How Nigerian Players Rot Away In Foreign Lands
Found this piece on PM news whle doing some reading and thought i should share it with you. Here is the link for the story http://pmnews.mobi/output.php?id=1540 #GoodRead
While
going abroad to play professional football has brought riches, fortunes
and fame to the likes of Stephen Keshi, Sunday Oliseh, Kanu Nwankwo,
Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha among others however, several other
less-fortunate Nigerian players, it has been one ugly tale to the other
in their quest to play football outside the country.
For Elvis,
not real name, a native of Imo State, it was a case of falling victim to
dubious football agents, like many other young aspiring Nigerian
footballers seeking greener pastures abroad, in desperation to play
football abroad.
Elvis found his way to Johannesburg, South
Africa, looking forward to playing professional football in the Rainbow
nation. He had beautiful dreams about his future and had relations
waiting for him back home in Nigeria hoping to see him play for big
clubs. That never happened.
Back in 2007, when he was in Nigeria,
Elvis had contacted his friend who lived in Johannesburg on the
possibility of playing in South Africa. The friend convinced him to come
over and thus began his nightmare in the land of Madiba.
"My
family sold everything to ensure that I travelled to South Africa to
play football. I had nothing doing after I left secondary school in Port
Harcourt in 2005, but I was able to convince my late mother and my
uncle that I wanted to play football," Elvis recalled.
It turned
out that the club Elvis got was an amateur football team in Kempton
Park, Johannesburg. During his interaction with his unnamed friend, a
Nigerian football agent was mentioned. The agent promised to take him to
one of the big clubs in the South African Premier Soccer League but
that he had to join an amateur side before the transfer could happen.
"And that was it," Elvis said. "I paid him some money for the deal but he never got back to me.
"I
was squatting with my friend during that time and we tried several
times to locate the agent, but we couldn't. Initially, he would visit
me, promising that the transfer would soon take place, but later he
completely disappeared."
Frustrated, Elvis left the club to start
trading on the streets to make ends meet because expectation from him at
the home front was high. Elvis had to indulge in the sales of
artificial women's hair-do to make ends meet.
"I can't go back to Nigeria because I don't have the money, and it would be a disappointment to return empty-handed," he said.
Elvis'
case is just one of many other victims of similar situation. He was
even lucky as some other victims had worse experiences to recount.
As
it happened in the case of former Enyimba football club of Aba
goalkeeper, Sam Okoye who went for trials in Iran only for his corpse to
be returned to the country after he died in controversial circumstance.
Another
Nigerian, Bobsam Elejiko, 30, collapsed and died while playing for
Belgian club Merksem S.C. Attempts were made to resuscitate him but
they proved to be unsuccessful. Elejiko had previously played for
Westerlo and Antwerp among other teams.
Also, there are some
Nigerian footballers reportedly roaming the streets of major cities of
Vietnam after they were unable to secure contracts in the Asian country.
Former
U-23 captain Adebowale Ogungbure, another former U-23 defender Ejike
Izuagha and Olushola Aganun, who were once hit in the Austrian
topflight, now ply their trade in Vietnam.
Some may argue that the
above mentioned players may not be in their prime and are in Vietnam
for their final pay day having played previously in Europe. Vietnam may
be a poor country, foreign footballers earn considerably well. Last
season alone, about 70 foreigners competed for 14 V-League teams with
monthly salaries of between US$5,000 and $12,000 with Nigerians
dominating the less competitive league.
Aganun, who was recruited
by Dong Thap FC with a salary of around $3,000 last year, recently
signed for Hoa Phat Ha Noi after a successful season, where he netted 10
goals for Dong Thap.
The former Wacker Tirol powerful forward is reported to have signed for the Hanoian team for a salary of around $7,000 a month.
Timothy Anjembe, who played for Dong Thap last year, also moved to Hoa Phat Ha Noi after a good season.
"Nigerian
players are here (Vietnam) because of money," Anjembe, who has carved a
niche for himself in the V-League said in an interview.
According to a FIFA report released recently, Nigerian players moved the most within Africa.
It
is also on FIFA's record that most of African players playing in
Belgium, The Netherlands and other parts of Europe are from Nigeria.
Reacting
to this, former Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation,
NFF, Kashimawo Laloko, a larger number of transfers involving Nigerians
took place and not registered on the TMS.
Laloko, Director of
Pepsi Football Academy, has seen some of his wards move to various clubs
in Europe without his permission and ended up regretting their
decision.
"The Pepsi Academy has been a victim of fake agents for
so long. We produce good footballers but when it is time to cash in on
them by getting them a reasonable club, they simply disappear only to be
heard of in some clubs in Europe.
"Until the football authorities criminalise such activities, we'll continue to have fake agents around," Laloko retorted.
According
to Henry Makinwa many Nigerian players are stranded in several
countries in Europe and have refused to return to Nigeria.
"I made
some investigation and found out that we have almost 2000 Nigerian
footballers in Europe without clubs and are afraid to go back home
because of the poor situation. These players are too young to waste away
like that.
"In Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Holland these
players are wasting away. Some of them get jobs outside football while
some play in the lowest divisions without Resident Permits; they remain
illegal immigrants.
"Some of these players were not signed. Some
came in through youth programs in Sweden, Portugal, Spain and other
countries. Some others spent a lot of money coming; thinking when they
come in, it will be easy to get a club. Some were lured by dubious
agents.
"I tell them to go back home but they always say 'what are
we going to do when we get back home?' They prefer to remain illegal
immigrants."
"Their visas are expired; they don't have work
permits, so they resort to begging for survival because they cannot get
jobs here. Some of them take to drug deals. They are just here
destroying Nigeria's image."
--Bamidele Olowosagba
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