“I’m heading to Saudi Arabia where I’ll be earning $33 million (N52 billion) a year because, in the end, trophies won’t put food on my table, and the people urging me to stay in Europe won’t be there to support me if I end up broke after my career.

I was born to very poor parents in Lagos, in a place called Olusosun. Life was so tough there that if we managed to have breakfast, there was no guarantee we’d have lunch or dinner. We never had three square meals a day. Things got even worse when I lost my mother at around nine years old. Three months after her passing, my father lost his job, which was our only source of livelihood.

From then on, life became a struggle for me and my siblings. We took to selling water on the streets of Lagos to survive, but even that was just living hand-to-mouth. Life in Africa doesn’t come with any promises. No one where I grew up would sit you down and tell you to believe in yourself, or that they believed in you. You had to be your own counselor. My family didn’t support my football ambitions at first—they saw it as a hobby, not a real job. But I knew football was my only hope, so I gave it everything.I’m

I play hard because football changed my family’s story and gave us the good life we have now. I’m playing for money, not for trophies, because my family needs financial security. That’s why I’m going to Saudi Arabia to earn $33 million (N52 billion)—because my family’s well-being depends on it.”

VICTOR OSIMHEN

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