Nigerians are very passionate about football, footballers and most importantly football clubs and the Premier League remains the most supported competition in Nigeria.
With clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Nigerians are proud to associate with their favourite teams, including Arsenal fans who are arguably the most persevering of all.
However, in 1972, one club broke the code and became a famous insult in Nigeria ever since.
Dundee United’s name is a bizarre insult in NIGERIA as 9ja people use it when referring to one another as an idiot.
Many young people might not know the origin but British media, The Sun, unravelled the mystery behind the eternal insulting phrase.
The odd offensive phrase derives from an ill-fated tour the Scottish Premiership club made to Nigeria in the 1970s.
The Tangerines played very badly in their matches and there were also off-field problems.
Jim McLean’s side won from just one of their five games against local amateur teams, ending the two-week trip with an embarrassing 4-1 defeat to Stationery Stores.
Locals fans who had turned out in their thousands to see the Scottish top-flight side were left majorly disappointed and an article published in the Nigerian Daily Express was even headlined “Don’t Come Back” as United returned home.
Fan Liam Kirkaldy did some research into the origins of the insult of calling someone a ‘Dundee United’.
He said the club – whose Tannadice Park holds just 14,000 fans – is more famous in Nigeria – which is 4,500 miles away – than Scotland.
Scotland has a population of just 5.4 million people compared to Nigeria’s 201 million.
He said: “I’m quite pleased with the club’s fame.
“When you think about it, there aren’t that many people in Scotland, and Dundee United isn’t a very well known team.”
A TV advert shown in Nigeria for an anti-malarial drug in the 1980s even used the club’s name in vain.
Liam, of Nutmeg magazine, added: “So there are actually more people worldwide who know Dundee United as the word for an idiot than know it as a football team.”
SUN
