Cybereagles

I can still remember the day my journey into becoming the captain of the team began. It was one of those evenings when we had no training; I was sitting outside my rented apartment just chilling out when Mr Iorhen Ortese our General Manager (GM) came visiting. As mentioned earlier, we had become kind of close after the initial misunderstanding between us. His visit was not out of the blues, at this point in time he would visit me and we would discuss several issues bordering on the game of football. But the discussion would always come back to the state of the team, he would sound me out and try to feel the pulse of the team, I was always forthcoming with my views. I think he respected them even when we would disagree.

For example the team had struggled since the leaving of Amodu Shuaibu to El Kanemi FC, as result the GM wanted my opinion on what we needed to do to arrest the ugly trend. I told him we must do whatever is in our powers to bring Shuaibu back, saying to him the team was still very much his. But he wanted a different coach, he wanted to go for coach Kadiri Ikhana (MON), on that we disagreed, eventually the management brought back Shuaibu, while coach Ikhana was also signed as the assistant team manager.
But on this particular afternoon, when our discussion returned to the state of the club, nothing prepared me for the bombshell he threw at me. Bolaji, he said ‘I am going to make you the captain of the team, what do you think?” There was silence, to say I was stunned would be inadequate words to use to describe what took over me. The truth looking back and trying to recapture the mood then, the truth here was that, I felt a sickening feeling in the pits of my stomach, the very symptom of fear, I was really scared and this for many reasons.

When I came down to Gboko to play for BCC my ambition was just to play for one of the biggest teams at the time. My ambition was to play in the African Winners cup tournament, I never saw myself as one good enough to lead the team. I’d captained teams before and I have some experience leading a team, I was the captain of my High School St Anthony’s Secondary School Ilorin, I also captained the school where I did my A’ Levels (Olivet Baptist High School Oyo), I captained my University (University of Ilorin) team and I was the assistant captain cum the de-facto captain of KWASU Bombers FC Ilorin. But now, to be asked to captain one of the biggest team in the land , this was something I was too scared to touch. So I told GM, “sir thanks for thinking me worthy of such an honour, but my answer is NO”. GM would not have no for an answer, he told me to sleep on it and think about it because his mind was made up. Then he got up and left.

My mind was in turmoil when he left, a number of thoughts ran through my mind some of which I will share here. The late Alum Aule was the captain around this time; he took over the captain’s band from Moses Kpakpor. Moses was the captain when the team won the FA cup in 1989, the first major trophy in the history of the club. While Alum even went a step further, leading the team to win the African Cup Winners Cup aka Mandela Cup the following year 1990 and led the team in the defence of the title to the final losing to Dynamos of Zambia in 1991. But by 1992 his form was waning and he was no longer a regular in the team. But for some reasons best known to him, he would hand over the captains band to me during the match after he would have done all the captain’s formalities. Then suddenly he stopped doing it, both actions I never questioned, I never sought the band in the first place so when he stopped I felt relieved.

But one day while we were in the camp, Alum came to my room and said to me, do you know why I stopped handing over the band to you? I told him I did not even know why you were handing it over to me in the first place, how do you expect me to know why you stopped. He then went on to apologise and then confessed that he came under pressure from some of the indigenous players in the team before me who felt slighted he bypassed them by handing the band over to me. He said they told him that I might start gunning for the band and seize the opportunity to oust him as the captain. This conversation that we had, was the first thing that came to mind when the GM broached the issue of making me the captain. I am not a backstabber; I like to see myself as loyal in every aspect of a relationship. But it was like someone saw into the future, a future that was kept away from me at the time. This was one of the reasons why I quickly turned down offer. What will Aule think? What will those people who told him I might oust him think? These were the questions running riot on my mind.

The second basis for my fear had to do the ego in the dressing room. When you play for one of the biggest teams in the country, at a time when all the best players still ply their trade in the country, you are rubbing shoulders with household name. Some of these players were already made stars while I was still in the University and playing in the lower league. Looking back at the time, how do I face Aule, how do I relate with Moses? What about the someone like David Ngodigha who was the captain of the national team the Super Eagles, or Friday Christopher who had just captained Shooting stars FC Ibadan to capture the CAF Cup. What about the late Christopher Edem who was the captain of the nation’s U23 team or Patrick Mancha his assistant? How can I be the captain of the late John Ene Okon, who was the captain of Calabar Rovers or Fuludu Edema who had captained his University team (Uniben) and then captained one of the best clubsides in Nigerian football history, the NNB FC. There were couple of other lads in the dressing room who probably felt they were the rightful heir. Such was the intimidating prospects that I saw ahead and they scared the hell out of me.
Talking about ego in the dressing room, it must perhaps be stressed that this is one of the most difficult aspect to manage. All humans have ego, but for some reasons gifted and talented individuals who have been lavished with praise from their teeming fans appear to have an inflated ego. This makes the dressing room an interesting place and the job of the coaches and yes even the captain a challenging one. Let me state here , you cannot be a successful athlete or footballer without an ego. Often times the word ego is mistaken for pride, far from it, ego can become pride when it is not managed and allowed to run riot. Several words are used to describe ego and they include the following ‘Self consciousness, self awareness, self esteem, one definition simply puts it as “a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance:” . There is nothing wrong with this until when it clashes with that of another player with perhaps even a bigger ego or evaluation of self worth.

Let me digress a little here and talk more about the dressing room and players ego. One of the important aspect of player management, is the management of the ego in the dressing room. Some egos must be massaged to get the best out of such. There were players at the time it would appear the manager favours, but in truth such players needed to be paid that extra attention in order to get the best out of them. Some egos have to be cut down to size and some have to be challenged and made to rise up. It does not matter how well drilled physically a footballer is, if his ego is not where it should be, his performance will not measure up to the hard work. Sometimes all a coach needed to appeal to is the ego of his players, doing so by way of massaging or even challenging it. It is the psychology behind benching of a star player , doing so with the hope that such a player might respond to the bruised ego. It does not always work as some players might respond in a negative way. Such has been behind the many falling out in the dressing room between coaches and players. Ask any coach what they dread most walking into any dressing room, if they would be honest, they would mention managing the ego of players present. It is always an interesting topic the way coaches go about this, every successful coach comes into a dressing room with the aim of managing, massaging or culling egos of the players. Failure to do this means only one thing-failure!

Every player in our dressing room had an ego that must be managed or massage where necessary, nd at the time, I felt intimidated with the manner and size of ego in our dressing room. The late Amir Angwe , Aham Nwankwo the guy who scored the goal that won BCC the Cup were some of the guys with egos that needed to be massaged, this I say not in a negative way because both of them I got along with very well. How was I to relate with all of the players I mentioned earlier?

It was on the third ask by the GM that I did agree to accept the captain’s band. I did some soul searching, I prayed over the decision, and I suppose I was able to find something in my own ego which challenged me by asking me- Are you a coward? I hated the answer that stared me in the face. But before I took up the offer I asked the GM to allow me do some consultations with the players. The first person I sought out was Alum, I went to his house and told him what was going on. I said look if you feel I have betrayed you let me know I will turn the offer down. I told him it was important to me I get his blessings. He gave me his blessings without any hesitation, for that he won my respect and we remained good friends till his passing away.

The second person I needed to consult was Moses Kpakpor, if I can get his blessing it does not matter what the others have to say. Moses at this time was just coming back from a nasty fracture that put paid to his plans to travel out to play in Belgium. He was at the time a player/coach, that was how the team tried to accord him the respect he merited in the team. We lived on the same street, so I strolled down to his house. I told him also what was going on, I told him my fears. I said look I am from another part of the country, I don’t play politics, I don’t know how to, all I care about is football and this club. This is the responsibility the club is asking me to shoulder, I am not going to deceive myself that I can do this without help and I need your help here, I need your backing, without it I will be exposed. Just like Aule did,, he gave me his blessings. Armed with these I walked confidently back to the GM’s office and said to him…Sir I am ready!

Looking back now, I must give all the glory to God for granting me the wisdom to lead the team successfully. One of the biggest pressures that I faced was making sure that I lead the club to win something during my tenure, not when it was coming on the back of the successful tenure of my two predecessors. I was under intense scrutiny from the fans right from the time I was announced the captain of the team. You see, both of Moses and Aule who led the team before me all won major trophies and what one could describe the first of the first or milestones in the history of the club. Moses led the team to win the first major trophy by the club, the 1989 FA cup, and apparently it was the first time in 50 years any team from that part of Nigeria last won the cup. When Aule lifted the Mandela cup in Tunis after beating Club Africaine in the final in 1990, it was the first time for the club. As a result I had a big mountain to climb. When in 1993 the referee blew the final whistle to signal the end of the FA cup match in which we beat Plateau United by a lone goal, I broke down in tears on the field, few except my fiancé at the time knew why. It was a big burden off my shoulders, at least I had something to show. But the best was yet to come, this I say because in the following season (1994), the team won the Premier League for the first time in its history and we also won the FA cup, doing the double in the process, which also was the first in the club history. By winning the FA cup the third time we also retired the cup, the first in the club history. I also led the team to win the Community Shield, also the first. What more can I ask for?
After all said and done I was not under any illusion that this could have been done without the help and support of the players, leading these gentlemen remains the greatest and perhaps the most memorable achievement for me. Every other thing pales into insignificance…….

God bless you sir!

Mascot baba.

Chief Ogbunigwe wrote:God bless you sir!

Uncle, what did he say? Unfortunately, some us have gaddem something that many here like Kongi and yemibrassiere are allergic to, so we ain't go no gaddem time to read the essay.

Good one oloye ...whatever you said..

Very lovely read! Thanks for sharing these stories with us!

Thank you baba Oloye!

Baba when are we expecting your book!

And dem tell us sey "Complete Sports" will rival Cybereagles. Come and be rivaling na!

A lot of depressed old men in this forum...smdh

oloye please what's your football name? aka your professional name? some of us are still 90's pikin

Good read, doubt you would have had captaincy related issues with Fuludu, a very humble guy.

Aswani wrote:Good read, doubt you would have had captaincy related issues with Fuludu, a very humble guy.

You are right, we actually joined BCC the same year, and lived together in the same apartment for 2 seasons. We remain great friends till today. Of course I knew him from my brief stintt at NNB shortly before the disbandment, he was my captain at the time.

oloye wrote:I can still remember the day my journey into becoming the captain of the team began. It was one of those evenings when we had no training; I was sitting outside my rented apartment just chilling out when Mr Iorhen Ortese our General Manager (GM) came visiting. As mentioned earlier, we had become kind of close after the initial misunderstanding between us. His visit was not out of the blues, at this point in time he would visit me and we would discuss several issues bordering on the game of football. But the discussion would always come back to the state of the team, he would sound me out and try to feel the pulse of the team, I was always forthcoming with my views. I think he respected them even when we would disagree.

For example the team had struggled since the leaving of Amodu Shuaibu to El Kanemi FC, as result the GM wanted my opinion on what we needed to do to arrest the ugly trend. I told him we must do whatever is in our powers to bring Shuaibu back, saying to him the team was still very much his. But he wanted a different coach, he wanted to go for coach Kadiri Ikhana (MON), on that we disagreed, eventually the management brought back Shuaibu, while coach Ikhana was also signed as the assistant team manager.
But on this particular afternoon, when our discussion returned to the state of the club, nothing prepared me for the bombshell he threw at me. Bolaji, he said ‘I am going to make you the captain of the team, what do you think?” There was silence, to say I was stunned would be inadequate words to use to describe what took over me. The truth looking back and trying to recapture the mood then, the truth here was that, I felt a sickening feeling in the pits of my stomach, the very symptom of fear, I was really scared and this for many reasons.

When I came down to Gboko to play for BCC my ambition was just to play for one of the biggest teams at the time. My ambition was to play in the African Winners cup tournament, I never saw myself as one good enough to lead the team. I’d captained teams before and I have some experience leading a team, I was the captain of my High School St Anthony’s Secondary School Ilorin, I also captained the school where I did my A’ Levels (Olivet Baptist High School Oyo), I captained my University (University of Ilorin) team and I was the assistant captain cum the de-facto captain of KWASU Bombers FC Ilorin. But now, to be asked to captain one of the biggest team in the land , this was something I was too scared to touch. So I told GM, “sir thanks for thinking me worthy of such an honour, but my answer is NO”. GM would not have no for an answer, he told me to sleep on it and think about it because his mind was made up. Then he got up and left.

this was when our league was the ish...kai i enjoyed reading complete football and catching some games of the naija league back then

Good read, Baba Oloye, please give us the inside story on the Super Eagles especially the 1994 friendly against England and the 1995 Inter-Continental Cup in Saudi Arabia.

1naija wrote:

Chief Ogbunigwe wrote:God bless you sir!

Uncle, what did he say? Unfortunately, some us have gaddem something that many here like Kongi and yemibrassiere are allergic to, so we ain't go no gaddem time to read the essay.

Good one oloye ...whatever you said..

Senior Uncle, Dean was jos explaining how as a junior boy he was filled with fear being made a capito of the great BCC football team of Gboko.
Jos like dat time you graduated from washing taxi to driving your own taxi to now being a self-employed Uber driver.

All glory to God!

Oga Oloye you sabi no be small!!
Thank you so much for such an interesting read.
Miss those days when Naija league was salty.

achuzia-the-air-raid wrote:A lot of depressed old men in this forum...smdh

no be by force

Cellular wrote:

1naija wrote:

Chief Ogbunigwe wrote:God bless you sir!

Uncle, what did he say? Unfortunately, some us have gaddem something that many here like Kongi and yemibrassiere are allergic to, so we ain't go no gaddem time to read the essay.

Good one oloye ...whatever you said..

Senior Uncle, Dean was jos explaining how as a junior boy he was filled with fear being made a capito of the great BCC football team of Gboko.
Jos like dat time you graduated from washing taxi to driving your own taxi to now being a self-employed Uber driver.

All glory to God!

It is well

Cellular wrote:

1naija wrote:

Chief Ogbunigwe wrote:God bless you sir!

Uncle, what did he say? Unfortunately, some us have gaddem something that many here like Kongi and yemibrassiere are allergic to, so we ain't go no gaddem time to read the essay.

Good one oloye ...whatever you said..

Senior Uncle, Dean was jos explaining how as a junior boy he was filled with fear being made a capito of the great BCC football team of Gboko.
Jos like dat time you graduated from washing taxi to driving your own taxi to now being a self-employed Uber driver.

All glory to God!

Na you get time. If na to watch marathon episodes of housewives of Atlanta he will get time to watch everything finish and even start cursing the producers for making the shows too short.

Another awesome piece Baba Oloye!

YemiBrazil wrote:

Cellular wrote:

1naija wrote:

Chief Ogbunigwe wrote:God bless you sir!

Uncle, what did he say? Unfortunately, some us have gaddem something that many here like Kongi and yemibrassiere are allergic to, so we ain't go no gaddem time to read the essay.

Good one oloye ...whatever you said..

Senior Uncle, Dean was jos explaining how as a junior boy he was filled with fear being made a capito of the great BCC football team of Gboko.
Jos like dat time you graduated from washing taxi to driving your own taxi to now being a self-employed Uber driver.

All glory to God!

Na you get time. If na to watch marathon episodes of housewives of Atlanta he will get time to watch everything finish and even start cursing the producers for making the shows too short.