Victor Ezeji is considered as one of the best players to emerge from the Nigerian league and the striker recalled his experience as a footballer especially some of his regrets and proudest moments plying his trade in the local scene. TUNDE LIADI reports.
Victor Ezeji is regarded as one of the most decorated footballers that have emerged from the Nigerian league with his numerous awards, titles, and recognitions got from the clubs he played for in the domestic league.
He is no stranger to purists and apostles of the domestic league as he remains one of the most underrated strikers that have emerged from the Nigerian top flight.
The 40-year-old Port Harcourt-based forward recalled how his parents nearly scuttled his dream of playing football. Despite efforts to toe the line of his parents, he never abandoned his passion for football as his love for the round leather game made him engage in street soccer competitions where his talent was spotted.
Ezeji traced his sojourn to professional football started in 1996 when he was scouted at a competition in Port Harcourt and was asked to come for trials with renowned but now defunct Sharks FC.
The former striker said he quickly broke into the first team of the Sharks after scaling the trials making 35 league appearances in his maiden season with the club.
“I grew up in a very tight environment in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. My parents didn’t want me to play football but they wanted me to go to school. Somehow you cannot change fate or destiny. It happened that the opportunity came,” Ezeji told NationSport.
“I played for so many grassroots clubs like Nigeria FC, Brazil FC, Al Merikh, and NPA all in Port Harcourt. It was from a street competition that I was spotted. We were playing the Mock Nations Cup and from there I was invited to try out with Sharks FC in 1996 and I attended. The rest they say is history.
“Immediately I got into Sharks team I started playing for the main team as a young lad. I played about 35 games in my debut season. I became the second-highest goal scorer for the club at the end of that season despite being a winger.”
Ezeji gave a brief overview of his playing career starting with his second season with Sharks in 1997 when he first got his breakthrough in attack and his stats in front of goal improved to nine that season. He bagged eight goals the following season also for Sharks before he left for neighbouring club, Eagle Cement where he kept scoring goals too before stints with Sharks again (2001-2003, Enyimba (2003), Dolphins (2004-2007), Club Africain (2007-2009), Sharks (2009-2013), Enyimba (2013), Sunshine Stars (2014), and Heartland FC (2015).
The striker played for Sharks on three different occasions and he told NationSport that as Port Harcourt raised the love for the club was natural and that it was sad to see the club go down under the radar when it was merged to form Rivers United.
“Sharks had always been the Port Harcourt club. From where I grew up, everybody loved Sharks. It was the major incentive for us to do well at school. Everyone likes to go watch how Sharks play.
“Sometimes our parents promised that if we do well in school, we would follow them to watch their games. Sharks have been in our blood growing up. When Sharks was disbanded and merged to become Rivers United, we were unhappy because it was a traditional team.”
Ezeji throughout his career was never owed by clubs as he was armed with his legal team before putting pen to paper with any team in the local league.
Explaining how he was able to convince teams to accept his terms for any contract.
“It wasn’t about many clubs not owing to me. No club owed me,” Ezeji disclosed.
“I had a legal team headed by Barrister Chike Onyeacho of Onyeacho Chambers is based in Owerri. He does my legal things with the clubs. To make it easier for them because most Nigerian clubs are not comfortable with you sending a lawyer to negotiate a contract with them.
“I go to negotiate what I want and when we reached an agreement and I’m to sign a contract, I will go back to my legal team and feed them with the details. A contract letter would be drafted by my legal team for the club to sign. If the club refused to sign it means you planned to cheat. As the contract letter drafted by my legal team is just the prototype of what we agreed on.
“At the end of the day, they get to sign it and because they know you have a legal contract that is binding you and them, they won’t want to misbehave. I remember my last season with Heartland FC when the players were on strike I was going for training because I wasn’t being owed.”
The former Enyimba striker said he felt for players in the domestic league who are owed backlogs of salaries by the various clubs they have played for. He cautioned players who mostly out of greed failed to have a legal team as they are not willing to part with the 10 percent service charge for the legal team.
“It is just greed on the part of footballers that make them end up losing more because they do not want to part with the 10 percent of your accrued takings that will be given to your legal team.
“I keep advising them on how to break free from being owed by clubs and the strategy to adopt but they seem not to care. I always advise them to get a legal representative to represent them so that they do not mess around with you.
“The only way for things to be done and done properly is to have a binding contract with your club because they know if they failed, you have the legal right to take them to court.
“Nobody wants to go to court for no good reason and that will make them do the needful. Foreign players that have taken our clubs to CAF/FIFA have always been winning and get paid all their entitlements. They did the right thing and I wonder why the players are not learning from it. It is the most annoying thing.”
Ezeji also opened up on the amount he collected when he first received his salary at Sharks in 1996 and his highest sign-on fees before it was scrapped to enhance salaries.
“When it comes to salary, my first salary was N5,000 in 1996 when I signed for Sharks and salaries weren’t much when I was still playing because of sign-on fees. I have collected sign-on fees to the tune of N9million when I signed for Sharks on my return from Club Africain. But now sign-on fees are outlawed and replaced with enhanced salaries.”
The former Dolphins hitman said his unforgettable moment as a player was while in the camp of the home-based Super Eagles when they were preparing for the Obama Cup tournament held in the United States in 2011. He said the domestic league players including him had stayed in camp for three months and there was a friendly game organised by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in Lagos in preparation for the 2012 AFCON qualifiers.
It was against Sierra Leone and instead of the NFF to use the major bulk of the home-based players to prosecute it, foreign professionals were called upon from Europe and “There are so many unforgettable moments but let me pick one. It was in 2011 when we were camped for three months when we were preparing to go for the Obama Cup in the United States and we had a friendly game against Sierra Leone in Lagos.
“But they brought in foreign-based professionals to come and play. It was the height of it for me and one of my worst moments as a footballer. It wasn’t as if we were up against Egypt, Cote d’ Ivoire but mere Sierra Leone, the home-based professionals were still not trusted enough to prosecute the friendly game.”
Ezeji was the highest scorer in the league in 2002 when he was with Sharks FC and he also won the CAF Champions League with Enyimba in 2003, but he picked his stint with Dolphins in 2004 as his proudest moment as a player after winning the league and FA Cup.
“It was when I left Enyimba for Dolphins in 2004 was one of my proudest moments as a footballer. Everybody considered it a wrong move for me because Enyimba just won the CAF Champions League but fortunately I won the league and FA Cup titles with Dolphins the same year.
“I have been voted the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the league and the FA Cup in 2004. I was presented with a car and N1million. Whereas those that stayed back with Enyimba won the CAF Champions League but didn’t get a dime for it.”
The ex-Club Africain of Tunisia hitman urged footballer to invest well while still active and he charged those that would like to combine education with their talents to do so.
“I couldn’t keep the number of matches I played in full but I ensured I kept a record of the goals I scored from when I started my professional career until I retired with Heartland FC. I scored 148 goals,” Ezeji informed NationSport.
“Every player will not have the opportunity to attend school but if you have the chance you should take it. It is very important. It is not a must that you must travel out of the country before you make it as a footballer. You can make it in Nigeria too.”
The striker lamented that his golden opportunity to play for the Danish side, Viborg was spurned by Enyimba in order to feature for the Aba Elephants in the CAF Champions League. He called it his only regret.
“I don’t think I have any regret but the only problem I had playing was when I signed for Viborg in Denmark but Enyimba didn’t allow me to go.
“Probably you never can tell what my football career would have been if they had allowed me to leave. They put an outrageous 100,000 Euros as my transfer fees and Viborg was even willing to pay more.
“It was a time one of our strikers just left and I was the only one left while we were still playing,” Ezeji said.
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