Ubiquio said he preferred to work as a bus driver instead of complaining
Former Nigerian footballer Kingsley Obikio says he had to work as a bus driver to support his family, 25 years after winning the gold medal with his country at the Olympics.
And when people spotted the player this week driving a bus in the city of Enugu, eastern Nigeria, his story spread online. And then the captain of the Nigerian national team, Ahmed Musa, gave him $ 5,000 to help him.
Obikio told the BBC he missed a lot of opportunities because he didn’t finish school when he was young.
“After I retired from playing in 2004 and completed the coaching period in Britain, I returned to Nigeria in 2008, but all the first-class teams rejected me, because I was not a well-known coach, as they put it.”
“A friend gave me a chance at a local football school, and since then I’ve been moving from job to job.”
He said that he earns the equivalent of $120 in his current job as a coach for an amateur team, “but I have four sons in university and the salary is not enough.”
He added, “I decided to become a bus driver, to earn a little money to help my family, instead of complaining.”
He said he was proud of the gift he received from Ahmed Musa, and from Nigerians in the country and abroad, who came to his aid in these circumstances, as they “do not forget their heroes,” as he put it.
Musa told the BBC that he felt Ubiquio’s suffering because he himself had days when he couldn’t find anything to eat when he was young.
He advised young players to invest as long as they are playing to secure their retirement.
He said, “Young players should learn from the experience of our old players, they have reached where they are now because they did not invest.”
“They should forget about the big cars, and the fancy clothes, because their lives begin when they retire.”