30 Years Later, I Still Haven’t Received The Olympic Gold Medal I Won With Nigeria At Atlanta ’96 — Former Super Eagles Coach Jo Bonfrere

Former Super Eagles coach Jo Bonfrere has claimed that he has but to obtain his Olympic gold medal or reward for serving to Nigeria win the lads’s soccer occasion on the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Bonfrere made the declare throughout an interview with CreativeLordTV in Ebonyi State, the place he visited for the opening of Chief Agueze’s nation residence on Saturday, October 10, 2026.

Asked whether or not the guarantees made to him after Nigeria received gold had been fulfilled, the 80-year-old Dutch coach, via an interpreter, mentioned he had by no means obtained the medal.

“I have never seen the gold. That’s the problem, so I don’t know how it looks. I don’t know how the gold medal looks because I have never received it,” he mentioned.

The interpreter additional defined that Bonfrere had gone three many years with out receiving his reward, regardless of claims that the gamers and different officers had been rewarded.

“Every player has received, even the reward, every player and official. So after 30 years, I have never received my reward,” he mentioned whereas conveying the coach’s account.

The interpreter additionally recounted how Bonfrere allegedly resisted strain from a minister to pick sure gamers, insisting on selecting the squad he believed may win the event.

According to him, the minister repeatedly urged him to subject particular gamers, however Bonfrere maintained that he needed to make his personal selections to safe victory.

Nigeria defeated Argentina 3–2 within the ultimate of the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, changing into the primary African nation to win Olympic gold in males’s soccer.