he was a young adult, he dreamt of stardom and conquering hoops in a foreign land. He yearned for renown playing basketball in Europe or America.
In 2006, he secured his first international contract with Victory SC, a club in Maldives, leading the club to win multiple league titles and winning the Overall Best Player award. “I had led them to win major league titles and they were scared of being at a disadvantage if I offered my services to a rival club. They tried to keep me with them. They pleaded with me and consequently threatened me but I ignored them, and joined a rival club, Biskra,” said Akanni.
“They said they arrested me because I looked like a person of interest whom they had been investigating for cyberfraud. They said they had been following me for one week or thereabouts. Although their story didn’t add up, I was only too glad to secure my freedom,” said Akanni.Today, Akanni is back in the country and even though he no longer plays active professional sports, he organises basketball clinics and training camps for youngsters seeking a career in professional basketball.
The victims, Ene, Ben, Dixon and Kelvin, as initially identified by Alexandra Starr for Harper’s Magazine, arrived in the US perpetually hungry for stardom. They hoped to be groomed for college athletic scholarships, and their days were spent on intensive basketball drills. If the trafficking of basketball recruits is partly a consequence of the globalisation of sports, the narrative gets grislier with football recruits.In November 2011, bitterness was spruced up as a bouquet of blossoms, and handed to Olaoluwa Dare piecemeal, till he got utterly swamped by its scent. A dandy scout sold him a triumphant tale of success about the Dhivehi football League in far-flung Maldives, South Asia.
At 28, he is burnt out. His sinewy limbs bear tell-tale of an age when they rippled through trunks and jerseys that clung tenaciously to them. At a glance, they looked totally worn by the rugged pitches of Maldives, in South Asia, where he sought his luck in international football. “My mother struggled to get me the money but she could only raise N54, 000 by cleaning out her life-savings. My father bluntly refused to assist me. To teach him a lesson, I stole the papers to our house and used it to borrow N600, 000 with an interest of N480, 000 from a loan shark,” he said.
He lived out in the cold for two days, sleeping in deserted alleys and parks until he met an elderly citizen called Mr. Ashfan. The latter sheltered him for a week and promised to help him get into B.G Sports, a football club. Dare considered himself lucky until his host began to loosen his belt and hump his buttocks in a fit of lust. Unknown to Dare, the 61-year old, who was estranged form his wife and six children, nursed a secret attraction for the male gender.
Subsequently, he roamed the streets in the company of Najeer, another stranded African from Mali. Then tragedy struck Dare on a Saturday night, while trying to evade arrest by local police at an age-grade tournament in Male. Dare ran into a stone ledge and broke his right ankle. That put paid to his dreams of playing international football.
It’s nine years since he embarked on the trip and Adebawo is back in the country with no certain means of income. According to him, having paid the fees demanded by the agent, he proceeded on the trip with him, only to be abandoned in a taxi at Ataturk Airport by his agent. Many of such victims in İstanbul use the opportunity to keep themselves fit at the training pitch of Amatör Lig club Feriköy SK. Three times a week, they gather in the small stadium and share the renting fee among everyone who is able to pay the required 250 Turkish Lira .The phenomenon by which local football players are lured to Europe is often described as human trafficking or even as a form of modern slavery.
Just before his demise at age 48 in 2019, the late Osondu was reported struggling to become a cleaner at the Brussels airport. He reportedly filled in as a janitor too. The sad cases of Dare, Adebawo, and others, are instructive of the magnitude of the problem at hand. Football has no doubt attained the status of a religion or culture Nigeria. It defines neighbourhoods, strengthens tribes and in extremes, unifies them — bringing warring African countries to temporary truce so that the game could be played.
Sad, desperate lives of basketball, soccer players stranded overseas Akanni is now back in the country & even though he no longer plays active professional sports, he organises basketball clinics and training camps for youngsters seeking a career in basketball. SundayDareSD
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