Kwara United goalkeeper Bamidele Aiyenugba has revealed how sickness nearly truncated his dream of becoming a goalkeeper.
Aiyenugba loves to be a footballer but his mother was initially objected to that decision because of his usual sickness after every hard training session.
“At the beginning my mother didn’t want me to be a footballer at all,” Aiyenugba told NationSport. “I don’t blame her because back then whenever I participated in hard training session, I always fall sick for like two weeks.
“I would be placed on admission for two weeks. Imaging how a mother’s feeling would be. She doesn’t want to lose her son and she wanted me to quit. But I eventually overcome the sickness when I was getting older.
“I got used to the training and I was getting stronger. She gave up and blessed me and that was it. I just thank God for that. It was not easy but God made it possible for me.”
After securing mother’s blessing, the now 37-year- old goaltender went on to play for Kwara United and Enyimba FC of Aba, where he won four domestic league titles, one Federation Cup, one Nigerian Super Cup, two CAF Champions League, and two CAF Super Cup crown with the People’s Elephants.
However, since helping Enyimba win CAF champions league back-to-back in 2003 and 2004, no club side in Nigeria has yet won the title again.
But Aiyenugba believes that Nigerian clubs’ inability to keep their players together for a long period of time is responsible for their poor outing in the continent.