Roy Collins World Cup
As the Nigerians jump to the instructions of coach Bora Milutinovic in the shadow of their magnificent temporary home, the Chateau de Belinglise at Elincourt-Sainte Marguerite, 64km north of Paris, it is clear that one player is working in splendid isolation.
The Nigerians being less happy campers than the Dutch or the Carry On team (which can often be one and the same thing), a visitor might assume Nwankwo Kanu had been temporarily banished from training with his team-mates.
In fact, Kanu is still recovering from major heart surgery 18 months ago and, aware that several players have died of heart attacks on the field in Nigeria, the team understand that sometimes he must dance to his own tune.
Besides, if anyone were to be banished to the far corner of the Resson-sur-Metz training ground it would surely be Victor Ikpeba. The Monaco striker, who cites Arsne Wenger as his mentor, may have won the African Footballer of the Year award but he clearly needs a few more sessions at Wengers right hand to learn the fine art of diplomacy.
Three days before Nigerias stunning 3-2 victory over Spain in their opening World Cup game, the 25-year-old Ikpeba described his teams preparations as a shambles and threatened to quite international football on the spot.
We have too many chiefs and not enough Indians, he said. Five or six senior players want to play the boss too much. They are not happy with team selection and want to have a hand in everything to get their friends selected. They have not understood the nobody in this team is indispensable.
Nobody, that is, except Ikpeba, who seemed to have talked himself into dispensability when he added that he saw no future for himself with such a bunch of amateurs or words to that effect.
Had he been playing for Englands coach Glenn Hoddle, he could have been expected to be presented with a boarding card for the London flight before the day was out. Instead the Serbian Milutinovic Nigerias fourth coach in two years, earning a reported $35 000 (about R190 000) a month plus perks called Ikpeba in to tell him he was playing in front alongside Augustine Okocha, known as Jay Jay. It would, admittedly, have been difficult for the coach to choose otherwise, with Daniel Amokachi and Kanu injured.
Proving again that the unhappier their dressing room the better they play, Nigeria produced the performance of the tournament so far against Spain, twice coming from behind with Ikepba and Okocha outstanding.
Though Nigeria were only a minute from beating Italy and qualifying for a quarter finals in America in 1994, their preparations for France 98 suggested they would be on their way home before Scotland. They scored just one goal and surrendered an appropriate word 12 in their last three warm-up matches, including four to the Swiss club side Grasshoppers.
And just when it seemed nothing else could go wrong, Nigerias military leader, General Sani Abacha, died of a heart attack. Abacha was a football fanatic who knew some of the players personally, which caused some of them to suggest the team should pull out of the World Cup.
Within hours, however, the new leader Abdulsalam Abubakar had put a stop to that by ordering the team to bring home the trophy.
As it was, Nigerian fans could not have been happier as the Super Eagles recaptured the scintillating form which sought them Olympic gold in Atlanta two years ago, when they beat the under-23 teams of Brazil and Argentina.
Brittle they may be at the back, despite the inclusion of Internazionales strongman Taribo West, but their forward play was breathtaking. As Amokachi said: If we attack we kill your defence. If you score 15 goals, we will score 16.
Milutinovic, who is coaching a record fourth team in the World Cup finals, would rather his team did not take these words to heart as he attempts to rebuild a side with little more discipline. Such is the nature of football that his team, dismissed as hopeless outsiders when they arrived in France, are now being tipped as the dark horses of the tournament and are the only African team to qualify into the next stage.
Nigerias secret is their brilliant unpredictability. Ikpeba has proved it by standing by the criticism of his team- mates. Some took it personally, he said, but I can say what I like. We live in a democratic world.
Which shows how long it is since he last lived at home.