Emmanuel Amunike volleyed past Pablo Cavallero in the closing minute of the final at Sanford Stadium, and that goal gave Nigeria a 3-2 win over Argentina on 3 August 1996. In front of 86,117 people in Athens, Georgia, Nigeria became the first African nation to win Olympic football gold. Three days earlier Nwankwo Kanu had knocked out Brazil with a golden goal.

“Argentina is good. Nigeria is gold,” Kanu said, in the line These Football Times still quotes.

Coach	Jo Bonfrere (Netherlands)
Squad	18 players, plus four alternates who did not play
Group D	Second behind Brazil, both on six points
Record	Six games, five wins, one defeat, 12 goals scored, six conceded
Semi-final	Nigeria 4-3 Brazil after extra time, 31 July 1996
Final	Nigeria 3-2 Argentina, 3 August 1996, Athens, Georgia
Top scorer	Nwankwo Kanu, three goals

The Atlanta 1996 Nigeria squad list

Bonfrere had walked out months earlier over unpaid wages and came back only because the players asked for him. “I came back because the players asked me to. And I believe in these players,” he said after the final, as quoted by These Football Times. They repaid him. His squad blended survivors of the 1994 World Cup squad with the 1993 Under-17 world champions, and Olympedia counts five men who had played at that World Cup, and he spent all three over-age places on Uche Okechukwu, Emmanuel Amunike and Daniel Amokachi. Kanu wore the armband.

Appearances and goals below are from Olympedia; positions follow the FIFA squad list.

Player	Position	Games	Goals
Joseph Dosu	Goalkeeper	6	0
Emmanuel Babayaro	Goalkeeper	0	0
Celestine Babayaro	Defender	5	2
Taribo West	Defender	6	0
Uche Okechukwu	Defender	6	0
Mobi Oparaku	Defender	6	0
Abiodun Obafemi	Defender	1	0
Kingsley Obiekwu	Defender	0	0
Sunday Oliseh	Midfielder	5	0
Jay-Jay Okocha	Midfielder	6	2
Emmanuel Amunike	Midfielder	6	1
Tijani Babangida	Midfielder	6	1
Wilson Oruma	Midfielder	2	0
Teslim Fatusi	Midfielder	3	0
Nwankwo Kanu	Forward	6	3
Daniel Amokachi	Forward	6	1
Victor Ikpeba	Forward	6	1
Garba Lawal	Forward	6	0

Olympedia lists Jonathan Akpoborie, Abiodun Baruwa, Ndubuisi Ndah and Pascal Patrick as alternates. The 12th goal was Roberto Carlos's own goal in the semi-final.

Match by match from Orlando to Athens

Kanu scored the only goal against Hungary in Orlando on 21 July. It came a minute before half-time.

Two days later, at the same ground, Tijani Babangida and a late Okocha goal beat Japan 2-0. Bonfrere rested Celestine Babayaro for the last group game, and a goal on the half hour from Ronaldo, then listed as Ronaldinho, gave Brazil a 1-0 win in front of 55,650 people in Miami, leaving Nigeria second in Group D on six points. The quarter-final against Mexico in Birmingham, Alabama, was settled by Okocha after 20 minutes and Babayaro six minutes from time. Sunday Oliseh was sent off near the end and missed the semi-final.

The final was rougher. Claudio Lopez scored after three minutes, Babayaro headed in from a corner and Hernan Crespo restored Argentina's lead from the penalty spot early in the second half, after a fall by Ariel Ortega that Olympedia called a “rather undeserved spot kick”. Amokachi levelled on 74 minutes. Then came the winner. Wilson Oruma, on as a substitute, swung in the free kick that Amunike volleyed home. Three Nigerians stood in offside positions, according to Olympedia. The referee, Pierluigi Collina, let it stand.

Nigeria vs Brazil 4-3: the semi-final lineup

Brazil, coached by Mario Zagallo, led after a minute through Flavio Conceicao. Nigeria hit back. Roberto Carlos turned a Babayaro cross into his own net on 20 minutes. Bebeto and a second Conceicao goal still made it 3-1 at the interval, in front of 78,587 people. Ikpeba pulled one back on 78 minutes and Kanu equalised in the 90th. Four minutes into extra time he scored again, and the golden goal ended the match on the spot.

The lineups below follow the RSSSF match file.

Nigeria	Brazil
Dosu	Dida
C. Babayaro, Uche, West, Oparaku (Oruma 82)	Ze Maria, Aldair, Ronaldo Guiaro, Roberto Carlos
Lawal, Okocha, Amunike (Ikpeba 45), Kanu	Amaral, Flavio Conceicao, Juninho (Rivaldo 67), Ze Elias
Babangida (Fatusi 67), Amokachi	Bebeto, Ronaldo (Savio 85)

Spain's Jose Garcia-Aranda refereed. Dida was beaten four times.

Where are they now

Dosu's career ended in a car crash in 1997, and by October 2024 he was head coach of Joseph Dosu FC in Lagos, TheCable reported. Kanu set up the Kanu Heart Foundation in 2000 after his own heart surgery in 1996, and by 2022 it had paid for more than 600 operations. Others went into coaching. Amunike won the 2015 Under-17 World Cup as coach, took Tanzania to the 2019 Nations Cup and was unveiled by Heartland in August 2024. Amokachi became President Muhammadu Buhari's special assistant on sports in 2020. Oliseh, Super Eagles coach in 2015 and 2016, said in October 2025 that the NFF still owed him $26,000.

For later Olympic sides, see the Beijing 2008 squad that lost the final to Argentina and the Rio 2016 Olympic squad. Or go back to the 1994 AFCON squad.

This article was most recently revised and updated 35 seconds ago