‘Getting married to my wife is wonderful’
SO much has passed under the bridge for Super Eagles’ star midfielder, Ogenyi Onazi, since June 18, 2016 when he tied the nuptial knot with girlfriend Sandra Ogunsuyi in a high-profile wedding ceremony. Onazi, a poster guy who plays his football for either club or country, doesn’t do things in half measure and he brought this to bear on his wedding arrangement which rocked Rome via Benin City to Lagos.
For starter, the couple’s pre-wedding photographs took place in Rome under the watch of ace photographer Allesandro Para and thereafter they headed for Benin City for the traditional while the Church ceremony in Lagos drew a large audience within and outside the Nigerian football family.
Months to the first anniversary of the fairy-tale wedding ceremony, Onazi said nothing can be sweeter than finally settling down as a responsible man.
“Yeah, I got married last year and, no doubt, that it is the most important part of a man’s life,” Onazi who quit Lazio for Trabzonspor in the Summer told our correspondent.
“You get married, settle down and try to do what you need to do; the most important thing is to have a partner which you can share your pain or share joy – you know, try to have a family and by the grace of God try to have kids. Those are the most important things a man wants to have in his life and I believe God is going to see me through. Getting married is wonderful – that’s the most important thing.”
Always full of fun and thrills, Onazi said he has settled well into marriage and dispelled rumours that his wife might soon join the professional rank after they both engaged in a kick-about in a pre-wedding video that went viral on the internet.
“No, it’s not possible (for my wife to play professional football),” he said clearly. “We just tried to have fun with our pre-wedding photos and video because she told me she used to play football and played as a defender back in school, so we just tried to make something out of it.”
Onazi has had a fairy-tale football career after he joined Lazio in 2011, alongside his teammate, Sani Emmanuel, after they both had trials in Italy following their impressive performances at the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup where the Golden Eaglets were losing finalist to Switzerland.
He was first promoted to the Lazio first team during the 2011–12 season after impressing at youth level and made his Serie A debut as a substitute in the penultimate match of the season when Lazio recorded a 2-0 victory over Atalanta. He has not looked back ever since and has regularly featured for the Rome-based side in Italy and Europe.
He scored his first goal for Lazio on March 7, 2013 in a 2-0 win against Stuttgart in the last sixteen of the Europa League and on May 8, 2013 scored his first Serie A goal in a 3–1 win over Inter Milan. Though he signed a two-year contract extension with the Serie A club until 2018 on September 22, 2014, he left the club in acrimonious circumstances to Trabzonspor in the summer.
At 24, he is already one of Nigeria’s most reliable players and since he made his debut for the Super Eagles against Liberia in the 2013 African Nations Cup qualification match, he has remained an integral part of the national team.
The former Lazio midfield gem is amazingly playful for a guy that acts as a destroyer in midfield and packs a bullet of a shot in his right leg. He glues himself to his video game whenever he is not training or having a match and you will always catch him wearing his favourite shorts, showing off his hairless legs – perhaps he sees them as sexy.
Onazi is one of the most followed Nigerian stars on Instagram with 128,000 followers and he keeps them busy with short videos of himself buying sugarcane from the road, patronising a groundnut seller and pounding yam for his mother in Jos.
Often called the TB Joshua’s boy because he started out with the academy, My People’s FC, owned by the famed man of God, and his church roots haven’t left him despite his huge status and that explains his love for gospel music.
Though enjoying the feel of marriage, the Jos-born star announced himself in Turkey with a brace on his debut for new club Trabzonspor and enthused he was ready to contribute his quota to ensure Super Eagles’ qualification to the 2018 FIFA World in Russia even in the face of expected opposition by newly crowned Africa Cup f Nations champions, Indomitable Lions of Cameroun.
“I believe Cameroun can never beat us,” Onazi, who is now one of the most experienced players in the young Super Eagles, said in a related interview with Africanfootball.com. “Not just Cameroun, but any other team; we will face them just as we approached our first two World Cup qualifiers. We are looking forward to the games.
“We wish to congratulate Cameroun for their AFCON success, they have done very well. But that notwithstanding, we are also working on our own. All our players are doing well all over Europe and as a team we are doing very well.
“We wait for them and we will see what’s going to happen as I believe so much in our team,” he posited.
Meanwhile, Onazi here speaks eloquently about his immediate task at his new club, Trabzonspor, as well as on other light-hearted sundry issues in this interview with correspondent, CHIJIOKE EZEALI. Excerpts…
Between 2016 and 2017
There was a lot of good and bad as well but if I start talking about every good and bad thing, we won’t finish. Notwithstanding, we still give thanks to God for where we are today and his grace has taken us to a greater light. Importantly, I made the transfer to Trabzonspor and I’m finding it very well here. I’ve got a lot of playing time but it is just a transit for me because I still have my objectives and where I want to play.
I have also added goal-scoring to my game in the past year and want to continue in this vein. I just want to continue to improve my game and try to control games as much as I can. Of course, I got married in 2016 and it is the most important part of a man’s life. You get married, settle down and try to do what you need to do.
Between Turkish League and English Premier League
Honestly, the past successes of Austin Okocha, Daniel Amokachi, and Uche’ Okechukwu did not influence my transfer to Turkey as you suggested. I didn’t consider that before my move to Turkey.
The only person I spoke with, who encouraged me and told me how it looks like in Turkey – the fan and their passion – is Daniel Amokachi who happens to be my favourite Super Eagles player of all time. It has been very good to be here because I started very good and I believe that it is just the beginning and I’m ready to go further and do more great things.
Disappointment leaving Lazio after five years
Yes, am really disappointed with the way things ended even though it is not supposed to be like that because I served Lazio very well without any problems and I was always punctual in training, gave my best and fought very well for the club. It’s unfortunate – they never communicate with me to tell me anything about whether they were never going to pay my salaries since I was leaving the team or sign any document that am not going to accept my salary or whatever. I was surprised when I asked for my salary and they told me that I signed a document. I don’t know if I signed the document in my dream or whatever and it’s not supposed to be like that because Lazio is a big club and this kind of things are not supposed to be heard outside. They are not supposed to tarnish their own image and it’s really embarrassing. I don’t really know why it should be like that but the case is with FIFA. Let’s see what’s going to happen and we’ll see how it goes. We would know how they signed documents or forge documents but we’ll wait and see because I never signed any document and we never discussed anything about that.
Fond memories of the Roman derby
It was one of the most important games of my stay in Lazio. I’m very happy and thank God that I am among the people who have kept history when I featured in the derby and it was special because I won a Cup final in one of the most important derbies, playing 90 minutes in that particular game. It was a historical win for us. Those are great memories I had in my time with Lazio.
Super Eagles renewed quest for World Cup Russia 2018
We are not desperate for anything. Our head is still calm and we believe that we have a long way to go. We want to concentrate until we are there, so this is the principle and that is what we want to follow. We are taking every game like a final and as we seek to help bring back our glory days.
Argentina blues
Argentina was the most difficult team I’ve ever played because it was a really difficult game for us at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
My best teammates with club and country
For club, I don’t really have someone am very close to, but, notwithstanding, I have friends like Keita Blade and Felipe Anderson. Ravel Morrison is a friend too but we always fight although he is a good person with a good heart but sometimes crazy. Right now, we are apart but I believe we will meet each other again in future. With the Super Eagles, I have worked with a lot of people and they are fun to be with at any time. People like Ighalo, Ideye, Obinna Nsofor, John Ogu, Elderson, Vincent Enyeama, Emenike – the list is endless. When I’m with them, we have fun and fight together. But I’ll love to play with N’Golo Kante of Chelsea because I love him a lot and he inspires me. He is a very good player. I don’t mind playing alongside him.
Close encounter with Miroslav Klose
Yeah, Miroslva Klose, I learnt a lot from him. It is from him I learnt how to be a dedicated professional and work very hard. Training for him is just like a football final and that is exactly how I want to be. He is a wonderful person and I have never played with any striker that is so full with wisdom. He knows what he is doing at all times, that is just the main fact.
Between playing football and playing piano
If not for football, I don’t know what I would do o! It’s only God that knows. Probably, football is what God wants me to do but you never can tell. Definitely, I would’ve gone to the university but I really don’t know what I would’ve become. But thank God for his grace and I’m really happy with my job. I started playing music right from my childhood. I fell in love with music when my elder brother played in the church and sometimes I sneak out to go watch him and I’ve always dreamt of playing music, just like football. Those are the things I did – play music to serve God and play football for fun and never knew I will be doing it professionally but everything happens for good. That’s the way God wants it to be, so I thank God for that.
I was an instrumentalist in Jos long before I met Pastor T.B Joshua. Just like I play music, I can play football and I think those are two special talents God gave to me and I was really good at it. So, when I met Pastor T.B Joshua, he encouraged me to be an instrumentalist in the church and I do play with the choir. Working in the church is a privilege for me to serve God. Of course, I was brought up by Pastor T.B Joshua and he taught me so many things especially being less on ourselves and more on others. This is just my philosophy and principle of life.
Loving being a fashionista
Everybody has his own style. For instance, when you see Cristiano Ronaldo, he has this nice haircut and several other players have their own styles. I don’t box myself into a particular style because when you see me on the street, you might not really know I’m the person. Of course, I love to dress good and nice but that does not mean I would go to the extreme because I want to look good or nice. It doesn’t matter what I wear, I can wear Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci … I can wear Salvatore Ferragamo but it is not compulsory I put on designer’s stuff. I just decide to wear anything I can lay my hands on to wear. Life is not measured by the number of designer wears you have, rather by the number of lives you can touch.
