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Odewande John Zacheus is young but an aspiring footballer. He currently plays with Sheriff Football Club, Amao, Agege, Lagos; a non-league grassroots team. After several attempts to be scouted, Odewande is still optimistic that very soon, his dream to ply his trade outside the shores of Nigeria would become a reality. He talked with DAYO EMMANUEL. Excerpts:
When did you start playing football?
I have been playing football since 2005. Since then I have been pushing myself doing one or two things to see if I can attract scouts. There have been a lot of challenges especially in terms of sponsorship. That has been the biggest challenge so far.
It is true if you are not ‘connected’ to a big name and if you are not rich you may not make it to a national team or big clubs. Can you confirm this?
Everything in Nigeria including football is about who you know. In football, opportunities abound but your skills alone may not make you scale through. Having a big sponsor and someone up there to recommend you can make things faster and this is not good for our football. There are talents in Nigeria that may not see the lime light. As a young footballer, this syndrome discourages so many footballers from playing football.
How do people see you unknown and upcoming young footballers?
Some people see footballers as illiterates. They would say these boys don’t want to go to school, it is only football they know it is one of the challenge they don’t know that football has gone beyond that level. There is so much money in this country that can be used to support the youths. As a footballer you can be playing and be learning, there are online schools nothing stops you from going to school as a footballer, you pick the time and pay for your course. I don’t know, we need orientation for our people as far as footballers are concerned. Our people must know that footballers are not literates or drop outs. It is our passion to play football. Once you give us necessary support and sponsorship, we will be able to study. Studying won’t be hard if there is support, we also want to go for higher education but our passion and dreams and talent we don’t want to bury it we want to express ourselves.
There are footballers that have come a hard way who have gone to the world and seen it all at the highest stage. Do they look back to give back to the society and reach out to people like you?
Sometimes some of them do. I went to a program at Surulere, Lagos known as Glo Dream Team, we registered for N3,000 I saw some of the Nigerian footballers picking up players. It was a good experience for me. I was among the last 50. We had footballers from Togo, Benin, Ghana and other West African countries. My making the last 50 was a great experience. The session was purely based on what you are able to play. I think the older ones in football need to look into the grassroots and be able to give back to the young ones. They should try to set up academy and invite scouts to look at the players. If I say they should give back by giving jerseys and all that, those things won’t really count. What really counts is starting an academy that is functioning and using your influence as an ex-player to reach out to scouts and mangers. They believe as an ex-player you know what to do, they will listen.
If you get out there to Europe and play on the big stage and you make a lot of money are you willing to look back and give back to the young ones still suffering?
By the grace of God one of my greatest dreams is give back to the young ones, create a sport college and discover young people that have talents. I remember back then in primary school we have what we called inter-house sports, there were younger ones with talents. I like to establish a football college that would have like six or seven sports to discover a lot of talents.
What club do you play with and what is the experience in the game?
I play with Sheriff Football Club, Amao, Agege, Lagos. It is a non-league club and relatively small. We train well and we are trying our best. I play as a striker and I am learning a lot. Though with no sponsorship yet, I pray to play in the bigger league soon. We do participate at the FA Cup tournament which is a knockout tournament. The experience is really good for me. We play there and increase our chances to be scouted. You know the FA Cup is for all registered football clubs in Nigeria and it is an opportunity.
How do you advise young Nigerians like you wishing to play football professionally?
My advice to them is that in anything they are doing there is time for everything according to Ecclesiastes 3. And they have to know that all things work together for good to them that loves the Lord. They should make education priority because you can’t do away with education in the world. Education has helped the world a lot. It helps us to gain knowledge. Even as footballers you need education because a person who is not learned there would be a kind of shame on his or her face when it is time to be interviewed. There are Nigerian players who had signed slavery contracts because they lacked education. If you look at our ex-footballers who have turned to become coaches, you would see that it is because they were educated, if you are not educated you can’t attend coaching courses. Football now has gone beyond I know how to play. There is a theoretical part of it and there is the practical aspect of it, you can have the talent but you need training, so education is very important so I will employ all the youths that want to play football to go for education. Football is for a time but being learned is forever, you learn every day you grow everyday but football is for a time, after football what do you do, we have seen footballers that have become journalists after their career, they have become football pundit, football analyst. There is a way you can merge your education and your football career. Look at the likes of Facao, he has a Master’s degree, most footballers now have degrees. There is online education with which education is convenient, there is no excuse again.
