TOMORROW, May 27, kids in Nigeria and in different parts of the world will be honoured in line with the World Conference for the well-being of children’s declaration in 1925 and one of the best players of this generation, Nwankwo Kanu (OON), has fittingly tipped his son as his successor.
Kanu is Nigeria’s most-decorated player and one of the few players to have won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal. Time and again, comparison of Kanu who ended his international career following Nigeria’s exit from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with any budding talent is inevitable. But the UNICEF Ambassador has sensationally told The Nation Sport & Style that his cute first son, Sean Chukwudi, who incidentally shot into instant fame years back with an appearance in that famous Peak Milk advert , succeed him.
“I have two boys and a girl in the house now,” Kanu, fondly called Papillo, told The Nation Sport & Style. “The first one is Sean Chukwudi Kanu and he’s going to eight.
“He’s the one that did the Peak advertisement with me and he likes and is very passionate about football.”
Of course, there is no doubt that Sean is a special boy dear to the heart of the two-time African Footballer of the Year and he reckons that it won’t be long before the lad starts hugging the headlines.
“Sean really likes football and I would state right from the day he could kick anything,” offered Kanu who was adjudged 13th in the Arsenal’s Greatest 50 Players poll in 2008, “he sleeps and eats football and whenever a football match is on, he would never leave the room.
“Now he understands the basics of the game and whenever he is watching a game he knows when a player ought to pass the ball to another player or go for goal.
“These are not things that l taught him but this is inborn; sometimes he would just say ‘daddy, why did he kick the ball instead of passing it.
“The good thing about him is that wherever he goes, he becomes a star because people recognise him as the boy that did the Peak advert with me. Instead of playing with kids of his age bracket when he turned seven, he was playing with those in the eight and nine bracket of ages.
“We went to Bradford to check out their academy but after looking at him, they instantly asked him to come back and he has since been training with the Watford Academy. So, we have to keep watching and guiding him because he’s a bit special,” he noted while speaking on the tricky topic of his likely successor.
“You see, in life we tend to come and go and it is whoever made his mark that stays in the memory of the people forever,” Kanu said in apt reference to the Shakespearean famous saying that ‘all the world is a stage and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances.’“Frankly, there is only one Nwankwo Kanu; so the question of whether there is a successor now is out of the equation and that applies to every hero that has come and gone.
“So somebody could play like Nwankwo Kanu yet he is not Nwankwo Kanu. You must know where you are coming from and where you are going and I think the next Nwankwo Kanu would come from the family of Nwankwo Kanu.
“I think it must come from the Kanu’s family, so we pray that anytime soon somebody will come from the Kanu family that would be a star like Nwankwo or even bigger and he could be Sean.”
Should the young Sean fulfil such expectorations, he would be following on the heels of players who rode on the crest of their fathers to become soccer stars.
Notable combination of a famous football star and his boy include Paolo and Cesare Maldini who at different times played for and captained giant Italian club, AC Milan. Most recently, there is Zinedine and Enzo Zidane and Kanu has enthused that he’s spending quality time with his broods for them to become champions.
“It is always good to know your family inside out,” said the husband of the delectable Amarachi. “What l mean is that you have to spend quality time with them, play with them, not only that, talk to them and teach them and train them.
“Some parents answer daddy but they don’t even know where their children’s school or even bother to take them to church for them to know God. All these things are basics and you and your wife must teach them all these. My wife does this well and when l am around l do same.
“For example, they must know how to clean their room and tidy their bed. Make sure that they pray before going to bed and when they wake up every day. Then you have to play with them so that they know that you are the best friend they could ever have in the world.
“Though it makes it pretty difficult when you are leaving the house and they are all crying for you not to go, you have to go because you have other things to cater for.
“Iyang Onyekachi, my second son, is very strong one while Sean is the quiet type. Even at his age he is matured, but Iyang is the strong one. He is everywhere and I think ‘bundle of energy’ should be his middle name. He keeps running and jumping everywhere. You can see the energy in him and he is really, really strong. He likes football too and he is going to six.
“My daughter, Amarachi, was born in Orlando, Florida and she is one year old – she clocked one on January 18, 2013.”
Kanu reminisced on his exciting career and has pointedly told The Nation Sport & Style his preferred jersey number in spite of wearing different ones at Ajax (9); Arsenal (25); Portsmouth (27); Inter Milan (11) and Super Eagles (4).
“I think I was comfortable wearing jersey number 4,” he said as a matter of fact. “My older brother who was somebody l looked up to wore number 4. Big Boss Keshi, one of my idols, also wore number 4 and if you check this number if you are not intelligent and smart you cannot wear it.
“If l have a player wearing 4 and he is not intelligent I will take the shirt from him and give it to another person. Number 10 is meant for super stars and it is the choice of everybody but not everyone can get it. So if you want to be a super star you go for number 10.
“I wasn’t a super star when I started but God made me a superstar eventually. For me number 4 is my choice because my big brother was wearing it and he was somebody l wanted to be like.
“He is even the one that was originally nicknamed Papillo. Keshi also made me to like the number because he is a leader and showed that quality in the Super Eagles and l wanted to be like him too. So it was number 4 that was my preferred choice.”
Kanu would forever be remembered as the guy that led Nigeria to the historic Africa’s first soccer gold medal at the Atlanta’96 Olympics and he has stated again that the experience is unforgettable.
He said: “I remember nobody believed in us. Even in the qualifiers there was no much noise about the team. We were not given much chance but we believed in ourselves. Football is all about faith and believing in your ability and that is exactly what we did.
“But the match against Brazil and Argentina were the highpoints of the tournament. Brazil was the team that the whole world was looking up to and tipped to win. They were called the Dream Team because they had many superstars in the team.
“In our first game they beat us 1-0 but we still qualified with them. When we had the opportunity to play them again we were not given any chance but when we entered the field, we just felt that it was going to be different because we had played them before and there was really nothing special about the team.
“But before you know it, Nigeria was 2-0 down and then 3-1 and they thought it was all over. But for us, we knew it was not over. We got the second goal and pushed on for the equaliser and eventually the magic had to happen and it was Kanu Nwankwo. So, immediately l got the ball, l had but a split second to decide what to do with the ball.
“I knew quite well what l could do with the ball because l am talented, but l always pray to be able to do them at the right time. That is why l always tell the younger ones that when you are playing for your country you have to know that the whole country is resting on your shoulders and you have to give all you have in order not to let the whole country down.
“That Kanu’s name has become a household name is because l have done something special for my country. So whenever you are filing out for the national team, pray that God would give you the grace to perform and I really thank God that I had so many magical moments in my career.”
