Why I turned down Monaco for Leventis United – Etokebe

The present generation would like to know who is James Etokebe? I am James Etekebe. I hail from Ikot-Ekpene Local Government Area in Cross Rivers State. I was born in 1962 that’s my real age that I used in playing football.  When I played for Nigeria I was 22 and that was in 1984.  I […]

The present generation would like to know who is James Etokebe?

I am James Etekebe. I hail from Ikot-Ekpene Local Government Area in Cross Rivers State. I was born in 1962 that’s my real age that I used in playing football.  When I played for Nigeria I was 22 and that was in 1984.  I played professional football in Nigeria and in Europe, precisely in Norway. I quit active football in 2006 due to a nagging knee injury. I went back to school in Norway. I am back to Nigeria and after a coaching coach at the National Institute for Sports in Lagos, I am now the Chief Coach of newly promoted Akwa United FC. I am happily married. Two of my sons are graduates from Portsmouth University in England. The eldest is working with Stat Oil in Norway.

How did you get into football?

I started early. I grew up in the barracks and I took to football quite early. My father was a soldier and I was born in Ashanti Barracks in Lagos. I featured in youth tournaments when I was below 13. In 1977, I played in the intermediate in the 1977 National Sports festival in Kaduna. I was just 15 plus when I attended the festival.

And when I was 17, I played again in 1979 for Cross River state. When I completed my secondary education in 1981, I started playing for Calabar Rovers in the second division. We got promoted to the first division in 1982. Even when we were in the second division 1981, I was invited to the Flying Eagles where I met people like Keshi, Bright Omokaro Henry Nwosu, Humphrey Edobor, and Mike Ekpenyong. Then I was still in secondary school. I was dropped after some weeks because I was too small.

How was it like playing for the once famous Rovers of Calabar?

Playing for Rovers was like playing for the National team. We were all dying to play for the club. We had no money but great passion. In 1981 when I was in secondary school, we won the division two. We beat New Nigeria Bank to get to Division 1. In 1983 we played up to the semi-finals of the FA and were able to win the first bronze medal for the state. It was the semi-final match that made me who I am today. I mean the third place match against Abiola Babes. We beat Abiola 2-0 and that was in 1983. I became a hero after that game. I got a lot of money from the fans at the Lagos National Stadium Lagos.

What made you to leave your home club for Leventis United?

It was a difficult decision. The mentor of the club, John Masteroudes came for me but I refused to go because then Calabar Rovers was in the first division. I saw no sense in going back to the third division. To convince me to leave, Masteroudes showed me the list of great players who had accepted to join Leventis from even bigger clubs like Rangers, Iwuanyanwu Nationale and New Nigerian Bank. When I saw names like Ayo Ogunlana, Bala Ali, John Benson, Loetus Boateng, Edward Ansah, Mike Onyeama, and Fatai Yekini, I accepted the offer. When I accepted, he dashed me N5, 000 and that was the first time in my life that I got that kind of money. I never had even N1, 000 in my life. It was as if I was holding N10 million in my hands. I was then convinced. Let me tell you something, home and abroad, Leventis remains the best club I ever played for.

What made the club so special?

Even the years I spent playing professional football in Norway, the best club I played for is Leventis United. The club was professionally run. The management under John Masteroudes knew what is called football administration. Money is not everything but we had all we needed. To motivate us to perform optimally, we were paid wife allowance, for married men and girl friend allowance for bachelors in the team.  After matches we had parties. Even when we lost we were celebrated and we went back to perform better. Leventis is the only club in Nigeria that played a whole season without losing a match and that was in 1984. We won the League and FA cup without losing a game.

We did not lose any match as a division three side. We defeated division one clubs to win the FA. There can never be another Nigerian club like Leventis. No Nigerian club can equal that record. A lot of things are wrong now. The fans are no more there. It is not like in our days when the stadia were always jam packed. In our days even training seasons attracted over 2,000 spectators. We had dreaded clubs like ICC, Rangers, Calabar Rovers, Abiola Babes, and Ranchers FC. The standard of Nigerian football then  is what is presently on offer in Europe.

Did you win any trophies with Leventis United?

Yes, we won the challenge Cup in 1984 which qualified us for the Africa Cup Winners Cup Championship in 1985. We played in the finals as a division two club. When we got promoted to division one in 1986 we won the FA Cup again. We won that year’s league with 8 points difference.

You have spoken about Leventis United in glowing terms but why did you leave for Iwuanyanwu Nationale?

I left in 1988 when Leventis United was disbanded. If the club was not disbanded, I would have ended my career there. I had all I wanted. Our salaries were never delayed. Our bonuses were paid before matches.

How many caps did you have for Nigeria and how many goals did you score for the national team?

I never scored for the National team but I created so many goals for others to score. I was a good dribbler.

I had only eight caps. Rahsidi Yekini and I had our debut the same day against Morocco in the 1984 Olympic qualifiers.

It is said you were good but why did it take you long to become an integral member of the Green Eagles?

Yeah, I was in and out because of the discrimination that prevailed and maybe because of my age. I was really young and small. Most times undue attention was paid to players from the big clubs like New Nigerian Bank and Rangers. Most times, I got upset and left the camp because I did not want to be used as training material. Coaches like James Peters would ask you which club do you come from, you say Calabar Rovers and he would tell you, go and sit down. It was difficult. Great players like Rashidi Yekini and Kingsley Paul were discriminated against simply because they were from UNTL Kaduna and Bauchi Wunti. I couldn’t stand the discrimination because as a barracks boy I wanted things done straight.

You also played in Europe. How did it happen? Did you attend several trials as is now the case with most Nigerian players?

Since I started playing football, I never moved my boot to any football club for trials. Clubs usually came to look for me. I left for Europe in 1989 when I was recalled to the national team but was decamped before our match against Cameroon when a foreign based player came in three days before the match. They said to me, James you will have to bear with us this player will have to start before you and I was in camp for two months. He was playing for a fourth division club in Belgium. Even if I was sleeping, he couldn’t play better than me.

But when he came in I was sidelined. It was in the days of Paul Hamilton who had told me that I would not play for Eagles because no Calabar man had achieved such feat. I got upset and I said I have to go to Europe. I could not understand why someone in fourth division club in Europe should come and displace me in the national team. In Leventis, we refused to go to Europe because we had everything we wanted as professional players. This is a team that used to go to Cyprus and prepare for two months and come back. They even buy tickets for our girlfriends to accompany us. So we felt there was no basis going to Europe. But after that incident, I called my brother in

Norway and he said I will invite you come over for holiday. He said I should come over and try my luck.  I went and was invited by a club and in forty five minutes I had a contract. In my first year, I took the club from the second division to the first with 17 goals. I played for six years in Norway.

You played so many matches but which one would you say is the most memorable for you?

I have a lot but I can say the finals of the 1984 Nations Cup. The team played the first four matches and I did not play any. I have to give a lot of thanks to that man coach Adegboye Onigbinde, he is a visionary coach. The late Anthony Ikhazoboh said I lacked experience because I came from a very low club. But before the finals, around 10 am, Keshi came to me that I was going to play. I was handed the opportunity to play in the finals and I did very well. I initiated the goal that Late Mudal Lawal scored. I dribbled three defenders before laying the pass for him to score. I created the second goal for Henry Nwosu to score but it was disallowed. It remains my most memorable moment because I never knew I was going to play in the finals against players like Roger Milla, Antonine Bell, Theophilus Abega and other top Cameroonian players that later went to the World Cup in 1986.

Did you have any sad moment?

Yes, when we lost to Ahly Nationale in 1985 when I was with Leventis. We saw what we could not get. We were shown brand new Santana cars but after losing 2-0 in Egypt we could only defeat then 1-0 and that was not enough to give us the trophy.

Do you have any regret playing football at the time you did?

I have no regret playing football at the time I did. My only regret is that because of my love for Leventis United and John Masteroudes, I refused to move to Europe when Monaco came for me in 1986. One of their wingers called Fofana had injury and I was recommended as replacement for him. They came to look for me. My girlfriend who eventually became my wife asked me to go but I said this man has given me everything. All arrangements were made for me to travel but because of the love I had for Leventis, I went and told Masteroudes.

Immediately I told him, he sat me down for a mutual talk. He asked me, James, if you go, who will pull out the balls for me? After our discussion, he bought me a brand new 505 as a gift and I stayed back.

I was not a greedy person and he was like a father to me. He was like a father to me. He paid my brother’s school fees in the polytechnic.

What he did for me, he did not do for the other players. I had offers in Abiola I did not go. I stayed back but when they noticed that I was interested in moving abroad, they went and brought in Humphrey Edobor.

Unfortunately, I could not get that kind of offer again. If I knew I could have gone to Europe that time. Had it been I left in 1986, I would have achieved more. I was one of the best wingers in Africa.

When did you stop active football?

I stopped playing in 1996 after a serious knee injury and the weather in Europe too did not help matters. I therefore quit and went back to school to read building and construction engineering for four years. It is called engineering college but I cannot call myself an engineer.

They call us fore workers. I specialize on concrete. Julius Berger workers would know what I am talking about.

Everybody is talking about Nigeria’s declining fortunes in the game of football. How can the continuous drift be arrested?

The only solution is in school sports. We have to forget the so called football academies. We have the wrong people in the academies. What happens now is that people just buy boots and buy their ways into the academies because they think there is now money in football. Secondary school football is the only solution. We can even start from the primary schools. Even the children of the rich are talented in sports.

Nobody should think football is for the poor. At least my dad was a Quarter Master in the Army which is to say he was not a very poor man but I played football because I liked playing. Let us go back to school sports where we can have athletics, volleyball, handball and the rest. These academies they are having are not well conceived. In Europe they have academies because they do not believe much in school sports. Instead, clubs have true feeder teams but it is not the same story here.