Daniel Amokachi has been called “The Bull” for so long that the nickname has almost become part of his name. It came from the way he played football: fast, powerful and difficult to stop. At his peak, defenders who stood in his way often found themselves reduced to helpless spectators as he powered past them. Years after his last professional game, the nickname remains, as does the unmistakable presence that made him one of the most recognisable figures of a remarkable era in Nigerian football.
He had that same presence when he walked in for a recent encounter in Lagos. Amokachi is 53 now, retired from professional football but hardly removed from the game. His life has moved through playing, coaching, sports administration, grassroots development and, increasingly, mentoring another generation. Football is also very much a family affair. He often splits his time between Nigeria and Turkey, where his sons, Kalim and Nazim, are training to become professional footballers. Married to Nadia, a Tunisian woman, Amokachi is quite cosmopolitan but still exudes the Naija spirit.
There is a lot to ask a man who has lived this much football. There are also things he has no intention of discussing.
“I am an open book and at the same time, a closed chapter sometimes,” he warned carefully before the conversation began.
Privacy is to be respected. Politics is a forbidden topic. Everything else leaves quite a story.
Amokachi’s story began in Kaduna, long before the Olympic gold medal, the World Cups, Everton, the FA Cup or the European football career that would make him a household name. Born on December 30, 1972 and of Idoma descent, he came to national limelight in 1988 when he broke into the first team at Ranchers Bees FC of Kaduna in the second half of the Nigeria Division One League season.
His journey into football wasn’t an accident; only his injury was.
National team coach Clemens Westerhof spotted the young striker and recruited him to play for Nigeria at the 1990 African Nations Cup. Amokachi was still a teenager, but his combination of speed, technique and physical strength was already difficult to ignore. Club Brugge soon came calling, taking him from Kaduna to Belgium and into European football.
In 1992, he scored the first UEFA Champions League goal for Club Brugge. By 1994, he was part of the Nigerian side that won the African Cup of Nations and went on to the FIFA World Cup in the United States. It was a generation that would become one of the most celebrated in Nigerian football history, and Amokachi was right in the middle of it.
Everton signed him for £3 million under manager Mike Walker. He won the FA Cup with the English club in 1995. Then came Atlanta 1996, where Nigeria’s football team won Olympic gold and Amokachi scored in the final against Argentina.
For a boy who had started out playing football in Kaduna, life had changed spectacularly.
And Amokachi certainly lived it.
“I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to football. I went bankrupt at 27. I didn’t have any investments. I was young,” he recounted. “At the age of 17, I was driving a Porsche. I was the only player in Belgium then driving a Porsche. I was one of the few players with a private jet. I was modelling and meeting all the superstars in the world.”
In actual fact, he was the first Nigerian player to have his name on a private jet which was arranged for him by his club’s President and an American airline to fly him anywhere he wanted.
It was an extraordinary life for someone so young, but the years that followed would show him another side of professional sport. Shortly before the World Cup in 1998, Amokachi got injured and had to undergo surgery. Six months later, the doctor told him he couldn’t play football anymore.
Nothing prepared him for the sudden change of fortune. When an irreversible injury occurs to an elite athlete, the consequences can extend well beyond the physical. Salaries and sponsorships can stop, endorsements can disappear and a career that has shaped a person’s entire identity can suddenly become uncertain. For Amokachi, financial trouble compounded the situation.
But he had one safeguard he hadn’t put in place himself.
“Why I stayed afloat was because of the investment my dad made for me in real estate. I didn’t consciously make any investments then on my own. But I was able to navigate all of that by the grace of God, good family and friends around me. That allowed me to reflect on life. I always thank God for checking me in the early years and that’s the obstacle I overcame.”
His playing career would continue beyond that difficult period, taking him to Beşiktaş and Colorado Rapids in the United States and extending into the 2000s. Across his international career, he made 44 appearances for the Super Eagles and scored 13 goals.
What the experience did was force him to think about life beyond stardom.
Some of the habits football had given him remained. Discipline was one. Fitness was another, and it is something Amokachi has carried well into retirement.
“I am an old man now but a sexy old man. Back then, I got a lot of brand endorsements and it was a look I really enjoyed. I love keeping fit. I try as much as possible to use the gym five to six times a week. As they say, exercise is the best medicine you can give yourself. I try to do that,” he said with smiles.
Football, too, remained a constant. When his playing days ended, Amokachi moved to the other side of the touchline.
He managed Nasarawa United and later Enyimba Aba and served at different times as assistant coach of the Nigerian national team. In April 2007, he quit his role as assistant coach of the Super Eagles, returning in April 2008 as assistant to Shuaibu Amodu. He would later serve as assistant to Stephen Keshi. In 2015, Amokachi managed Ifeanyi Ubah F C, resigning after five weeks in the post, and in January 2016, he was named manager of JS Hercules. His post-playing career has also included roles with FIFA and CAF.
But one of the most important relationships in Amokachi’s football life began long before he became a coach himself.
While watching past videos of his football and coaching days, his eyes were filled with tears. The footage showing another football legend, Stephen Keshi, triggered his emotions.
“We worked together as coaches but our relationship went beyond that,” he continued. “He took me in at 17. He was the first Nigerian player that went to Belgium. He nurtured me as a human being and as a coach. It is sad that some good people die early. My crying was for him. Crying is healthy. If you don’t do it, do it once in a while, especially when you come from a country like Nigeria.”
He eulogised Stephen Keshi and Amoudu Shuaibu as patriots who gave everything to the country and unfortunately, died in the same week.
“They took Nigeria to two World Cups,” he recalled.
There is something significant about that relationship when viewed against where Amokachi finds himself today. Keshi helped nurture him as a 17-year-old and, years later, the two men worked together as coaches. Now Amokachi is increasingly concerned with what his own generation can pass on to the next.
At home, that next generation includes his sons.
Reflecting on how they have taken after him in football, he revealed that their choices are backed by their individual interests.
“Every one of them has that passion,” he continued. “Each one does his part and we, as parents, try to push them forward in life. I am happy that they enrolled themselves into football and hopefully, they can take the name and legacy forward.”
The idea of parents actively encouraging their children into football still strikes him as an enormous shift from the attitudes he encountered growing up.
“I think my generation was more discouraging when it came to football. Back then, you had to be a doctor or a teacher, lawyer or engineer. But then for me, football is a passion. A lot of players in my generation broke into the realm early. When you have a breakthrough in football, life changes. You would start living a better life. They see now that it is profitable. We didn’t need to sing the praise of football. The parents are the ones singing it to their communities that the path their children are on is a profitable one.”
His own beginnings were far removed from the highly organised academies and carefully managed career paths available to some young footballers today.
“We were raised tough. Sometimes, we had to walk to the venue of our matches. We didn’t joke with football. We knew we had to win.”
That understanding of what opportunity can mean to a talented young person now informs much of Amokachi’s work away from professional coaching.
He set up the Daniel Amokachi Eduplus Youth Development Foundation, combining sports training with education and empowerment. Its focus includes the UN Sustainable Development Goals on zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, peace, justice and strong institutions. By organising street-level football programmes, Amokachi has been able to discover talents and offer underprivileged youths a pathway to success.
The work fits into a broader post-playing career that has moved between football, national service and youth development. In 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him as a special assistant on sports. Amokachi expressed gratitude for being entrusted with the job and wished he could do more.
That desire to do more is also what he says attracted him to his role as a brand ambassador for 22Bet. For Amokachi, the partnership offers an opportunity to extend his grassroots work beyond Nigeria.
“There are several legends out there that could easily be standing where I am today. But by the special grace of God, I am standing here. I have worked with agencies before. This is a Pan-African project and it gives me more room to do more for Nigerians and the entire continent through the CSR projects. That is the core reason why I accepted the contract. 22Bet is an organization that has values like I do.
“Now, I am collaborating with 22BET to see what we can do more for the continent. They speak the same language of football as I do. They care about the community and they have the same passion. It was easy to go with the deal. The partnership is not about me. It is about how to help others make money.”
His work has also earned international recognition. Daniel Amokachi was named a United Nations Football for the Goals (FFTG) Champion, becoming the first and only retired Nigerian footballer chosen for the global initiative. He was unveiled at the United Nations Headquarters in New York as part of the ‘One World, One Game, One Goal: Football for the Goals’ initiative to promote youth mental health and sustainable development through sport.
It is another chapter in a football life that has stretched far beyond what happened during 90 minutes on a pitch.
Amokachi has been the teenager trying to make his name at Ranchers Bees, the young Nigerian star adjusting to life in Belgium, the striker defenders struggled to contain, an African champion, an FA Cup winner and an Olympic gold medallist. He has also been the 27-year-old confronting bankruptcy, the injured footballer forced to consider what might happen if the game disappeared, the coach standing alongside men who once mentored him and, now, the father watching his own children pursue the same sport.
Perhaps that is why his description of himself at the beginning of the conversation feels particularly fitting.
“I am an open book and at the same time, a closed chapter sometimes,” he had said.
There are certainly many chapters.
The most interesting one now may be the one in which The Bull is no longer trying to outrun defenders, but trying to make sure the young people coming behind him have somewhere worth running to.
