Football News: Champ Man Legends Part 5: Julius Aghahowa
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Julius Efosa Aghahowa Championship Manager 01/02 Edition
For those who played the definitive edition of Championship Manager/Football Manager (and a large number of people still do), the 01/02 version, will remember a Nigerian striker called Julius Aghahowa, who was probably the best all-round forward in the game. The game knew so little about Aghahowa that they even had his birthdate wrong!
In real life Aghahowa was born 9 days earlier than the game believed, on 12th February 1982, in Benin City, Nigeria. As a child he was always playing football, much to the chagrin of his mother, who would tell him not to as she could not afford to keep taking him to the hospital for treatment. However, he would never listen and continued to play every chance he got, despite there being seen as little hope in Nigerian football at the time, as money was extremely short in the game there then.
Eventually he was spotted playing football at the police barracks and was asked to joined their team, Police Machines, though he was never, despite rumours to the contrary, a police officer himself. From there he moved to Bendel Insurance and it was with them that he got the call-up to represent his country at the 1999 African Youth Championships. However, before going, he agreed a deal with a lower league Danish side called Herning Fremad to join them after the tournament was over.
Aghahowa performed well well in the youth tournament and decided he deserved a bigger club than a lower league Danish side and reigning Tunisian champions Esperance agreed with him and so it was that a bit of jiggery-pokery ensued and a contract 'pre-dating' the one with Herning Fremad was provided. While at Esperance, Aghahowa says the most memorable moment of his career occurred when playing for his country in the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying against Senegal. Aghahowa came off the bench late on, with Senegal ahead and scored twice to secure a win and place in the finals for Nigeria.
After a fairly short spell in Tunisia, Agha-Wonder joined Ukrainian side Shaktar Donetsk in the middle of the 2000-01 season, where he was to receive his huge ratings on Champ Man. His time in the Ukraine was not a complete success, though he did have some notable moments for Nigeria while there. Probably his biggest of the 14 goals he managed in his time for his nation was Nigeria's only goal in the 2002 World Cup versus Sweden, though it is more famous for the celebration. Aghahowa performed six consecutive backflips to make his name on the international scene. In fact his whole career has really become secondary to his celebrations, which have become almost as legendary as his Champ Man ratings.
2002 was a big year for Aghahowa, as well as scoring his country's only goal at the World Cup, he was also his country's top scorer in the AFCON tournament. His part will be best remembered, once again, for his celebration, where he flipped and somersaulted all the way from the penalty box to the halfway line after scoring the only goal against Algeria. In the Ukraine his career was not exactly flying and it was not until 2006 that he really redeemed his career by scoring a headed winner in extra-time of the Ukrainian Championship final v Dynamo Kyiv to earn himself man of the match.
In January 2007 Wigan Athletic stepped in to sign him for an undisclosed fee, which is believed to be round about £2.5m in total, despite Aghahowa having claimed that Shakhtar had rejected a £20m offer for him from Manchester United. Wigan manager Paul Jewell said: "He's a striker of real pedigree who will add huge competition to the attacking positions. We've really done our homework on this one, while I've watched him personally on two occasions. He's quick, strong, aggressive, good with both feet and I'm sure he will adapt to the rigours of the Premiership." Jewell was wrong, perhaps he was also suckered in by the Champ Man hype, but Aghahowa was a flop in England and left after 18 months without a goal to his name.
Aghahowa moved on to Turkish football with Kayserispor, joining them in June 2008, but it again did not work out and they released him a year later. He made a return to former club Shakhtar, but in the summer of 2009 but, after a loan spell to Sevastopol, they released him at the end of the 2011-12 season as he was not making any impact in their team at all. In April 2013 he announced his retirement from playing to concentrate on his business interests, which had made him a wealthy man back home in Nigeria.
Having decided he was too temperamental to move into the coaching side of the game, he concentrated mainly on the real estate business he had been developing during his playing career. He also bought, and takes active involvement in running, a large supermarket. Aghahowa is also the patron of Oasis Football Club in Lagos and ambassador to both the African Student Football Union and Edo State Task Force Against Human Trafficking. His daughter, Isabelle, with wife Ijeuru, is a Nollywood actress.
Aghahowa's career is a disappointment based on his stats in the game, but, in reality, it was probably about as good as he was actually capable of. Pace was all he really had, he was not a penalty box predator, he was more like a Loic Remy, wanting a ball over the top to run on to and hit early at his best. Mostly his best was saved for his international appearances, winning 32 caps and scoring 14 goals for his nation. He was never going to reach the heights the game forecasted, he was a victim of the lack of research in the game in its early days, which created legends. The legends which made the game more than just a game.
For the previous Champ Man Legends article on Kennedy Bakircioglu click HERE
Written by Tris Burke April 03 2019 04:43:42
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