CAF Champions League Final: Nigeria’s Junior Ajayi Joins Emmanuel Amuneke On Exalted Podium With Al Ahly Triumph

The former youth international has now added the only trophy missing in his stacked cabinet after helping the Egyptian champions claim the continent’s premier club competition

Super Eagles hopeful Junior Ajayi on Friday at the Cairo International Stadium became the latest Nigerian to win the CAF Champions League, featuring for 67 minutes as Al Ahly handed a 2-1 defeat to bitter rivals Zamalek.

In the first-ever one-legged African Champions League final, a brilliant late Mohamed Magdy goal gave Al Ahly victory over Cairo rivals Zamalek in the first finals between two city rivals.

Al Ahly went ahead in just the 5th-minute through Amr El Soleya, but Shikabala cancelled that out before half-time with a world-class effort. 

However, Magdy’s 88th-minute winner settled an entertaining match. The win gave Al Ahly a record-extending ninth African Champions League crown, but it’s the first for Ajayi, who had been on the losing side twice in the finals before Friday’s triumph.

The former Shooting Stars forward joins Emmanuel Amuneke, who rode to glory with Zamalek in 1993, as the Nigerians to have won Africa’s biggest club prize with other clubs outside Nigeria.

Enyimba International lifted the trophy back-to-back in 2003 and 2004 and remained the only Nigerian club to have gone all the way in the competition.