Main PageChisom Chikatara: His career might have stalled, but striker is now a CAF CL winner
Chisom Chikatara is the fourth Nigerian player to win the CAF Champions League with a foreign African club.
It is the dream of every Nigerian-based player to one day get snapped up by a top European club and then go ahead and have an awesome career.
For some, this dream is nothing but a chimera as they end up spending most of their playing days in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and even more heartbreaking, the lower leagues,
Some do not get the straight ticket to the lofty and greener grasses of the European leagues but rather leaving the shores of Nigeria for another African club.
Some of these players joined top African sides who go on to win the biggest prize in African club football, the CAF Champions League.
Moroccan side Wydad Casablanca on Saturday, November 4 beat Al Ahly of Egypt to win the 2017 CAF Champions League title.
Among the medalists was former Super Eagles Team B star Chisom Chikatara who joined Wydad Casablanca from Abia Warriors in 2016.
Chikatara
Chikatara established himself as one of the best players in the NPFL before he represented Nigeria at the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) where he scored four goals.
After his impressive outing in Rwanda and a protracted transfer saga, he finally joined Wydad Casablanca of Morocco.
Just a year later, he is part of the squad that won Wydad Casablanca's second CAF Champions League title in their history and first in 25 years.
The 22-year-old striker is not the first Nigerian player to win the CAF Champions League with a foreign African club.
Emmanuel Amuneke is the first, as he was part of the Zamalek squad that beat Asante Kotoko to win the title in 1993.
The then Zamalek No. 8 scored his spot kick in the penalty shoot-out in the final to help the Egyptian club to a 7-6 win over Kotoko.
In 1995, former Nigeria international goalkeeper William Okpara featured in every game in the 1995 CAF Champions League, making 10 starts and keeping six clean sheets to help South African club Orlando Pirates to the title.
In the then CAF Champions Cup final, Okpara conceded twice in the first leg in a 2-2 home draw against ASCE Mimosas. In the second leg, Okpara and his Orlando Pirates teammates battled to a 1-0 away win to win the title.
The third Nigerian player on this list is John Zaki who won the title with ASEC Mimosas in 1998. He made seven appearances in that CAF Champions League campaign and score four goals.
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