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Nollywood actor and movie director, Kunle Iyiola Afod, in this interview with EBENZER BAJELA, talks about his love for Chelsea, Okocha, Odegbami and more
You’ve never hidden your love for Chelsea, how long have you been supporting the club?
It’s been a long time since I started supporting Chelsea. I have always been a football person and I watch all the clubs. I think I started supporting Chelsea about 16 years ago and since then I have been very loyal to the club.
Why did you choose to support Chelsea?
The era of Didier Drogba, Micheal Essien and Micheal Ballack was one that you couldn’t help but love the club. They had a very strong squad and they were a team to reckon with. Ordinarily, I would have been a Liverpool fan because I used to like them, but when I studied them I noticed that there was no black player at the time, unlike Chelsea, who had a lot of black players who were even first team players and not bench warmers. If you look at Chelsea back then, there were at least four to five black players in their starting XI. That’s why I decided to choose Chelsea. When you look at the sky, it’s blue.
A lot of fans will disagree with you that Manchester City wear the real sky blue colour. Do you agree with that?
I totally do not agree with that. Let’s put into consideration the period that Manchester City became a force to reckon with; they have not won the Champions League and within this period Chelsea have won two, they are yet to win even the Europa League and Chelsea have won that too. So, what are they saying that the Cityzens are the real sky blue? Their blue is like the new Naira notes, you can’t compare it to the original one.
Mourinho recently celebrated his 60th birthday. Do you think he is still the Special One?
Mourinho is my best coach ever and he will forever be the Special One. The reason why he is not always in the news is that he is no longer in England. When you are in England, you will always make the news and that’s why you see some of their average players always making the headlines because they have a way of painting them as the best players.
Mourinho succeeded during his first tenure at Chelsea, but his return wasn’t so good. What do you think went wrong?
From my own point of view, when Mourinho came for the first time players were still eager to learn and people rated the coaches above players. But these days, they put players above coaches, considering the money they pay them, which leads to them disrespecting the coaches.
Liverpool are not suffering so many injuries but are struggling, what do you think is wrong?
I think their problem is a defensive crisis, I don’t have a problem with their attacking force but they have been conceding too many goals. It is not because (Sadio) Mane left the club because I know there was a time he didn’t play for almost a season and they still did well and went on to win the Premier League title. They still have Mohammed Salah but I think they are not in their best form because of their defensive problems.
Who was your favourite Super Eagles star?
That is Segun Odegbami, the Mathematical. He was very good and skillful and he was usually the most talked about person on the team. I was very young back then when he played but I still remember some of his moves. After Odegbami, I will go for Austin Okocha because he will make you fall in love with football. He played football without stress and it still baffles me that he was not well celebrated. Comparing Okocha to Nwankwo Lanu is pure wickedness because Kanu, though a good footballer, was too slow and I see Emmanuel Adebayor as a faster version of Kanu. Kanu had his style and technique but he was nowhere near Okocha. It seems we love to celebrate only those that score goals, which Okocha didn’t do much, but put the two of them on the field today Okocha will dribble Kanu. I saw a ceremonial match they played and Samuel Eto’o told the ref to remove Okocha because he was still above their level even after retirement. We saw how they celebrated Eto’o globally. I think sometimes we need to pray for luck alongside our work. I am surprised that Okocha never won the African best footballer award but we see how people celebrate Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Talking about the players you just mentioned, let me bring you into a debate that may never end ….
(Cuts in) I can bet with you that the debate will never end. I know what you want to ask me and my honest answer is that Messi is better than Ronaldo. When I talk about the type of players that I love you will see that they are gifted players, Odegbami, Okocha and Messi, you should know that I love skills. I love to enjoy football at its best. I see Messi as ‘abinibi’ and Ronaldo as ‘ability’. Messi plays with ease because he was born with it but you will see that Ronaldo worked so hard to get to where he is at the moment, he is an example of hard work, while Messi was born for it.
This argument of who is better will never end because that is the way God wanted it and that’s why He created the heaven and earth, there is Jesus and Mohammed, we have Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey, and we argue over them and so also is the argument of Barrister Sikiru Ayinde and Ayinla Kollington, we have Davido and Whizkid. It will forever be like that. But putting the argument of Ronaldo and Messi aside, my best player is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the man is so good and some of the records that Messi and Ronaldo broke were set by him. But like I said, some players are not properly celebrated and that is why players like Robert Lewandowski are not getting the recognition they deserve.
What do you think is wrong with the current Super Eagles?
Do we have a national team? When we have a team that is governed by people who don’t know football, that is what we get. Our football is run by godfathers and that is why we will continue to be where we are. Recently, I heard about some of our players abroad who don’t want to play for Nigeria, take for instance Bukayo Saka. He is a very good player and imagine what his combination with Victor Osihmen would have done to teams. Add these quality players with some home-based players who are really ready to play, I don’t think we will be lagging behind.
Personally, did you play football as a kid?
I never played football, in fact, I was not into any sport. My dad was a very strict man and so also was my mom, none of us in my family played football. The only sport I enjoyed doing while growing up was discus throw and that’s because it requires technique and not necessarily force, but I belong to a very good supporters club.
Today, things have changed as parents now encourage their children to play football. What do you think is responsible?
I think the money and the passion for the game contributed to this change. Parents will celebrate their children playing in the academy abroad these days. I remember there was a time I was at a salon in Manchester and a man came in and was so happy that his son had been accepted into Manchester City academy and we all celebrated. To some extent, football is like the latest religion now.
Will you allow your kids to play football?
That is a definite yes and there was a time I was always asking one of my sons if he wanted to play football but I saw that he didn’t really have the zeal for it. Only one of them showed interest but he also prefers singing. We are in an era where you don’t force children to do what they don’t want to do.