Chris Hughton – "To stop Maradona, you had to be aggressive. If you decided to play clean, you had no chance”

The Nigerian destroyer discusses Serie A's glory days, the power of Dortmund fans and winning Olympic gold in 1996

- By Benjamin McFadyean

Few footballers add an Olympic medal to their trophies – where does Nigeria’s gold at the 1996 Games in Atlanta rank for you?

Winning the gold medal in Atlanta was very special for me, as it was for Nigerians back home and all over the world. I’m grateful every single day for my football career and the fantastic clubs I had the chance to play for, but to also be an Olympian and Olympic champion is something I’ll always treasure.

You had moved to Reggiana in 1994, from Belgium – what did you make of calcio?

I was instantly struck by how competitive a league Serie A was then. During the 1990s, some of the best players were in Italy, such as Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Baggio, Gabriel Batistuta, Paolo Maldini and so many others. It was probably the most competitive league in world football. It was the pinnacle of the beautiful game, so a great start to my career – and it goes without saying that I loved the weather and the food in Italy.

After representing Reggiana and Köln, you signed for Ajax in 1997. How do you reflect on playing with the likes of Jari Litmanen, Edwin van der Sar and the De Boer twins?

I played alongside some greats at Ajax, but few were better than Michael Laudrup. He wasn’t just an amazing player; he’s also an exceptional human being and totally down to Earth, even with all the success he’s had throughout his remarkable career. On the field, the results were very good: we won the title in 1997 and the KNVB Cup twice while I was there. Those two years in Amsterdam went really fast, which is always a good sign.