His season was drifting to an end, his career at Real Betis too, until he popped up in the 90th minute of an insane Seville derby.
Nosa Igiebor was on his last chance and so was his team. It was the 89th minute of an insane Seville derby when the ball somehow squirmed over the bar from barely a yard, the final dramatic opportunity seemingly lost only to offer up one more. From 3-0 down Real Betis had taken it to 3-2. Now they had a corner. Taken short, Dorlan Pabón curled it into the area and a figure burst on to the scene on the far side of the box, rising among the bodies. The header went down, the ball came back up. Off the turf and into the net; 90 minutes, 3-3. The Benito Villamarín went mad, redemption and revenge, bodies piling in, Nosa emerging with his arms in the air.
Of all the people, it had to be him. Unloved, unwanted, unlikely to stay, he had completed a historic comeback; the first time Sevilla had ever lost a three-goal lead in the first division and against their greatest rivals too. Betis had waited a long time for this and almost as long for him. Most of them had given up waiting and just wanted him out. At €1.2m, Betis’ most expensive signing this summer, he had played only nine times in the league by January, making three starts, and although his record read played nine won eight, few saw a meaningful contribution. Worse still, he then went off to the Africa Cup of Nations.
It was not so much that he went to the Africa Cup of Nations that irritated them so much as the fact that he didn’t come back. It took Nosa almost a month to return following Nigeria’s success. He said he had passport problems at Frankfurt airport on the way back but they weren’t buying it. Betis handed him the biggest fine the club’s regulations would allow, 15% of his wages, almost €30,000, but many fans thought it was not enough. Some turned their back, demanding the club got rid of him, and there were whistles and boos when he did play, which was not often. Since his return, Nosa had made only three appearances: 90 minutes against Granada, nine against Valencia and five against Getafe.
His season was drifting to an end, his career at Betis too. This time he got eight minutes and this time it was enough. There was still one moment waiting for him, what AS’s match reporter José Antonio Espina described as his Gollum moment. In Lord of the Rings, Gandalf notes of Gollum: “My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or evil, before the end.”
Turns out it was both. This was a Seville derby the way it was supposed to be: loud, dramatic and controversial, played out in front of ticker tape and banners on the eve of the city’s most important festival, the April Feria.
As for Nosa, he was going one better. No ambiguity here, no doubts. Racing behind the goal, the Nigerian celebrated his first and probably his last ever goal for Betis. A dramatic late equaliser in the biggest game in the city; and one of the biggest in Spain. They’d waited a long time for him and he’d waited a long time for this. Running to the home fans, he raised both index fingers and let out a shout that summed it up.
- Culled from The Guardian.