Dehinde Akinlotan is one of Nigeria’s football heroes of the early 80’s when he starred for Abiola Babes of Abeokuta and the Nigerian national team, the Green Eagles. Now a coach with Houston Soccer Club in Texas, United States of America, Akinlotan recalls his days with nostalgia in an online interview with DIPO OGUNSOLA.
What were your feelings on the day you were called upon to play your first international game for Nigeria?
I remember that it was Chief Adegboye Onigbinde who picked me for my first full international game against Morocco in Lagos. I was very happy to find out that I would be starting the game, Chief Onigbinde put his trust in me to deliver against the Moroccans in the Olympic qualifiers with the likes of the late Stephen Keshi, Henry Nwosu MON, Peter Rufai, Danladi Ibraheem, Mudashir Lawal MON (RIP), Bright Omokaro, Sunny Eboigbe, Humphrey Edobor, Clement Temile, Tarila Okorowanta, Yisa Shofoluwe and James Etokebe.
When did you believe you had the talent to play football and how was the reaction of your parents?
I believe it was in 1980/81 when the Ogun State team (Ogun Rockets) signed me to play and work at the Sports Council office then I went to Lagos to tell my dad, he was so mad that he beat me silly and sent me out of the house. After that ordeal, I decided to stay and live in Abeokuta given the fact that I went to school there and know my way around there. My mother was divorced from my father at the time, I did not bother to go and tell her because I knew she was going to reject the idea of me playing football as a career so I did not tell her.
My father passed away while I was living in Abeokuta and could not see what his son had turned into, but my mother found out when my younger brother went home and told her that I was on TV playing football. At first she wasn’t happy but when I came home from Abeokuta to Lagos for a vacation and she saw me, it was all smiles.
You played as a centre forward, how were you able to cope with bullish defenders judging by your size?
Well, let’s just say my technical skills paved way for me to challenge tough defenders like Charles Attila Kanu, Jones Harbor, John Ekpere, Taju Disu, Bright Omokaro, Sunny Eboigbe, David Adiele, Kadiri Ikhana, Benedict Surugede Ugwu, to name just a few.
Also back in the day strikers were not as tall as they were now, strikers were judged by their individual skills and ability to put the ball in the net and that was what I did for all my teams–Wema Bank as a substitute striker to Azuka Harbor, Savannah Bank as the sole striker that delivered every single game, National Bank and Abiola Babes FC.
Is it the pursuit of academics attainment that cut short your football career?
No, not at all but the way footballers were being treated back in the days made me to have a rethink and it all paid off for me because when I got to America, my football career took another turn by playing for Boston Bolts in the first American Professional Soccer League (APSL) now (Major League Soccer). I played against my fellow Nigerian Azuka Harbor, two of England’s great Paul Mariner and Trevor Brookings and an Argentine star Osvaldo Ardilles.
How you were you able to combine sports with education?
I started my education by attending St. Paul’s Primary School at Apapa, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, Nigeria. After my primary school, I attended Agunbiade Victory High School in Abeokuta where I sat for my WASC. After finishing from Agunbiade, I gained an admission to UNIFE to study Physical Education but as God would have it, I turned to playing professional football with Abiola Babes in Abeokuta.
I travelled to the USA for further education at Boston College but ended up at Brooklyn College ( CUNY) on a four-year scholarship to study Political Science. I played for the university alongside some other Nigerian internationals. I’ve walked through all walks of educational life in the United States of America and it has paid off for me.
Are you jealous of today’s footballers who are well motivated in terms of renumeration?
No, I’m not jealous at all because I believe that everyone would have their time just as in any other profession. If you look at today’s football, especially as played by the present-day Nigerian players, you’ll see that they are not technical and creative enough on the ball. With the exception of players like Nwankwo Kanu and Austin Okocha, I am not quite impressed with the stuff we see these days.
Now as a coach, do you speak to your players about life after the game?
Now no one can predict what the future holds, but it will be advisable to all athletes to have some form of education during and after their career because it will be needed at a later time when they can no longer be of service again. Technology has made ways for people today to attend classes by way of online education. But education is a 80-95% essential in this lifetime.
If I were a today’s footballer, I would plan ahead of time in what I would do after my playing career.
Why is coaching a special interest for you ex-footballers based in the United States as a number of you–Godwin Odiye, Godwin Iwelumo, Andrew Uwe, Sam Okpodu and a host of others take to coaching after academics?
Let me start by saying that the opportunity given to children playing sports in the United States is huge and they are willing to learn and be better and when you are in a place like USA, you were respected as a player coming from Nigeria. The title ex-Nigerian international just like I said early on opened doors, they tend to respect our ability as a coach.
We take to coaching football here in America because of the great talent we had during our playing days in Nigeria and the names we also made here with their professional teams plus the education afforded us here in USA which sparked our interest in coaching.
How conversant are you with the development of football in Nigeria? Are you satisfied with what you have seen or heard?
I’m well into the game in Nigeria because I watch, read and communicate with other ex-internationals on how things are going back home.
I also have a football academy called Goal Driven Football Academy in Abeokuta, Ogun State (GDFA). We have boys ranging from U12 to U17, we started in August 2016. I also believe we could do more with our football by going back to basics and encouraging our youths to participate more in the game by way of genuine tournaments at state and national levels.
When Germany failed to qualify for the World Cup years back, the country’s Technical Director Karl-Heinz Rummenigge resorted to youth academies with a purpose of getting the younger generations to come out and play the game, and we can see the result as Germany won the World Cup in 2014 with a generation of players who rose through the same rank.
As far as Nigeria is concerned, I’m not fully satisfied with our development but I believe we can do a better job and stop looking for a ready-made answer and start to build on our own to get a concrete solutions to our problem. It might take time but with the right people in place and right coaches with the right tools I have the confidence of our country going forward.
With your ideas, how do you think Nigeria can get it right?
First of all we have to take good care of our coaches because they were there for a purpose. On the issue of paying our coaches, there should be a basic salary for our coaches and they have to work their way up to earn more. For instance, if you start a coach on N50,000 monthly, the coach has to prove himself by recruiting the right players to improve the team and also educate himself during and after season.
Remember that the happier the coaches are, the better and improved the players and the team get.
If I were to be called upon to render my services to the nation on football matters, I’ would have to start from the beginning, that is going back to the old days where competitions of different age groups were played all over the states. The League Management Company (LMC) must make sure that each professional club side has age-based academies and this starts right from primary school through secondary up to the universities.
As a footballer, what was the most dramatic experience you had?
It was a concussion saga between me and another striker while playing in an all-stars game of the APSL at Washington Stadium 1988 where I went in the air to contest a header with Paul Mariner of the then Tampa Bay Rowdies. I ended up at the hospital and couldn’t remember a thing until I watched the game on tape.
Discussion about this post