Making of Champions

Hi All,

Making of Champions does football! To round off 2013, we just wanted to bring you some news about a new documentary project leading up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! The Road to Brazil is the 2nd documentary from the MAKING OF CHAMPIONS’ stable!! Come with us on the journey of following the progress of Nigeria’s Super Eagles as they prepare for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! In this Road to Brazil teaser, we journey to Salvador, Brazil’s third largest city – a city infused with food, culture, language and religion heavily influenced by Yoruba slaves taken there hundreds of years ago! We were in Salvador during the World Cup draw, and the World Cup FEVER and EXCITEMENT was palpable!! Here’s what Brazilians and an Argentinian fan there think about Nigeria’s chances at the World Cup!!

The Making of The Road to Brazil: “Salvador”

The Road to Brazil was shot over 4 days in Salvador, during the period of the World Cup draw, where Nigeria was drawn against Argentina (once again!), Bosnia and Iran in Group F. It was an amazing journey of discovery – it was particularly fascinating to note the immense impact that Nigerian culture has had in this region Brazil, where most of it’s inhabitants proudly identify themselves as descended from Africa. They have their own versions of some typical Nigerian food like Akara and Moinmoin (called ‘Acaraje’ and ‘Abará’), and besides Christianity, the main religion practised here is Candomblé, which developed as a form of ‘Syncretism’ between Catholicism and the traditional religion (mainly Yoruba) of the slaves who were taken to Brazil from Africa between 1549 and 1888, and were made to go to Catholic Church – instead they took each one of the Catholic Saints as one of their ‘Orishas’ (Yoruba gods), and Candomblé developed from there…

Not many people would know this in Nigeria, but interestingly, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife in Nigeria offers a Portuguese degree, and every year for the past 20 years or more, they have sent a small group of students doing the course for a year abroad programme at UFBA (Universidade Federal da Bahia) in Salvador to master their grasp of the language. These students did an amazing job of supporting the Road to Brazil shoot, making themselves available to interview the locals in Portuguese and doing some translation work to help with English subtitles for the documentary! In the near future we’ll release some more Road to Brazil teasers, featuring these amazing exchange students sending the Super Eagles and all Nigerians messages of encouragement (in Portuguese) to come to Brazil to support the Super Eagles at the World Cup!

The icing on the cake for the Road to Brazil shoot was the involvement of former Nigerian International, Richard Owubokiri, in the project. Known fondly as Ricky in Brazil and Portugal, he achieved legend status in both countries, after being one of the top scorers in both the Brazilian league in the 80’s (with Vitoria Football Club of Salvador) and the Portuguese league in the early 90’s (with Boavista). Indeed, the contrasting story of his careers for club and country and why his fortunes at International level for Nigeria did not quite match his glittering, prolific club career, is one of the untold stories of Nigerian football that we will bring you in The Road to Brazil: “Salvador”!

Watch this space in early 2014 for more news on The Road to Brazil – More pictures and video teasers coming soon! In the meantime, share this teaser – all Nigerians need to see this and get behind the Super Eagles to do wonders at the World Cup – “In the final – Nigeria and Brazil!”

It’s been a long road, but the International Roadshow for Making of Champions: “The History”, which has taken us to 4 different cities across 3 continents, is finally over! It’s been a gruelling schedule, but over the past month, we’ve hosted viewings of the film in London, Lagos, Abuja, Atlanta, and we finished off where we started, in London on Saturday! It’s been an amazing journey, and the reaction to the film has been overwhelming! Some of the highlights of the roadshow included showing the film to the AFN President, AFN Technical Director and Nigeria’s new Performance Directors in Abuja, to Innocent Egbunike in Atlanta, and to Glory Alozie in London!

Glory Alozie is the last Nigerian to win an Olympic Silver medal in Athletics, at Sydney 2000. Despite having competed for Spain in the latter part of her career, in an awesome show of support for the film and for Nigerian Athletics, she travelled all the way from her base in Valencia to join the final viewing of the film in London! This undoubtedly added immeasurably to the occasion – following the viewing, Alozie, who features in the film, participated in the Q&A with the film’s Director, Bambo Akani. Alozie’s presence certainly put the gloss on the occasion.

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Nigerian Athletics fans may recall that in one of the most tragic stories in the history of the sport, Alozie lost her then fiancé to a car accident in Australia, literally days before the Sydney Olympics began – despite being right in the midst of that period of grief and mourning, she still picked herself up to win an Olympic Silver Medal for Nigeria in the 100 metre hurdles, only missing out on Gold by 3 hundredths of a second!

In one of the most touching moments of the Q&A, the realisation of the enormity of her feat back then drew an emotional applause from the audience…She is one of only 3 athletes ever (and the last one) to win an Individual Olympic medal running for Nigeria (Onyali and Ogunkoya were the other two – Ajunwa and Okagbare both won Long Jump medals). Since Alozie’s Silver at Sydney 2000, Nigeria has only managed 4 Bronze medals in Track & Field at the Olympics – 2 at Athens ’04 and 2 at Beijing ’08!

The Q&A was filmed, and we’ll be releasing snippets of the recording in the New Year. Watch out for upcoming news in the New Year, about the plans for Making of Champions: “The History” in 2014 – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

“This film has changed me.” These were the words of Innocent Egbunike, Nigeria’s Head Athletics Coach from the London 2012 Olympics, after the Atlanta viewing of Making of Champions: “The History”, on Monday. The film was once again very well received, and generated lots of discussion afterwards, on all the possible ways forward for Nigeria in Athletics. Here are some pictures from the roundtable discussion which followed the film viewing, and lasted well over an hour!

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Many thanks to the Parks & Recreation Office in Atlanta for hosting the event, and to Innocent Egbunike, for gracing us with his presence. He features quite prominently in the film, so it was fantastic having him there to support. He also attended with one of the athletes he’s currently training – Reggie Witherspoon, who happens the be a 4x400m GOLD medallist for the USA, from the Beijing ’08 Olympic Games!

The next stop is London tomorrow! Here are all the details you need – it’s the last stop on the International Roadshow (at least for 2013), and Glory Alozie, an Olympic Silver Medallist for Nigeria, has flown in all the way from Spain to attend tomorrow’s screening – you don’t want to miss it!

LONDON, UK, with Glory Alozie!!! (Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/218165215029279/?source=1)

Date: Saturday December 14^th 

Time: 7 – 9.30pm

Venue: The Chapel, Jesus House, 112 Brent Terrace, Brent Cross, London, NW2 1LT

 Glory Alozie, another one of the stars of the documentary, will be joining the Atlanta viewing! Alozie is the last person in all of Nigeria, to win anIndividual Olympic Medal on the Track, when she won Silver in the 100 metre hurdles at Sydney 2000. In 2001, she switched nationalities to compete for Spain and has lived there since – but in a monumental show of support for the film, Alozie will be flying in from her base in Spain to join us at the London viewing! Her achievements while she represented Nigeria are no small feats either!:

– 100m Hurdles World Championship Silver Medallist (1999)

– 100m Hurdles Olympic Silver Medallist (2000)

– African & Commonwealth 100m Hurdles Record Holder (since 1999!)

Refreshments will be served at the beginning, and Q&A with the Director and Glory Alozie will follow the screening tomorrow! Thank you for your attention, and we look forward to seeing you at one of the viewings!