believes Martins would start commanding a regular shirt in the team soon. "With his performance so far, he needs no fear of breaking into Inter's senior team squad if he keeps up performing like this," he said.

This achievement seems to have justified his invitation to the Nigerian national team, Super Eagles. But he turned down all the three invitations extended to him. Newswatch learnt that Martins would want to establish himself as a consistent player in Inter's senior team before taking up Super Eagles' responsibilities.

According to Sam O'Femi Fasetire, one of Nigeria's renowned grass-roots soccer commentator and promoter, Obafemi's reluctance to play for the Super Eagles might be because he was rejected by the U-17 handlers in 1997. "The team was preparing for the first edition of the CAF/UEFA Meridian Cup which held in Italy. Martins was hopeful of making the squad but he was turned down by Coach Hassan Abubakar, who said the boy was too small and too young," Fasetire said. He claimed that Martins felt very bad about the development and it is not impossible that he is now paying the country back for what it did to him six years ago.

Christian Chukwu, coach of Super Eagles, plans to erase the memory of that rejection by calling him up for the preparation for Tunisia 2004. "I still intend to give him another chance. I plan to feature him in some of our friendly games to be able to assess him properly and see if he can be part of our squad to the Nations' Cup in January," he said.

But if that is not done quickly, there are fears that Nigeria may lose Martins to Italy, which has expressed an interest in naturalising the Nigerian forward. Fasetire stated that though, Italy has made overtures to cap him, Martins has rejected it "I don't think that would happen, judging from what he told me. Martins said he really wants to play for Nigeria which is why he has rebuffed Italy's overtures to cap him," he said.