{"id":187307,"date":"2022-02-22T00:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T05:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/?p=187307"},"modified":"2022-02-22T00:59:00","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T05:59:00","slug":"struggling-olympic-medallist-finds-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/struggling-olympic-medallist-finds-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling olympic medallist finds help"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Nigerian Olympic gold medalist who fell on hard times has found sympathy among some of his successful compatriots who sent him over $5,000 to help out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A one-time member of the Atlanta 96 Olympic Gold medal-winning Dream Team, former Super Eagles soccer player Kingsley Obiekwu<\/a>, 47, said he became a commercial transport driver to support his family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His promising career was cut short at the age of 30 due to a heart-related ailment. Currently, he manages Ingas FC – a team featured in Nigeria’s Nationwide League One.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media went into meltdown after learning the national icon now works as a transport driver in Enugu to earn a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe story is absolutely true, there is no lie about it. I had to open up on my situation to people because I needed help,\u201d Obiekwu told the sports website GOAL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was not an easy thing to do, but I had to summon very great courage because things are very tough.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kingsley
Kingsley Obiekwu at his home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“After I retired from soccer in 2004 and finished my coaching course in the UK , I returned to Nigeria in 2008, but no Premier League Club accepted me. They said I was not widely known as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

African coaches face racial and ethnic discrimination from African leagues which prefer to hire white coaches from Europe – even those with a spotty record of wins in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite earning gold for Nigeria at the Olympics, Obiekwu was only able to find a coaching job through a friend at a grassroots soccer academy in the eastern city of Enugu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I earn 50,000 naira [$120] in my current job at the amateur soccer club, [but] I have a family with four of my children in the university, the pay is not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Instead of folding my hands and complaining, I decided to become a transport driver to get small money to support my family.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He thanked Super Eagles captain Ahmed Musa who sent two million naira after hearing Obiekwu\u2019s story. \u201cThis means a big deal to me, and I am very thankful for his show of love,\u201d added Obiekwu. “I am honored that Captain Musa and other Nigerians home and abroad came to support me – they remembered their heroes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a pointer that there are good Nigerians everywhere who are willing to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa Global News Publication <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Nigerian Olympic gold medalist who fell on hard times has found sympathy among some of his successful compatriots who sent him over $5,000 to help out. A one-time member of the Atlanta 96 Olympic Gold medal-winning Dream Team, former Super Eagles soccer player Kingsley Obiekwu, 47, said he became a commercial transport driver to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[271,15],"tags":[470],"class_list":{"0":"post-187307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest","8":"category-news","9":"tag-soccer"},"yoast_head":"\nStruggling olympic medallist finds help - Africa Global News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Nigerian Olympic gold medalist who fell on hard times has found sympathy among some of his successful compatriots who sent...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/struggling-olympic-medallist-finds-help\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Struggling olympic medallist finds help - 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