…says ‘I’m happy assisting kids with heart problems to undergo surgery’
STEVE OMOLA
Former Arsenal legend and Super Eagles captain, Kanu Nwankwo, has revealed how he walked seven kilometres to play football without boots while he was growing up.
The former Super Eagles captain disclosed this while advising Nigerian youths not to give up on their dreams.
According to him, he didn’t depend on the government, adding that he did not give up on his dreams as he put his trust in God.
Kanu says, “When Papilo started, I did not depend on the government. I did not have boots to play football.
“I walked from my house, five kilometres to go to school. Come back from school, help my parents, head out again – another seven kilometres – to play football without boots.”
“At the end of the day, I did not give up.
“I had the belief, and I trusted in God that I would make it.”
Kanu won the 1996 Olympic gold medal for Nigeria.
Yet this most fêted of African footballers has not given up. He has pledged to set up his own football academies across the continent – starting with Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Somalia – because he does not believe that the ones already in existence are good enough or are in the interest of players and their families.
Kanu also wants to advise the football federations of these countries on how to educate and teach youngsters and coaches so that they are looked after properly.
And that’s just for starters. Kanu already has a heart foundation, named after him, which has been working for many years to save the lives of hundreds of children who need surgery. He now wants that, too, to go further. Instead of flying the patients and their families out of their homelands for their operations, he wants to have five hospitals built – in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Ziwbabwe and Uganda. And for them to be built soonest.
”It’s possible,” Kanu says as he explains his hugely ambitious plans. “A lot of companies want to get involved and it can be quick to build things in Africa. They know we can do this.”
The Kanu Football Foundation, he says, will be free to use. No charge. Players and their families, their advisers, will be able to call up a dedicated telephone line and ask for help. “In Africa,” Kanu says, “the young players have to go through a lot of things, many of them don’t know how to deal with. So, the foundation will advise and help them out. When they come to a big league, like the Premier League, we can advise them before it’s too late.”
What qualifies him for the role – Kanu says he is simply formalising something he already does as “people call me all the time, even when I’m travelling, they come to my hotel and ask for help” – is, of course, his unrivalled wealth of experience. “I’ve been through a lot and played for a long time; so I can understand what others will go through,” he says. “That’s why I want to help them out. There are a lot of players who go to Belgium, for example, and have had terrible experiences. I know players and they have come to me. We need to make sure they have more support and that will make their families happier because they know they are being looked after.
“The foundation, I hope, will be a big organisation covering lots of different areas and whatever help the players need, then we can direct them in the right way and give them the best. A talented footballer comes over, his family depends on him and if his agent or club doesn’t treat him well, he might not succeed and then he feels he’s let everyone down. For years, African players have been exploited. I know a lot who have suffered and the foundation is going to have a big responsibility.”
It is a thorny issue. Stories exist of young players – kids really – taken out of their homes with the promise of making it big in Europe only to fail and be abandoned. Too ashamed to return home, having failed to realise their family’s dream, they drift.
And then there are the players who do make it but are badly treated. The Cameroonian Georges Mojado, for example, moved to RAEC Mons in Belgium, when the minimum wage was €1,075 (£855) a month. He was paid €150. Timothée Atouba – who once spent a season at Tottenham Hotspur – previously played for Neuchâtel Xamax in the Swiss league. There he was paid a third of the wage stipulated in his contract and only after a year did he obtain two-thirds. During that time, his complaints were allegedly met with threats to send him back to Cameroon.
“The problem is everyone wants to play football,” Kanu says. “Some are lucky, some are not. But we will be open for everyone to call us. I believe that because of my name and who I am and what I have done that they will want to listen.”
The foundation will be a joint venture with NVA management, a company run by consultant Chris Nathaniel, whose clients include Rio Ferdinand, Micah Richards and Kanu’s fellow Nigerian, Obafemi Martins. All are supportive to his plans.
“Everything starts from a small step,” Kanu says. “We know it’s going to be difficult because there will be some resistance. But if we start right now, then we can get things in place. When good things are coming, there are always some people who haven’t been doing good, who will try and stop it. But if you believe in what you are doing and are strong enough, then you’ll achieve it. People know who I am and what I have done.
“Some people will be suspicious but they always are when you try and change things. That’s what can happen in Africa. But when they see what we are doing, then hopefully that will change. I don’t want to keep quiet and let what I have been doing for so long die. It’s good for me to come out with something like this. And I think clubs will back it because it’s a good idea and when we have the academies also – they will be everywhere – then that will help the clubs.”
One of his biggest – and most controversial – complaints is to question whether players need full-time agents. “I think you need people who can advise you; that is more important that an agent,” Kanu says. “They are important because they help players move, but I have some experience of agents working with players who have done things not to help the player but to help themselves.” He prefers the way Spanish and South American footballers work in using lawyers or business managers.
The issue of how to deal with the exploitation of young African players is not new. FIFA has been discussing it for years with its President, Sepp Blatter, at one time provocatively accusing European clubs of acting like “neo-colonialists”. Football’s governing body wants to see the improvement in domestic leagues, and has poured money into its “Goal” project, and while Kanu agrees with that, he also claims it is unrealistic to expect players to shun more lucrative offers overseas. “When there is no money, people don’t want to stay,” he says, “but I hope the foundation will advise leagues and associations on how to improve. We do have to find local stars for local leagues so that people can aspire to be them also. But I have to admit that everyone is interested in the Premier League.”
The success of Kanu’s Heart Foundation suggests that he can make this venture work. “So, talking about football, that’s where my talents are; then I think I can do even better than with the Heart Foundation,” he says. If Kanu succeeds, it will be some achievement.
The foundation started in 2000 following his own well-documented heart problems. In the summer of 1996, after leading Nigeria to Olympic Gold, with some superb goals and a string of assists, Kanu was set to be star of Serie A after securing a big-money move to Internazionale.
The 6ft 5in striker was already a double-European Cup finalist – and winner, in 1995, against Milan, having also secured three Dutch league titles with Ajax. Aged 19, the world was at his fairly substantial feet. But a medical at Inter, having already signed and played in pre-season friendlies, showed he had a faulty aortic valve. “When it happened, the doctor said to me ‘you can’t play football again’. It was the end of the world. I was scared. But I’m a Christian and I prayed that God would help me,” Kanu says. “The first thing was to have the operation [four hours of open heart surgery in the United States] and once that was successful, I never believed I would not play again.”