Former Nigerian international Mutiu Adepoju says he would have been a basketball player if he had not ventured into football.
Headmaster as he was fondly called in his playing days with the senior national team of Nigeria Super Eagles disclose this in a chat with newsarena.ng at the Jide Adesina female Basketball tournament held at the Lekan Salami stadium Adamasingba, Ibadan.
The former Real Sociedad midfielder revealed that basketball being his second game after football, might have also made his female children develop interest in the slam dunk game .
“If I did not play football, yes, I might play basketball but right from my young age it was football I really liked, and that was what I chose when I was young and I played it to the highest level.
“Now, my children play basketball, why won’t I support them, I mean, it’s sports and we’re just trying to encourage our youths to go into sports because it’s very healthy, aside from the financial gains of sports, I’ll always encourage everybody to do sports.
Speaking on the Nigeria-Libya saga where Nigeria’s super Eagles players were strander at Libya’s airport, Adepoju said holding a football team for long hours at the airport was uncalled for, saying the Nigerian team made the right decision by returning home.
He said “what should they have done, human life is very important, if they had gone ahead to play the game, after twenty hours without rest and food, and if someone had slumped, maybe we would be saying, maybe they should not have played it. But anybody that wants to, let them take the three points, it is not important to me personally than the lives of the people involved.
Adepoju expressed displeasure at the present state of sports development in the country, hence charged the government to do better.
While he encouraged the youth to go into sports based on their health and economic benefits, he called on the government to emulate other developed countries in creating an enabling environment for sports to thrive in Nigeria.
Recall Adepoju a former shooting stars sports club of Ibadan player also stared for Real Madrid B side where he scored 27 goals in 67 appearances.
