From childhood, Effiom Otu-Bassey loved the round leather game – football. He would go far away from his parents’ home in Lagos to nearby school fields to join other boys showcasing their skills. Despite his small stature, his mother, Aye, said he was always the best in the game among his peers.

“He would train as if his life depended on it, and he even trained more than he studied,” she told Saturday PUNCH in an interview. “We were even scared he wouldn’t finish his primary education, but he finished and we pushed him to do his secondary education.”

Aye admitted that at first, it was difficult for her to support Effiom’s dreams of going pro because she believed football was just a hobby and not something one should take as a career. Thus, she said she made sure Effiom concentrated more on his books so he would become an engineer.

However, that never happened.

Effiom, the youngest of three boys, was only one year and six months old when his father, John, passed after a brief illness. Life, according to Aye, took a deep and quick dive.

“We went from eating twice to not eating at all. I lost hold of myself. My husband was the one who did all the work and brought in all the resources. His passing broke the family,” she said.

Effiom’s eldest brother, Lawrence, was around 18 or 19 years old. The second child, Bassey, was five years younger. Thus, they barely knew how to survive but had to with the turn of events.

So, when Effiom told his mother at age nine that he wanted to play football professionally, she said it was a rush of mixed feelings.

“I didn’t want him to suffer. He had known suffering for a major part of his life, so I tried all I could to dissuade him but when I saw that he was serious, I let him be,” she noted, in a wearied tone.

Effiom’s little beginning

Before he clocked 12, Effiom was already playing football with boys almost twice his age. He said he would play at the Surulere stadium and people would wonder how he had so much energy. It was during one of those games that a young man told him about the Kwara Football Academy.

He said he applied and was asked to join some boys coming from the commercial city to Ilorin. His coming to camp, he noted, was a dawn of a new beginning for him.

“I wanted to make the best out of my life but I didn’t know I would end up like this – dejected, depressed and lost,” he added.

Originally a striker, Effiom said he mastered the midfield and manned his position well such that his coaches took note of him. He said whenever he got on the field, the suffering his family faced back at home inspired him to perform above par.

Although his mother said she was not in support of his going to Kwara to pursue his dream, especially because of his young age, she gave him her blessings.

“All I wished for him was to become successful and lift us out of poverty. If anyone had told me football would turn my child into this new person, I would not have believed it,” she added.

Lawrence and Bassey, his brothers, stated that they worked as sales agents for different shops in order to make sure they sent some money to him for his upkeep in Kwara.

Interestingly, it didn’t take long before he was signed to play for the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Football Club (founded as Bukola Babes), where they noted he performed extraordinarily well.

A man, who said he coached Effiom at the time but refused to give his name for personal reasons, described him as a ‘spring’ on the field.

He noted, “He was the very best we had. He could man both the midfield as a central midfielder and still play as a striker. He also played right and left midfield sometimes. The entire team knew his prowess. When most players went to sleep after a day’s game, you would see Bassey on the field practicing.

“He became a shining example, especially because he was very young; maybe in his late teens. This was when football really had value in Nigeria, not now that everything has been turned to something else.”

NPL and journey to Norway

After playing for the Nigerian Premier League from around 2009 to 2011, Effiom, then aged 19, was signed to Lillestrøm, a Norwegian club.

Aye said she felt elated when she saw on TV that her teenage son had been signed to play for a foreign club. She said though she wasn’t too happy that he didn’t tell her before leaving for Norway, that didn’t deflate her excitement in any way.

“It was on TV I saw that my son had travelled. I wanted to be angry at him for not telling me, but I told myself it would not change anything. After a few weeks, I got a phone call from him, saying he was still settling down and he would send us some money. It was a really beautiful experience,” she noted.

According to NRK TV, a local Norwegian news platform, the 19-year-old midfielder, Effiom, was signed on Thursday, August 11, 2011. The club had before then sold the duo of Anthony Ujah and Nosa Igiebor, who played for them for a few seasons. Thus, LSK decided to bring in a Nigerian whom they hoped would complement the team.

After the usual rigorous medical test the previous day, Effiom signed the contract, which was to run through the 2014 season.

Described by Romanian sports analyst, Romerikes Blad, as a versatile midfielder from Bukola Babes, who played at a top level in Nigeria, Effiom was expected to be the gamechanger.

In an interview sighted by Saturday PUNCH, Effiom had said, “I enjoy both offensive and defensive tasks. I have mostly played centrally, but can also play on the edges. It is up to the coach where he wants to use me.”

According to several reports by the Norwegian local media, Lillestrøm was to pay Effiom between 1.5m kroner (about N75m today).

Having been on trial at the club for around a month, an investment sporting director, Torgeir Bjarmann, was said to be ‘very happy with his performance’.

In fact, Blad said Otu-Bassey proved to be a box-to-box player who was good on the ball and extremely quick to be a midfielder. “That makes him a young and exciting midfielder who will now have time to develop,” he added.

Another sports journal in Nigeria, All Sports, stated that Otu-Bassey had combined well with his teammates to ‘embarrass’ household names in the country. “He played a vital role as Bukola Babes set an eight-match unbeaten run and scored five goals before his departure for Norway,” it stated.

Season of transfers

Effiom was not the only one who shone at the time. Bassey Akpan, recognised as one of the best goalkeepers in the Nigerian Premier League at the time, who represented Nigeria at the FIFA under-17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago, also got signed to Heartland FC, Owerri, Imo State.

He had played for Bayelsa United and Kwara United before heading for Heartland. He was also in goal when Nigeria won the inaugural WAFU Cup and was a fringe member of the Super Eagles.

Oke Akpoveta of Warri Wolves was also tipped to replace Ujah at Lillestrom. Akpoveta, who is said to be one of the best stars in the NPL, got another chance to convince officials of Denmark’s biggest football club, Brondby IF, where he was billed to play forward.

Clash of agents

Meanwhile, after a few months of playing with Lillestrøm, Effiom noted that an issue arose between the agents who facilitated his moving to Norway and the receiving agent in Norway, under whose supervision he played.

He added, “For weeks, I practiced in fear, because I was always called aside to speak to my agent to clarify an aspect of the contract. I was barely 20 years old then. I didn’t know what was happening, but I knew there was an issue.

“Later on, they said the management was no longer pleased with my performance and my contract was terminated. It was like a movie to me and is still like a dream. The arrangement was for me to go back to Nigeria to clarify some things before I could come back on a clean slate with a better agent,” he said.

Effiom said he never disclosed all he was going through to his family, adding that he only sent them some money once because he was still ‘servicing’ some of the terms of the contract that remained unclear to him to date.

“I had to pay some taxes. I also had a lot of other things I was paying for, so when I was paid the 1.5m kroner, I might end up with just about 600 kroner or thereabouts,” he added.

He also noted that the management of Lillestrøm changed following the 2012 season and he was released from the team despite his contract.

Otu-Bassey had to return to Nigeria, with nothing.

In an interview with Saturday PUNCH, Effiom said, “I was duped. I was looking for a way to stay back in Norway but an agent duped me. That is why people will look at me and say I am mad. Am I mad? I am not mad. I am frustrated. They took all my money in Norway. They left me with nothing. I will go back to Norway. I will play for Europe. Nothing can stop me. After all, I am still training. I am still very good.”

Battle with frustration, depression

On Otu-Bassey’s return to Nigeria, he said he went back to Kwara to play for the Bukola Babes (now ABS FC), his team before leaving for Norway, but during the summer of 2013, he said something surprising happened.

“The management there said I would not play until my performance improved. I knew I was struggling with my game but that was because I was and I’m still depressed. I am frustrated. When I returned to Nigeria before the end of my contract, I almost ran mad. I thought my life was gone,” he said.

Meanwhile, his 70-year-old mother said she had no idea her son was back in the country until a neighbour said they saw him in Kwara State.

She added, “We reached out to him and confirmed that he was indeed in Nigeria. We asked him why he refused to reach out or come home in Lagos but he said nothing. He visited for a while but left again for Kwara State. We were even the ones who paid for his transport, his rent in Kwara and sent him money regularly for upkeep.

“After a while, we told him it wasn’t sustainable. His eldest brother, Lawrence, now 49, is into laundry. Bassey, now 45, the second child, is a hotel receptionist. He had to return to Calabar, Cross River, where we are from, to start his life afresh. I also left Lagos to be with him in his father’s family compound in Calabar.

“To date, he has not told us what happened in Norway. He simply became a shadow of himself. He talks to himself and has become so lean and malnourished because he always refuses to eat, bathe or change his clothes. He fights anyone who tries to help him or talk to him about his attitude. He has become a terror.”

A man, Chief Ekpenyong Bassey-Edem, who introduced himself as Effiom’s uncle, his father’s elder brother, said Effiom had become a totally different person from whom they used to know.

He said, “Effiom has really changed. He acts really strangely. We know he is not okay ‘upstairs’ but there is nothing we can do because we do not have the means to. We enquired how to check him into a psychiatric home for examination and treatment because we know something is really going on with him from his time in Norway, but how do we do all these without money?”

The chief claimed that Effiom woke up one night and chased his mother out of the house after a heated argument over a pot of food. Although the young footballer dismissed this claim, multiple sources, including a close associate of his, Samuel Ibanga, who also studied at the Kwara Football Academy, confirmed it, saying Aye now lives with her younger brother.

Ibanga stated, “Effiom chased the woman away. We don’t know what is wrong with him. That is why we are calling on everyone who loves football and has watched him play to come to our aid.”

When Saturday PUNCH put these claims to Effiom, the 31-year-old said he was perfectly fine, adding that all he needed was to go back to his passion – football.

“I am fine; I am just frustrated,” he insisted. “I lost everything. I am now an artist. I do petty jobs for people but I want to play football. All these things I am doing are out of frustration and depression. I was duped. I want to play football.”

Attempts to reach the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Professional Football League Club Owners Association of Nigeria, Chief Aloysius Chukwuemeka, who was touted to have some personal relationship with Effiom, for a comment proved abortive as calls to his mobile lines rang out while the text messages sent to him were not responded to as of press time.

Inter Miami and Argentina forward, Lionel Messi has revealed that he’s not bothered about winning the Ballon d’Or award.

Messi has already won the Ballon d'or seven times in the past – more than any other player in history.

In a press conference on Friday, August 18 ahead of Saturday’s Leagues Cup final against Nashville SC, the 36-year-old pointed out that he has won everything in football.

“I think I have said it many times during my career: the Ballon d’Or is a very important award because of what it means,” Messi said. 

“I was lucky enough to win everything in my career, and the World Cup was what I was missing. That’s why now, after Qatar, I’m thinking much less about that award. 

“Now I’m enjoying my moment. I’m not thinking about the Ballon d’Or. If it comes, fine; and if not, I am satisfied that I have achieved my objectives and…. now I have others with this club. We came here for this, to help the club win titles and on a personal level I’m also thinking about that,” he added