- By Sam O’Femi Fasetire
Hello A.Y,
How are things out there in Italy? I hope Funke and the kids are very fine. If so, glory be to God Most High.
My thoughts go out to you today, as you celebrate your 42nd birthday. So happy am I that the Ayo I first knew as a starry-eyed secondary school student back in 1997 is now a full-fledged man and one of the world’s best players’ agents.
Yours is the kind of story that symbolises God’s hand of miraculous elevation.
Yes, indeed, The Almighty took you out of the miry clay and set your feet on solid rocks in just three years after we first met.
Like the Biblical Stephen, whose name your share, you have been able to dare where mere mortals fear. Unlike Stephen, though, you are still a living symbol of God’s continued manifestation of great things in people He chooses to unexpectedly and inexplicably favour.
That’s why your story has been filled with dramatic coincidences from the very first day that Ademola Adesanmi brought you to meet me in the newsroom at Complete Football’s headquarters in Okota area of Lagos.
I remember that day you and Demola came during the early days of Complete Sports newspaper; and the first day I set my eyes on you, I knew you were destined for greatness.
Afterwards, here are some of the biggest memories I have of our early days together –
- I splashed your story and photograph in Complete Sports to celebrate you as the skipper of Frankelson United FC of Surulere.
- You and your two best friends (Ifeanyi Emeghara and Raphael Omefe) introduced me to your then club proprietor, Alhaji Agboola Dabiri, at Farmers Football Academy of Surulere.
- You brought Kazeem Ayila, Sunday Stephen and my cousin, Femi Ajilore to join us at National Grassroots Dream Team.
- You willingly dumped Taribo West’s team, Tamuno Inaemi Nationale of Ikeja, because I advised you to do so, though they were being managed then by former national team goalkeeper, Joseph Dosu.
- You were part of the first set of ten National Grassroots Dream Team players to be invited officially to the Golden Eaglets’ camp at Kaduna in 1998.
- You and Charlibe Okolie (aka Use Your Body) became the first Grassroots players to travel abroad when one of my colleagues at Complete Football, Mark Ogagan took you to Jomo Cosmos FC of South Africa.
- You became the first Grassroots player to join a European club, when you signed for AC Regianna of Italy, after Barrister Churchill Oliseh took you and Chijioke Pascal Ejigbo there in the year 2000.
- In 2004, you became the first dieect product of National Grassroots Dream Team to play for the Super Eagles … followed by Kevin Onyekachi Amuneke, Kazeem Ayila, Sunday Stephen, Femi Ajilore, Ifeanyi Emeghara and Nnamdi Oduamadi.
Those are eight of the biggest memories I have about the beginning of your career under the banner of the National Grassroots Dream Team.
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Lest I forget, though, let me quickly add that I had to physically visit your mum at your childhood residence in the Anjorin area of Surulere in order to get her consent to allow you make the trip to Jomo Cosmos, considering that you had already gained admission to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
It could have been school for you had God not used me to intervene at that particular point in time.
That surely must have made you so appreciative that you decided to constantly think about your source and you regularly kept in touch.
Yes, I really enjoyed your profound loyalty during those early days of your career in Italy, where you ended up playing for 11 different clubs.
Here are some of the things you gave me personally and to our team as a reward for your breakthrough –
- You brought us the first set of imported jerseys for National Grassroots Dream Team.
- You gave a huge bonus of N1,000 for each player during one of our matches at Agege Stadium.
- You gave me my first gift of $100 from any player (which I was able to hand over to your name sake, Ayo Oluwafemi, in support of his trip back to South Africa)
- You provided another monetary gift that came just in time for us to rush our goalkeeper, Charles Njemanze, to hospital when he got seriously injured on his private part during one of our matches at Government College, Surulere.
- You paid the full rent for two years at a three bedroom flat in Surulere that was my first personal residence as a bachelor.
Wonderful memories all these are, coupled with the fact that you also brought into my life your younger brother, Akinola Makinwa (aka Manager), who keeps showing me gratitude in his own little way.
Although I’ve not heard from you in a very long while, though we could not keep the flag of National Grassroots Dream Team flying together, and you could not join the young boys who recently gathered funds to rent a place for me, I remember that ‘out of sight is not out of mind.’
So, I am satisfied with memories of the foundation of a successful football career and a pleasant future life that God helped me provide for you.
So, as you celebrate your birthday today, I doff my hat for you, Stephen Ayodele Makinwa (who my then colleague at Brila FM, Bimbo Adeola nicknamed ‘The Tiger Of Lagos’). I say many happy returns of this day. Hip hip hooray…
