Life as a footballer, despite the fame and fortune that comes with it, may not just be a bed of roses after all. But one could also say that every dark cloud has a silver lining, as Eddy Dombraye recounts the bittersweet experiences of his playing career.
He spoke to sports247 in an interview “My best moment I will say was in 1998 when I was with Iwuanyanwu Nationale. I was in real goal scoring form. I was invited to the Flying Eagles, the under 23 team and the Super Eagles at the same time just in the space of two weeks. It was really big honour and privilege for me to be invited to the National teams.”
When asked how he felt getting to that height in his career and if it was quite easy as he had thought it would be “We grew up with the mentality that you need to know somebody in the then NFA to be able to have a call to the National team. So coming from a poor background, it was a shocker and a surprise to be invited to all three national teams in the same month.” Dombraye said.
Has he told his sweet stories, he also told sports247 about his worst experiences he had as a footballer.
“My saddest moment was when I had an operation on my knee. I didn’t play for about a year and half. It was really sad and difficult. I added a lot of weight because I was not moving a lot. It was a painful and sad experience.”
As if that’s not enough, Dombraye also gave an insight into how he missed the chance of playing in the Brazilian professional league because of popular saying in Nigeria. “Another sad moment for me was when I went to Brazil on a playing tour. We played against few clubs and we went back to Poland and there was a talk of me going to a club in Brazil called Curitiba but I totally refused because in Nigeria we heard that you can’t go to Brazil and make it because they just only know how to play. I just turned it down but later on, in life, I realised that was a mistake on my path.”
Dombraye played in Nigeria with Premier Breweries, Iwuanyanwu Nationale and Bendel Insurance. he moved to Poland in 1998 to play with Ekstraklasa club. He also moved in 2002 to play with OFK Beograd. In 2003, he came to Ukraine and played with FC Volyn Lutsk and a host of other clubs in Europe.
