Former stars of Nigeria’s iconic 1994 World Cup and 1996 Olympic gold-winning teams will return to the pitch at the CANEX WKND Legends Games late this year, Afreximbank has announced.

The event, which is in partnership with Toptier Sports Management, What Media Group, African Union and African Continental Free Trade Area, is scheduled to hold from November 5 to 8, at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Cultural & Creative Arts, in Lagos.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, on Wednesday, where it formally unveiled some of the stars for the games, Afreximbank’s Director of Intra-African Trade and Export Development (Creatives and Diaspora), Temwa Gondwe, said the matches would reunite Africans attending the festival, noting that the event is deeply rooted in Africa’s culture and identity.

He stressed that the Legends Game will hold on November 8, while the broader CANEX WKND festival will run from November 5 to 8, featuring fashion, music, gastronomy, literature and cultural exhibitions aimed at showcasing African creativity to a global audience.

He noted that the event is designed to revive the spirit of FESTAC ’77, positioning Lagos as a global hub for African culture and creativity.

Beyond the celebrations, Gondwe stressed the need for Africa to maximise the commercial value of its sporting talent, noting that while African athletes continue to excel on the global stage, the continent captures only a small share of the industry’s economic benefits.

“We expect that sports will have a valuation of over 20 billion dollar by 2035, over and above the 12 billion dollar level that it is now. Despite us exporting some of the world’s finest athletic talent, we as a continent are not capturing a lot of this value. And we want to learn a lot from our legends beyond watching them play,” he said.

He called for stronger collaboration between financial institutions, governments and private sector stakeholders to build the infrastructure needed to retain more value within the continent.

Highlighting Afreximbank’s commitment to the sector, he revealed that the institution has committed more than N2 billion towards developing sports facilities and financing key infrastructure projects, including stadiums used during major continental football tournaments.

The Founder of What Media Group, Chichi Nwoko, said that the event coming 30 years after the 1996 Eagles won the Atlanta 96 Olympics football gold medal, is to celebrate the legends for putting Nigeria on top of the world at that time.

While acknowledging the challenges facing the current Nigeria teams, she urged them to have a rethink and learn from the inspiration of past heroes in order to restore the lost glory.

“When we think about football today in Nigeria, I don’t want to be controversial, but so much is happening at this time, in this space, around football. And it’s these legends that are responsible for setting that expectation so high that anything short of that, Nigerian will be like, I don’t understand,” she said.

The Chairman of Toptier Sports Management, Yomi Awobokun, commended the former players for their dedication and sacrifices, urging them to come out of retirement for the planned legends games and inspire younger generations.

He observed that African sports is yet to be where it ought to be, stressing the need to tap into its enormous value and ensure greater recognition of the continent’s achievements in sports.

In his remarks, former Super Eagles midfielder Daniel Amokachi lamented that the 1996 Olympics gold medal-winning team had yet to receive adequate recognition in Nigeria, despite making history by becoming the first African football team to win the Olympics gold, noting that many of his contemporaries are languishing in poverty.

He, therefore, called on corporate organisations, sponsors and other stakeholders to establish a pension scheme for retired Nigerian footballers.

Amokachi, who was recently honoured alongside some of his former teammates in Kaduna State, 30 years after the achievement, said his major reason for supporting the initiative was to use the platform to advance the establishment of a sustainable pension scheme for former footballers.

“My main focus of accepting to show up is to find a way for all the sponsors and corporate bodies to use their corporate social responsibility to have a pension scheme for footballers. It is done everywhere in the world,” he said.

Other Super Eagles stars who spoke at the event were Ben Iroha, Alloy Agu, Victor Ikpeba, Garba Lawal, Mutiu Adepoju and Finidi George.