Changing orientation of our former stars

Several years after he retired from his illustrious career as a professional footballer, Peter Osaze Odemwingie was in the news a few weeks back. Very thankfully, his rebound was not a worrying piece of news. It has become customary for the medical plight of many of our former sportsmen to jump into our faces from the pages of tabloids. Often times, such unsavoury appearances, come with alms-solicitation bowls, foregrounding the dire situations of the subjects at those points in time.

Odemwingie’s narrative, however, is a very heartening piece of news. He belongs to a new breed of our sports greats who are able to reinvent themselves after they cease to feature in big leagues across the world, even as we view them regularly on our television screens. Odemwingie’s example is one which should inspire our sports professionals, serving and upcoming.

Osaze Odemwingie by the way, played professional football for nearly two decades, specifically between year 2000 and 2018. A broad-based study of the careers of most footballers across the world is that their years of top, on-field performance averages 15 to 20 years. They sign their first professional contracts when they are about 18 years of age and will be fortunate to keep playing at optimum levels two decades after. Not every football player can be Roger Miller of Cameroon; Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe of Portugal; Sergio Ramos of Spain, James Milner of England, or our own Kanu Nwankwo and John Utaka. These outfield players grossed or overshot two full decades on the turf for their respective clubs and countries in many instances. Goalkeepers in football have been known to enjoy careers well beyond two decades. They burn less calories within the space of their goal area, than defenders, midfielders, wingers and strikers. The latter are almost ever in motion snuffing out potential encroachments in their space and also shopping upfront for opportunities to unsettle their opponents.

Odemwingie was born in Tashkent, in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, (USSR), which is now in the country Uzbekistan. He began a professional career in football, however, with Bendel Insurance football club of Benin city, Edo state, home state of his father, in 2000. He went on to play for nearly 10 other clubs in Belgium, France, England, Russia and Indonesia before retiring in 2018. He played over 400 games and scored 125 goals for his various employers. He also played for Nigeria’s senior men’s soccer team, the Super Eagles, 65 times over a 12-year period, between 2002 and 2014. Odemwingie scored 11 goals, earning personal and group laurels. He played in four African Cup of Nations, (AFCON) tournaments; two World Cups and earned an Olympic medal in 2018, playing for Nigeria. Odemwingie was not reputed for the kind of tantrums typical of some of his teammates who had spats with the nation’s sports governing body, the Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF) or his managers. He was a remarkably temperate professional.

Much as he took a backstage from club and national footballing, however, he decided to explore other career options. He was just about 37 years old at the time and considered himself still productive. He thus conscientiously pursued a new vocation in the game of golf. He subjected himself to a three-year programme culminating in the receipt of a bachelors degree certificate in one of the courses within the gamut of golf education. June 25, 2024, Odemwingie graduated from the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) academy. He spoke of the pain of adjustment from the group sports of his footballing career, as against the individuality of golf where one’s only company could be his caddie, for those who could afford one that is. Nonetheless, he is excitedly looking forward to his first PGA tour as a professional as he looks to leave his imprimatur on his new vocation.

Odemwingie is not the only Nigerian, nay African player to have sought new vocational vistas in sports-related concerns after retirement. Some ex-internationals have explored coaching, player management, scouting, punditry and similar possibilities. Super Eagles supremo in the years the team was known as Green Eagles, Segun Odegbami, multi-tasks as broadcast media proprietor, brand ambassador and newspaper columnist among others. Moses Kpakor a very uncompromising defensive midfielder who was particularly outstanding in the 1990 AFCON in Algeria, returned to the classroom, earned a masters degree in sports administration and is director of sports at the Benue State University (BSU), Makurdi.

Retiring after a professional career of over 15 years, Augustine Cerezo Eguavoen, arguably one of Nigeria’s most rugged defenders in his time, managed clubsides in South Africa, Malta, Mali and Greece. He has been the technical director of the NFF since 2020. His teammate at Nigeria’s first participation in the FIFA Senior World Cup, USA ’94, Michael Emenalo a very effective left back, blossomed beyond his teething years in Enugu Rangers Football Club, to global football management. He has been director of player development; chief scout; technical director and sporting director across clubsides in the US, England and France. More currently, Emenalo is director of football in the growing Saudi Arabia Professional Football League.

After what may pass as perhaps the briefest stint ever by any coach of the Super Eagles, Finidi George has taken up an appointment as technical adviser of Sharks of Port Harcourt Football Club. Sunday Oliseh has been manager of a number of clubs in Belgium and Germany. He also managed Nigeria for a few months. He has been severally appointed by the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) as a technical expert for many FIFA-organised competitions. Emmanuel Amunike who is also a member of that generation of Nigerian players has had coaching spells in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. He was an assistant coach under Eguavoen and presently serves in the same capacity with the national team. Austin Jay-Jay Okocha the skillfully admirable baller is involved in production and the entertainment industry. Nwankwo Kanu famously known as *Papillo* is the chairman of Enyimba Football Club and is said to be involved with real estate, hospitality as well as oil and gas.

Victor Ikpeba who was nicknamed the Prince of Monaco in his active playing years as a forward in the French club by the same name, is a familiar face on satellite television football discussion programmes. Yakubu Aiyegbeni is reported to be active in the property market in England and owns a number of gas stations in Nigeria. Emmanuel Emenike is said to own one of the most modern hospitals named Emenike Hospital in Owerri, Imo state. The ex-international reportedly conceived of it to be the “go to” medical facility in Nigeria’s southeast. Erstwhile defensive midfielder, Seyi Olofinjana, 36, was recently appointed director of talent management for Africa at Chelsea Football Club. His compatriot Sone Aluko, 35, has been appointed first team coach at Ipswich Town Football Club, which has been newly promoted to the English Premier League, (EPL), while little-known Lukas Babalola, 27, is the new assistant manager at Feyenord Football Club in the Dutch first division.

This preceding narrative is an improvement over what has become the norm, rather than the exception with regards to our ex-internationals. Hitherto, it had almost, always been unsavoury news filtering from the homesteads of many of our former stars. The septuagenarian Christian Chukwu who led Nigeria to her first AFCON success in 1980, had to be rescued by billionaire Femi Otedola who paid for his medical evacuation and treatment abroad in 2019. Charles Bassey, a marginal former player, also has Otedola to thank for showing up for him when he was all but grounded with a protracted ailment in 2021. Henry Nwosu, the youngest member of the 1980 AFCON team, came down with a stroke two years ago, is a beneficiary of the kindness of the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Nigeria’s mobile telecommunications giant, Globacom, on the directives of its billionaire owner, Mike Adenuga, intervened last year to keep the folkloric national team goalkeeper, Peter Fregene, on this side of the divide.

Newer ex-internationals it would seem, have learnt from the experiences of their predecessors and have largely become more cautious in the management of their resources. Who would have imagined that a successful former player like Wilson Oruma would become a virtual tramp on the streets? He reportedly lost his life savings in excess of one billion naira to a self-styled fraud posturing as a clergyman who designed all manner fake investment prototypes for him. Another player, Femi Opabunmi also reportedly fell to the designs of a false prophet who fleeced him massively, under the pretext of helping to cure him of glaucoma-induced blindness. Misled by youthful exuberance, some Emeritus players have also frittered their savings on ostentatious and glamorous living. Wasn’t Dan Amokachi reported to own a jet which serviced his frolics in his heydays? Celestine Babayaro, Etim Esin and Ifeanyi Udeze, have been grouped in this category of sportsmen who “ate with all their fingers” to borrow from a Yoruba wise saying. Babayaro and Udeze are said to be gradually finding their feet.

Kanu and John Utaka are examples of ex-players who are giving back to society. Kanu, generally regarded as the most decorated African footballer, established the Kanu Heart Foundation to provide relief for indigent Africans and support people born with congenital heart defects, a health condition he once managed. He overcame this impairment to become one of Africa’s greatest of all time. Utaka established a football academy in Minna, Niger state, far away from his home community in Enugu state.

Let’s hope that our former stars will ruminate deeply about the infinite possibilities available to them as they prepare for certain retirement. Let’s hope our erstwhile idols put a stop to hanging around the secretariat of the NFF and the sports ministry, desperately craving coaching engagements as sole panacea for their obvious apparent lack of planning.

Olusunle, PhD, is a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors (FANA).