Nigerian Debate: Has Kanu Still Got It?

The question has been posed: does Kanu - a 32-year-old apparently slowing down with each kick of the ball - still have the fire to lead the Eagles all the way to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa?

Or is an entire nation over indulging an extraordinary talent who has obviously past his sell-by date?

There is no doubting the fact what a supremely gifted and highly successful performer ‘Papilo’ is. His record speaks volumes fort his shy man: a UEFA Champions League winners’ medal, Dutch and English League titles with Ajax and Arsenal and, not to forget, twice being named Africa’s best player.

The Portsmouth forward has also defied many odds, including a heart problem that was diagnosed just months after he had led Nigeria to a historic Olympic Gold 12 years ago.

This season is his 10th straight term in the glamorous, much-hyped English Premier League.

Just when you think bean-pole Kanu is out for the count, he bounces back forcefully to the spotlight. This he so typically did last season when his goal won Portsmouth their first major piece of silverware in 69 years.

At the 2006 Nations Cup in Egypt, he was one of the main reasons the Eagles ever got as far as the last four. It was down to his guile and experience, which often came to play when he was introduced as a super sub for a team bursting with young talent.

However, injury at this year’s Nations Cup in Ghana limited his contributions to the national cause and, during the country’s latest qualifying campaign for both the 2010 World Cup and Nations Cup, he has not been the man hogging the headlines.

Even though coach Shuaibu Amodu has insisted that Kanu remains relevant to his plans, privately some of the top team officials nurse doubts about what he is capable of now and believe that younger guns like Osaze Odemwingie, Obinna Nsofor and Chinedu Ogbuke-Obasi have moved ahead of him in the pecking order.

Odemwingie, for one, is playing his best football in the Eagles with some matured displays and on current form ought to command a starting shirt in the team.

Nsofor and Ogbuke, on the other hand, have been producing the goods for their respective clubs in the top leagues in Europe.

This has not been the case for Kanu, at least this term, as injury and Pompey’s new all-English strike force of Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe have consigned him to cameo roles for the South of England club.

The shock departure of the man who took a big chance on him, Harry Redknapp, also does not portend good tidings for him at Fratton Park.  

And add to the whole mix the fact that, like many African players, Kanu struggles against the freeze during the approaching winter months, and then you begin to wonder how much of a role he will play with Pompey going forward.

No one can fault the class and patriotism of the man they fittingly call ‘King’ at Portsmouth. However, Nigerian fans have also not forgotten in a hurry how an over-reliance on a player like Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha cost the country so dearly in a failed attempt to feature at the last World Cup in Germany.

Kanu has done more than his bit for Nigeria since he made his debut as a raw teenager 14 years ago against Sweden. He has since carved his place in the history books and, most importantly, in the hearts of millions of Nigerians.

And, as such, he is one player who can afford to now make the occasional appearance in a green and white shirt - even if he isn't delivering at club level.

What do you think...does Kanu still merit a Super Eagles call-up?

Samm Audu