TheCable

Former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Wilfred Agbonavbare, has lost the battle against cancer.

The 48-year-old died in the early hours of Tuesday.

Officials of his former club, Rayo Vallecano, had raised money to fly in Agbonavbare’s three children from Nigeria to see their bedridden father alive, for perhaps the last time.

But they will now only see his body.

Agbonavbare lost his wife to breast cancer three years ago.

He was a member of the national team from 1983 to 1994.

At their last game on Saturday, Rayo Vallecano showed a banner stating ‘Fuerza Wilfred’ (Go on Wilfred) to support their former man in his battle for life.

FORGOTTEN MAN

Before he went to Europe to continue his career, Agbonavbare left no trace behind.

For four years, he was able to avoid the glare of the media as he navigated from Brentford in England before moving to Rayo Vallecano in Spain.

It was while in Spain that Nigeria remembered Willy the Cat.

Those were days before the advent of DSTV’s SuperSport. Satellite TV broadcast was in few homes but it afforded soccer fans to monitor players abroad.

When Eurosport relayed how Agbonavbare helped Rayo Vallecano beat their more illustrious rival Real Madrid 2-0 in La Liga, most were seeing the Cat for the first time after a long while.

That game in the 1992/93 season, where Agbonavbare saved everything Real Madrid threw at him, earned him the man-of-the-match.

It earned him a recalled to the Super Eagles as well.

He made his comeback game in a 4-0 win against Sudan in April 25, 1993 at the National Stadium, Lagos.

“I believe the media played a big role in my return to the Super Eagles,” he later told Complete Football Top 20.

“Leaving home quietly was a deliberate plan. I felt it was better to let my achievement speak for me rather than broadcasting my adventure and ending up a flop. And I think my achievement has spoken tons for me.”

He was in goal for Nigeria against Cote d’Ivoire in Abidjan in Super Eagles next match – a 1994 World Cup qualifier. The team lost 2-1 but he kept his shirt and he played a key role in the Nigeria’s first ever World Cup successful qualification campaign.

Leaving the country for England en route Spain wasn’t a jolly ride for Agbonavbare. But he grabbed his chance when the opportunity came.

“It wasn’t easy getting a club in Spain. I tried the first division with no luck so I had to reduce my gaze to the second before I found Rayo willing to give me a trial,” he said.

“I trained very hard to get the number one jersey and got it. I was a regular choice in goal during our chase for promotion and I was so glad when we secured the ticket at the end of the ’91-92 season. I’d always wanted to play in the Spanish first league.”

Willy the Cat

OLE WILLY

Rayo chalked up impressive victories on their return to the top-flight but the world took notice after the 2-0 defeat of Real Madrid.

“Real were Rayo’s biggest rivals because both clubs are based in Madrid. Real were, however, the better known side with the better known players while we were the underdogs fresh from division two. Our 2-0 victory was a great upset which our fans enjoyed thoroughly. I played like a man possessed to stop Real from scoring and after the final whistle, Rayo fans sang “Ole Willy” for me.

“Just a couple of years before, I had been struggling without a club. Now, there was everyone chanting my name like a god. I was on cloud nine.”

MAVERICK IN GOAL

The goalkeeper-sweeper role now made famous by Bayern Munich and Germany’s number choice in goal Manuel Neur was one of the qualities of Agbonavbare. It gave many a coach headache, though.

“Sometimes, Willy abandons his goalposts too often for comfort,” Jose Antonio Camarcho, his manager at Rayo, once said.

But he combined that with good vision, athleticism, and bravery which Camarcho, who later coached the Spanish national team, acknowledged.

“His main assets are his sharp reflexes and concentration in goal. And when it comes to training, you can’t beat Willy. He’s a workhorse. That’s why he’s always in top shape,” he said.

AGBONAV-BASKET!

Agbonavbare came into limelight as a member of the first Nigerian team to play in any World Cup finals in 1983. He missed the first game against Soviet Union, which the team won 1-0 but was back for the second – a calamitous second!

The Flying Eagles embarrassingly lost 3-0 to Brazil which earned the keeper the sobriquet Agbonav–basket which literally means a pair of leaking hands!

“We were terribly caught unawares,” he said of the defeat.

He kept his place in the next game against the Netherlands, which ended in a draw and they failed to qualify for the next round.

Rather than wallow in self-pity, Agbonavbare fought back to help his club, New Nigeria Bank, to win back-to-back WAFU Cup in 1983 and ’84. NNB also won the league title in 1985.

Agbonavbare got a call to the senior national team and was later snapped up by one of the leading clubs in the country, Abiola Babes. After the club’s disbandment in 1989, he sought pastures new.

“My decision to go abroad has had the greatest positive impact on my career. It has exposed me to tougher challenges and since I waded through, I can beat my chest that I have something up my gloves.”

You indeed had!

Rest-in-peace, Ole Willy!