Vincent Enyeama has the highest collection of trophies amongst Nigerian goalkeepers, winning the Nigerian league twice with Enyinba. He was also a two-time winner of the CAF Champions League before winning more trophies in Europe.
The former Lille shot-stopper capped it all with the AFCON 2013 trophy. Celebrated as one of the best goalkeepers ever on the African continent, Enyeama spoke exclusively to Afrik-Foot on his career, Nigerian football and his growing hospitality business
You were just talking about misquotes and media hypes around your name in your career which brings us to the story that flew around with the AFCON. The story was that you would work with the Super Eagles coach in Ivory Coast even when the Nigeria Football Federation never announced that. How did you take the news?
AFCON (is in the past) now; AFCON was played so long ago, like four months ago…
Did you say long ago? How? This is just the month of April…
(Laughter) Well, I am used to such things I don’t really bother myself about them anymore, as I have decided to face my hotel business with all my power and do less of football these days. But I understand such things. So many people are under pressure here and there, and some are clout-chasing so I understand all that.
Why have you not applied to work with the national team as many others have done? Are you not interested or have you quietly applied sometime and we are not aware of that?
No, no, no. It’s not that I am not interested; it’s just that I am not certified. For you to be able to coach the Super Eagles, you must be certified. That’s the minimum standard. That’s number one reason, and then for the fact that I have been very busy developing and managing my hotel has taken a lot of my attention, and that business is the most important thing for me now.
So football is like number two for me now unless just one day the Nigeria Football Federation says ‘Please come and share your wealth of experience in this area with these players’ then it becomes a different thing altogether. For now, I have to wait until I get the necessary certificate before I can say this is where I want to coach or the area where I can support the national teams.
Talking about certification, are you working at getting certified now here or in Europe?
Yes, I am running a couple of formation sort-out programmes in Europe.
Let’s go back in time, and that is your last days as the captain of the Super Eagles. You had issues at the training camp and you had to leave…
What time are you referring to?
I am talking about the last time under Coach Sunday Oliseh. If you had the chance to live that moment again, would you have reacted differently from the way you did that ended your time with the team abruptly?
If I have the opportunity to rewind the hands of time, I would react the same way that I did because I didn’t act out of context; it was an in-house situation and I responded. I can accept other things in life but I can never accept that one. So even if it happens again, I would react the same way. It wasn’t something that was bad. It is not proper to disrespect the dead.
But it’s a long time now and I have moved on. This thing happened like 10 years ago… that should be about 2015. Typically I don’t usually have problems with people. It was an incident that happened and I reacted and everybody reacted but somehow it went viral. But all the same I wouldn’t have handled it differently.
Why do most goalkeepers choose to be goalkeeper trainers with teams rather manage the entire team? If you get the chance to coach a team which way would you go? Be like a Dino Zoff that was a full manager of teams or run your expertise with the goalkeepers?
Whatever I am doing now is how to become a full coach of a team, and not just goalies trainer. If I have to be a goalies trainer then, it has to be with very young ones in junior teams because they are the ones you really teach. They are still growing and open to learning new things; these ones you can easily transmit what you want.
Some of the established goalkeepers are not so easy to manage because they already have fixed mindsets kind of. When you are called into the national team, you don’t really coach them but manage them. That’s why most trainers usually introduce exercises that would keep the goalkeepers very fit as they already are formed and firm in other areas.
It will be nice to manage the full team because as a goalkeeper you always have a full view of the field and what everyone is doing at any given time. And that’s why most goalies make good coaches and most midfielders do well too as we can see in (Pep) Guardiola, (Xabi) Alonso, Xavi. They were all midfielders.
Are you engaged with any club in Europe maybe partially or some other ways, or you are facing your hotel business wholly?
For now it’s my hotel business that is in my head. It’s just a bit of internship with clubs that I do now. I get opportunities for three weeks or one month programme here and there and then I return to my hotel business.
Okay, let’s talk about this hotel business. The way you have fully logged into it shows you have been on this plan as a player. I guess the life after retirement of some older players despite earning so much helped you plan.
Hmmm, well I have been staying in five-star hotels right from the time I joined the national team in 2002. I began to think about owning one as I continued to move from one hotel to another. I was already into the hospitality business while I was still playing; a whole lot of estate management while I was still playing.
So I have found ways of doing this business while still active as a player. It’s just that I finished and went full blown into the hospitality business.
It has nothing to do with the way any retired player has lived or otherwise. No, I have been working on it for a long time. The fact is that I have always had it in mind and had to fund it with my savings for the rainy days.
We see you all the time on the internet sampling one meal from the hotel. Is the same one in Uyo or do you have another in France? And where can we say you are based now?
No, it’s the same hotel in Uyo. I am based in Nigeria now but my family in France. It’s like 60 percent of time in Nigeria. It’s like three months in France and one in Nigeria and then one month over there three months in Nigeria. I need to grow my business here properly; it needs my attention.
How would you encourage active players with such retirement plan? How is the business doing; what are the strong points of the hotel?
Vinpy Hotel is a very good one, and we offer quality service like the Five-Star hotels do. We go extra mile to give every client individual attention that is specific to their needs.
I’m asking for a word for active players looking for what to retire to…
Oh yes, I would encourage them to go into a business like this. It is a very good business but it is so time-demanding and cash-demanding too. My advice for them is to begin to plan now, but it may not really be into the hospitality business but in other good areas like real estate; something they really have passion about.
Let’s get back to football. Nigeria coach left after the AFCON in Ivory Coast and the Super Eagles have been without a substantive manager. Is this okay or we are beginning to wait too long?
Hmmm, this type of question…the Nigeria Football Federation members, I believe, know exactly what they are doing and the right time to announce a coach. So we can’t just say they are waiting too long. There must be criteria they have set; there are some experiences they may have in the past that they really want to avoid this time.
I believe they know exactly what they want; they have enough intelligence, exposure and experience to pick who would suit the team and the country at this period. They won’t recruit anyone who does not meet with exactly what they want; I believe they know exactly what to do.
You featured richly in the Nigerian league, winning the league twice with Enyimba and then the CAF Champions League. So what advice can you give to the players, team and the federation to make the Nigerian league better and more attractive?
There’s a whole lot to talk about. If you want to give Nigerians this kind of advice, you will need to write an entire book. Nothing less would do. A talk can’t do justice to the long list. That’s the truth.
I believe they know what to do. The other day I did say that football should not be left in the hands of government as we have it now. Government clubs being the majority cannot help us grow. Rather we must find good ways of encouraging and bring in the private sector.
If we should show good sense of responsibility and accountability, we can get in big shots like (Aliko) Dangote, Elumelu, First Bank, Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia and others to come in as serious shareholders. There are huge corporations like Bua Cement; a company like Chivita, for instance, should have a role in community football management. There are a lot to be done from investment, marketing to player management, insurance and a whole lot and we can actually achieve these.
