Yaro-Yaro: Borussia Dortmund deal would’ve made me one of world’s greatest footballers

SHOT!: Almost everybody knows you as Yaro-Yaro but what are your real names?Ahmed Garba: I am Ahmed Garba popularly known and called Yaro Yaro. The name Yaro was given to me by my mother because I share the same name with her father and so she chose to call me Yaro. When I started playing […]

SHOT!: Almost everybody knows you as Yaro-Yaro but what are your real names?
Ahmed Garba: I am Ahmed Garba popularly known and called Yaro Yaro. The name Yaro was given to me by my mother because I share the same name with her father and so she chose to call me Yaro. When I started playing football, my fans doubled the name so it became Yaro Yaro.
You made a name playing for Kano Pillars FC. How did you get into the club?
I started my football career in my area that is Nasarawa in Tudun Wada area in Kano. I was encouraged by people who saw that I was talented. I started playing organised football in 1992 with the Junior team of Pyramids FC which was the biggest club then in Kano. I later played for the senior team as the youngest player. While playing for Pyramids, I represented Jigawa State in the national U-18 championship where we lost on penalties in the finals to Oyo State. After the championship, Coach Fanny Amun invited me to the 1993 Golden Eaglets camp. However, I did not make the team to Japan. When I come back to Kano, the state government decided to form junior Pillars so I joined the team in 1993. In 1994 Pillars was relegated from Division one to two. Since most of the key players decided to leave, almost 80% of the junior team was promoted to the senior team. That was how I got into Kano Pillars FC in 1995.
It is an open secret that you took your football skills outside the shores of Nigeria. Where and where did you play?
Even before the 1997 season ended, I was the highest goals scorer. So a Ghanaian agent took me to Borussia Dortmund in Germany. I trained for only two days and the manager was ready to sign me. I was to sign a two year deal but the agent wanted to shut out Pillars so the deal could not work. What happened was that Pillars wanted to know the details of the contract but he wanted to collect my clearance without getting Pillars involved. Pillars chairman at that time late Alhaji Ishyaku Mohammed wanted to see what was in the contract so that they would do everything to protect me as an indigene of kano.  Moreover, I was less than 18 years. In the end, there was no contract and I returned to Pillars where I continued playing. Later, I got an offer in Tunisia which I went and signed a two year contract with Stade de Tunis FC. I was the team’s highest goal scorer and in the same year, we won the challenge Cup for the first time in their history. Unfortunately the club could not pay me. I was sustained by Julius Aghahowa who was playing for Esperance. The club later loaned me to a club in Saudi Arabia for the remaining six months of my contract. I went and helped the club escape relegation. From Saudi I returned to kano Pillars and started training with them in 2001. When I collected my clearance from Stade de Tunis, I was registered by Pillars for the 2001/2002 season. I played for a season before moving to Enyimba FC where we won the CAF Champions League in 2003. After winning the Champions League, I returned to Kano Pillars from where I went to join a club in Saudi Arabia known as Al Ahly. I moved on to Denmark where I played for two seasons for Akademisk Boldklub, AB. I had a raw deal in the hands of the Danish club which blocked offers for me from many clubs including FC Copenhagen and Fulham. So at the end of my contract, I returned to Nigeria in 2008 to join Pillars again. In 2008, we won the league for the first time which is the most memorable moment for me and the club. Pillars did very well that year. We played in CAF Champions League in 2009 and reached the semi-finals. That was when Kano Pillars became the real Kano Pillars. Although in 2010, I decided to step down for the younger players, I was playing as coach player. But now I have hung my boots and I am serving the club as an assistant coach.
You were in and out of Kano Pillars. What was the reception like from the fans each time you returned?
I cannot even explain what the fans mean to me. I enjoyed tremendous support from them and I am still enjoying it even now that I have stopped playing. The first thing I can say is God, but the second thing I know that made me play football is the people of Kano. They are the ones who encouraged me hundred per cent to play football. Even when I left the club, they were still with me. Each time I returned, they welcomed me and made me feel at home. The fans usually spurred me to do wonderful things on the pitch. They made me believe I could do anything with the ball.
Let me take you back a bit, how disappointed were you when the Borussia Dortmund deal fell through?
I was so disappointed because I know that had the deal worked for me at the age that I went to Dortmund, I would have been one of the greatest and highly rated players in the world today. Though I was small, I knew I could do better than most of the senior players. I was courageous and confident. It was a big disappointment. It pained me a lot but I know that anything that God has destined, nobody can change it.
Who was your role model when you started your career?
I was not playing in the same position with him, but I wanted to be like Romario of Brazil. And at home, I wanted to be like Jay -Jay Okocha.
It is every player’s dream to play for his fatherland. What did playing for Nigeria mean to you?
It was and it will always be special. I was one of the home based players in the Super Eagles squad that won the LG Cup under Bora Milutonivic. We played friendly match against Venezuela in London which we won 1-0. We also played many matches in Jamaica. When it was time to make the list for the 1998 World Cup, Bora insisted that few of us should be taken but he was turned down. The system then believed in foreign based players.Vincent Enyeama, Romanus Orjinta, Seyi Olofinjana and I were playing as home based players. In the end, it was only Enyeama that made the team. After the world cup, Bora left. When Coach Chuwkwu took over he just brought back the home based players who were always playing under Bora. That was how we started growing till when we went to Faro for the Nations Cup preparations. Although most of us did not make the team, it was a fulfilling experience in the senior national team.
What will you say was your most memorable moment in Super Eagles?.
Meeting Austin Jay-Jay Okocha and Kanu Nwankwo in Super Eagles is the moment I will always cherish. For the first time, I could not believe that I was playing alongside the players I idolised. It was as if I was dreaming but it was for real.
What is your happiest moment(s) as a player?
My happiest moment came each time I was invited to the national team to represent Nigeria. And when I won the CAF Champions League with Enyimba, I was happy because it was victory for Nigeria. When I returned to Kano Pillars, I won the league with them in 2008. I won’t forget these moments.
Some people believe you were not a disciplined player and that was why you could not play up to your full potentials. How do you react to this?
You know from a distant, many people thought I was not disciplined. The truth is that I was always angry on the pitch because I hate to lose. I always want to win. So at such moment, people may think I am not disciplined. Only people who are close to me know that I am a very disciplined person. It was hard to stop me so what opponents resorted to doing was to find ways to make me angry so that I could lose concentration. So some people thought I lacked discipline.
Does it mean you were not a stranger to red cards when you were playing?
My former coach, Kadiri Ikhana did a lot to help me. When he came back to Pillars, he sat me down for a chat. He told me that in the whole country there was no defender that could stop me. He said anywhere I was playing, no one would be able to do what I could do. He said if I don’t control my anger, coaches can send their players to come and get me angry so that two of us would be sent off so he can have rest of mind. So I adjusted immediately. The following year, I was rewarded as the most disciplined player in Pillars. It helped me in my career. I was not a bad boy.
Apart from the Borussia Dortmund deal, do you have any other regret in your life?
My major regret in life is that I started playing football when my parents were alive but when I became successful, they were not there to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
What is your assessment of the players in the Nigeria Premier League?
In the past, it was only talented players that played football. You have to make sure that you know how to play but players nowadays learn football because there is money in the game. The league today lacks natural football players.
Do you have any regret playing football at the time you did?
I have no regret but if we had the kind of support the players are enjoying now, the domestic league would have compared favourably with the English Premier League. That is the only regret. If there were this kind of support for us, we could have taken the league to the highest level.
Kano Pillars fans are often time associated with acts of football hooliganism. What advice do you have for them?
I want to advise them that football is win, lose or draw. No matter what will happen, they have to be patient and orderly. They should not bring problems to Pillars because if anything happens, they are the ones to lose. If the team is taken away from Kano, they won’t be able to watch the matches again. It is very important that Pillars play in kano. Football should unite rather than divide us. Even when you are not happy, football makes you happy. Our stadia should not be places for us to fight but build relationships. There should be no difference or religion in sport. We are just one, worshiping one thing and that is football.
How happy are you with your appointment as Pillars assistant coach?
I am so happy because it is an honour that people believe in you and appreciate what you have done to reward you at the time you are in need. I am happy with what the management of Pillars and the people of kano State have done. It will encourage others to put in their best for the state.