Former Nigeria international, Pius Ikedia, has revealed he enjoyed the best part of his professional career at Eredivisie giants Ajax.
Playing at Cote d’Ivoire’s Asec Mimosas at that time, the pint-sized winger was signed by the former European champions on the back of an impressive display at the 1999 Fifa U20 World Cup.
At the tournament, he scored his only goal in the Round of 16 clash against the Republic of Ireland where the Flying Eagles edged the Europeans on penalties after the scores stood at 1-1 after extra-time.
Owing to a lack of playing time at the Johan Cruyff Arena, he was loaned to Groningen and RBC Roosendaal before an outright sale to AZ Alkmaar in 2005 – where he was loaned to another Dutch outfit RKC Waalwijk.
Before drawing the curtains on his professional career, he had spells at Metalurh Donetsk, RBC Roosendaal, AZAL, Mağusa Turk Gucu and OFC Oostzaan.
However, he claimed he played his best football at Ajax, although there was not much money to spend.
“For me, Ajax was where I played my best football because they take care of their players,” the 40-year-old said on Brilla FM.
“In terms of money they don’t spend that much but you are comfortable, the training is one of the best if not the best in Europe.”
Now an assistant coach at a high school in the United States of America, Ikedia who was famous for his darting speed claimed his height was never a factor during his playing days.
”I think the height of a thing is that if such a player has the talent your height will be overlooked,” he continued.
“There’s a kind of talent such a player will possess teams will overlook your height. It’s just like [Diego] Maradona and [Lionel] Messi.”
He also represented Nigeria at U23 level, before featuring 15 times for the Super Eagles – where he featured at the 2002 Fifa World Cup co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.
Asked about his most memorable game in the national team shirt, Ikedia picked the make or break 2000 Sydney Olympics against Zimbabwe.
“My best game for Nigeria was the one I played at the National Stadium [in Lagos] against Zimbabwe during the Sydney 2000 Olympic qualifiers,” he added.
“We needed to win the game 4-0 and the funny thing was that the Zimbabwe coach was former Super Eagles coach Clemens Westerhof.
“So we needed four goals to qualify for the Olympics and a day before the match I couldn’t sleep. I remember asking Yakubu Aiyegbeni and other teammates how we are going to score four goals. But I just said we are playing at home and with God everything is possible.
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“The first half was 2-0 in the second half we managed to score the third goal in the 85th minute I made the fourth goal. That was how we qualified for the Olympics so that game I can never forget.”