Dejo Fayemi, a former Nigeria international when the national team bore the Red Devils tag, tells FEMI ATOYEBI the gripping story of his exploits in football in Nigeria and in England and how one his grandchild is keeping the hope alive in the game
In the beginningIn 1949, the UK Tourists played with bare feet for Nigeria in a series of friendly matches in Britain. Teslim Balogun, Isaac Akioye, Olisa Chukwura, Isiaku Shittu, John Dankaro and Etim Henshaw were some of the big names in the team. Taking over from them were the Red Devils, who made their mark in African football. Among them was Dejo Fayemi, who scored on his debut when Nigeria beat Ghana. He repeated the exploit in Accra in the second leg after his first effort had earned him a £25 gift from the then Nigeria Finance Minister, Festus Okotie-Eboh.
Now 75, Fayemi was among the first set of Nigerians who travelled to England to play football just after Independence (in 1960). His journey to stardom started at six, soon after his father was transferred by the Nigeria Railway Corporation from Minna, where Fayemi was born, to Ibadan, his parents‘ native home.
At the Railway Staff Quarters in Dugbe, Ibadan, he joined a group of boys who played every evening as part of recreational activities among the children of the members of staff. But just when his skills were gradually being noticed, the nomadic life that his father‘s job entailed threatened to derail his developmental process. This was when the NRC transferred his father to Lagos in 1947.
“Sometimes you regret getting promoted, especially when each step takes you away from your family,” Fayemi, who credits his father as a man of strong character and understanding, says. “My father was a prominent employee of the NRC and he was constantly involved in tasks that took him around the country.
“After we returned from Minna, I was just settling down to the new life in Ibadan, which I was enjoying when my father was transferred to Lagos. I was excited to visit the place for the first time, but I was also sad that I would be leaving behind my friends, with whom I played football with every evening.”
Relief
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