Permit me to tell you about two foreigners that played very significant roles in my career in football. I do not expect that many younger people will know, or even remember them. The first is my first contact with a foreign coach. Playing under him took me to the tipping point, that moment, in time and circumstance, that makes the difference between being good and becoming great in an athletic career.
Allan Hawkes took me there.
He was the White, British-born coach of IICC Shooting Stars FC when I joined the club as a student of the Polytechnic, Ibadan in 1974. Before I joined ‘Sooting’ I was already a rising star in the football circuit of Western Nigeria. I had played for a few small clubs that actually won laurels in that part of the country. I was even shockingly…
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