"Life After Sports Shouldn't Be Difficult"- Ex Nigerian International, Sam Sodje

Sam Sodje belongs to a rare breed of Nigerians. Apart from coming from a family of accomplished sportsmen, he achieved the dream of almost every Nigerian footballer, lacing boots for the Super Eagles.

Like Emmanuel and Patrick Okala, Segun and Wole Odegbami, Emma and Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, Sam Sodje's elder brother played for Nigeria before he got into the spotlight. 

Nigerians who saw England-based Efe Sodje play for Nigeria at the 2002 World Cup were delighted to see his brother Sam in the Super Eagles.

Sodje, who made his Eagles debut in November 2005, has a new project in his hands for the benefit of retired sportsmen. The project was conceived when the former Portsmouth defender saw the plight of some old sportsmen who are languishing in poverty.

In this chat with The Anchor Online’s WOLE ADEJUMO, he spoke on his project tagged “Life After Sport”, the match-fixing allegation in which he was named as well as the appointment of Sunday Oliseh as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles. Excerpt:

How does it make you feel when you look back and remember your family has produced a number of notable sports men, including two Nigerian internationals?

I have to say thank God we are blessed and not just for the ones that have done great in sports but as a family we thank God because we are definitely blessed in whatever we do, also we can't leave out our wonderful parents who gave us the platform to succeed as TeamSodje and we still have more sport grandkids coming through, just like my little nephew who last month just signed a 5 years deal with Manchester City. 

With the number of sportsmen in your family, one would be tempted to ask if it was planned by your parents or it just happened that you all loved sports. 

I won't say it was planned, I will say it's more of a sporty gene as my father was in he's days a great football player so good they named him "the wizard of the field" back in the village and my mum was good at athletes so I think it came from that. 

A few years ago, there was this match-fixing allegation in which your name came up, how did you feel when the allegation came up that you got paid to collect a red card? How did your club then take it? 

Yeah it was a massive story couple of years ago about the allegations of match fixing which the truth came out at the end that it was a proper setup by a UK journalist who then was working for the Sun Newspaper to sell the story and papers and who was later caught for all his wrongdoings that he did over 30years of operations, I'm delighted that's now in the past and I have moved on
The club I was playing for at the time later found out it was a sting on me and my family by these criminals that will do anything to sell papers. I had the last laugh so that's what matters, I've moved on since then.

You have stated that it was a frame up, who was behind it and what reasons do you think anyone has to frame you up? 

I was definitely framed up and the right word for what they did is called "entrapment" and those that know their law will know entrapment is a crime The Sun Newspaper UK was behind the crime and the reason is just to sell stories. Unfortunately, I was picked because it will sell better with a formal Premier League and highly respected footballer from a famous footballing family so I fit in perfectly with what will sell their paper but guess what? God win.

It was alleged that you admitted that the fee was £70,000. Did you really admit? 

Get you facts right before asking questions because this question sounds silly and makes you look a bad journalist but good you used the word “alleged” so I will let you off. To answer your question, it is NO, I didn’t. 

As a former Super Eagle, what do you think is the problem with Nigerian football? 

Lack of Players welfare and having opportunists that are fans of foreign football clubs run our football. That is the problem with our lovely Nigeria football.

Stephen Keshi was recently sacked and Sunday Oliseh is replacing him as the Head Coach of the national team, what is your opinion about the decision? 

If the NFF thinks it's a right decision to sack Keshi then great, I will go with that and as for Sunday Oliseh I know him well and we are having a great man and a wonderful coach but I hope and pray he stays himself and work the way he knows best and not let the system change his ways. But on this one, I will say well done to the NFF. They made a great choice.

Nigeria went down badly in the latest FIFA ranking, what do we need to do to improve our lot as far as soccer is concerned in Nigeria? 

The NFF has just taken the first step to correct that, so let's all support, hope and pray that the better days of Nigeria football comes round again.

So what are you doing presently?

I have a project, “Life after Sports” and it is because we have had enough of bad stories about our heroes and upcoming stars struggling after football or sports and how it would be okay to be an ex-footballer or sportsman.

When do you plan to officially unveil the project and how will sportsmen and women be able to key in and benefit from it, especially those who have retired?

We are not far from unveiling the project as my team and I have been working on this for a couple of years now and when the time is right, the awareness will be made. It is built to benefit sport men and women and also those that are retired and we will make sure we make the word ex-footballer/Sport people cool and acceptable. 

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