Renowned football agent, Muhammad Lawal who Manages Super Eagles and Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi among many other African players has revealed the burden in managing Nigeria players, thier adaptability to foreign leagues, thier committment which gives them an edge in drawing interests from Europe’s top clubs via chat with NSM.
Lawal in a fielded question and answer from Journalists about his leading client, Daniel Akpeyi, he said, “there’s interest on Daniel, I can confirm that definitely but unfortunately at this stage am not able to give the names of the club interested in him. Let’s wait and see how it progress. The PLS is trying to see if the league will resume or not so at this moment it’s not good to speculate about Daniel’s movement. We just want to focus on his career with Kaizer Chiefs. He just extended his contracts by two years. We don’t want to talk about offers or other clubs interested, we are focused on his current contract with Chiefs and I hope that people will respect that”.
“I don’t only manage Nigerian players, I have and represent players mostly from west Africa or should I say Africans generally. Some of the big names with me are players like Daniel Akpeyi, Nigeria number one, Ebi James Okosa, calling the Nigerian guys, Adamu Mohammed, Chukwuemeka ironuoye, Nura Abdullahi, Alhaji Jero, Sodiq Umar, Bastos quintes playing in Lazio in Italy and Musa Traore, Malian, playing with CSK Moscow, Adama Traore, playing in Sparta Moscow, Cisse Camara playing with CSK Moscow, Marat Abib, Senegalese playing with Locomotiv Moscow. You can do follow up as well and check on these players”.
Speaking about managing the female counterparts, Lawal revealed that he is only in charge of men for now, “I have been getting a lot of contacts with different female players and female footballer coaches contacting me to see of its possible to move one or two of thier players and it’s something am looking at but at this moment, am only focused only on men. My first step was working with only Nigerian players but gradually because I reside in South Africa which is a neutral place, I got the opportunity to be able to work with people from other parts of Africa easily and that’s how I managed to be an African agent”.
“To God’s glory, things have been going on very well, it’s not easy neither difficult. Other players are very easy to deal with unlike Nigerian players who are very difficult. It’s a very challenging job, you can’t go into it without been very prepared first. A lot of people look at it from the outside, when a player gets a very good deal, you think it’s all sorted and that’s why some people loose it at some point. Many agents in Nigeria will attest to this as the job isn’t easy and when you have players who aren’t straightforward, that makes it more difficult”.
“Nigerian players are very attractive because they can easily adapt in any part of the world while it takes some players from different African countries months to adapt. When at the right frame of mind, they work hard and progress very fast which is why Nigerian players attract interests from Europe. A lot of time, a Nigerian player only loose focus when he has made it to the top and it’s one area they are letting themselves down. They grow rapidly from the start to get the attention of everyone but when they get to the peak, they get distracted and no longer develop anymore, I can’t figure out the reason behind this, I don’t understand”.
“The difficult thing about Nigerian players is that they are never honest, you can take a player to Europe, they don’t know how much you have gone through for them, they are nothing when you helped them and when such player gets a chance, he’s no longer straightforward as he gets attention from other agents and clubs, people who wouldn’t have known him without you. He starts playing funny pranks, I wish they can be honest, loyalty is one thing lacking from Nigerian footballers,with few exceptions though, majority aren’t”
“A Nigerian player can deal with five agents at the same time, it doesn’t matter how much you do for them, they don’t count it. I have been in this path for long, the attitude, personality of Nigerian players is not just it”, Lawal lamented.
