Friday Ekpo

Big things, they say, come in small packages. And this truism rings truer for Friday Ekpo more than most. Pint-sized, diminutive, dynamo, one-man battalion, solo riot-squad etc are some of the adjectives commentators used to describe him during the heydays of his reign as the most influential playmaker in the Nigerian league of the late 1980s and into the early 90s.

The good thing about the story of Ekpo’s road to the top is the fact that you can easily relate with it. He was your typical boy-next-door, kicking balls made of stuffed nylons as a toddler and playing set football with his mates inside his father’s compound in Surulere, Lagos where he grew up. Next was primary school and he was a member of the school’s football team. Same for secondary school. Sound familiar? It should, it is everybody’s story.

However, it was at the Premier Grammar School, Abeokuta that Ekpo’s career path took an upward trajectory. He led the team to many famous victories in the then Principal Cup competition and became an household name in Ogun State.

So, naturally, when the late billionaire Bashorun MKO Abiola was putting together a football team in his hometown, the popular and talented Ekpo was drafted into the team from National Sports Commission FC.

He had previously starred for Savannah Bank Football Club of Lagos. Ekpo remains grateful to the late philanthropist for his large heart.

“I remain eternally grateful to late Chief Abiola for all what he did for me. He was my godfather because he took me like a son and all through his lifetime, his doors where always open to me. I remember in 1991 when I came with Shell of Gabon to play Stationery Stores in an African Cup Winners Cup competition, I took out time to visit him at his home in Ikeja and he was very happy to see me. He said he knew I was going to score against Stores again (I had scored in the first leg against them in Libreville) but he appealed that I shouldn’t score more than one goal. He gave me a cash gift of N50,000 when I was leaving. That was the kind of relationship I had with him.”

The reason for Chief Abiola’s love for Ekpo may not be far-fetched. He, it was, who captained Abiola Babes to win the Challenge Cup in 1985 against BBC Lions, a first in the history of Ogun State. The following season he was on his way to join another high-flying team in the league: the great Leventis United of Ibadan team that held the domestic scene by the jugular.

That year, 1986, Ekpo was at the peak of his career as a goal-scoring midfielder. He was eventually crowned the highest goalscorer at season’s end, the first and only midfielder to win such an honour. He also won the League, Challenge Cup and Unity Cup for Leventis that season.

The journeyman in Ekpo was soon on the move again and this time he pitched his tent with Iwuanyanwu Nationale of Owerri, thus playing for arguably the best three teams of the 1980s.

Hometown club, Calabar Rovers was his next port of call from where he exported his skills outside the country by signing for Shell FC of Gabon in the 1989/90. In 1992, he was with Saudi Arabia’s Al Ghazi but returned home two years later to join Sharks FC of Port Harcourt.

He also played for Katsina United, Mobil Pegassus FC of Eket, BCC Lions of Gboko, Enyimba FC of Aba and Rangers International, where he finally called time on his illustrious football career.

Having played for a total of 14 clubsides, where would Ekpo think he played his best football and had the best time of his career?

“Every club was a phase in my development as a player. I contributed something fresh and learnt new things in each of those clubs but if I must chose, Leventis United was my best and that’s because the club was run like a truly professional side. And, possibly, because I won a lot of personal and team titles with them.

Abiola Babes will come a close second but I must say I enjoyed playing for each of the clubs I was fortunate to play for. Then I cannot forget my time with Shell FC in Gabon. Those people understood what it is to make an agreement and stand by it. Contracts were respected and I was paid $3000 after every match win or lose. There was mutual respect between players and coaches. In terms of professionalism, Shell FC were my best club, closely followed by Leventis.”

And, you want to know, which was his most memorable club game in all the clubs he played for? Without hesitation, he picks the titanic battle between his Leventis United side and NNB of Benin in the 1986 season.

“That match had all the trappings of a World Cup final game. It was the final game of the season and Humphrey Edobor and I were running neck to neck for who wins the highest goalscorer award. He was on nine goals while I was on 10. If he scores and I don’t, that means he will tie or even surpass my tally. The game was tough and both teams put up a beautiful display on the day.

“First half ended goalless but towards the end of the game, I got what I still consider to be a ‘miracle’ goal. As tall as Sunday Eboigbe was, I outjumped him and nodded the ball into the net. Little Ekpo, outjumping Eboigbe was nothing if not a miracle. The match was still tense but in the final minutes, I made a pass to the late Uwem Ekarika who scored to make it safe for us at 2-0. It was a match I cannot forget in what was an incredible season for me and Leventis.”

Would that goal, by any chance, be his best goal ever? No! His face lights up with the memories of the goal which he thinks was his very best.

“The goal I scored for Shell of Gabon in Lagos against Stores stood out as the best goal I ever scored in my entire career. Sometime I play it in my heart the way the goal came from the right to the left and I had to send the ball back the way it came with a curling banana kick to an impossible angle and the goalkeeper did not attempt to stop the ball as it sailed into the net. I’d scored a goal in the first leg in Libreville which we won 2-0 victory despite losing one penalty kick. My goal at the National Stadium, Lagos levelled scores at 1-1 and gave Shell of Gabon a 3-1 aggregate win to progress in the CAF Club Championship. I was the happiest man on earth. Even though, I was I playing against a team from my fatherland, I had to do my job as a professional.”

In between his forays at all these clubs, Ekpo also caught the eye of national team selectors and was invited to both the U-20 team and the Green Eagles in 1983. The junior team was preparing for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Mexico while the senior team was preparing for the 1984 Nations Cup in Cote d’Ivoire.

He turned the offer to join the junior team down even though he knew there was little or no chance of making the team to the Nations Cup given the calibre of players there. Nevertheless he opted to train with the big boys than play for the juniors and the experience helped lift his game.

However, strangely, it wasn’t until six years later, despite his unrivalled skills in midfield, before he became a regular feature in the senior national team under Paul Hamilton. This lacuna is still one of the unsolved mysteries of the game in Nigeria.

Former Green Eagles captain, Segun Odegbami could not help but wonder why Ekpo failed to get more caps in the national team. “Ekpo was in a class of his own, ahead of many other players in terms of his intelligent and graceful play, but not fancied for some reason by some national team coaches as their first choice,” Odegbami wrote in his treatise on 50 greatest footballers in 50 years of Nigerian Football in 2010.

Until he left the national team, Ekpo played a mere 15 games for the Super Eagles, a number which does not reflect his status, talent and influence of that period. His only Nations Cup appearance was at Senegal ’92 where he was on the bronze-winning team. In the third-place match, it was Ekpo’s goal that broke the deadlock against Cameroun and he also supplied the pass with which the late Rashidi Yekini scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory.

He’s philosophical about not playing more for Nigeria: “Everything has a purpose. Even if I had only worn the national team colours for just one day I would still be very happy, but I give God the glory that I played over 15 matches for Nigeria: four Nations Cup matches, three Nations Cup qualifying games and seven World Cup qualifying matches, 15 games in all. To God be the glory. I played all the qualifiers except for the game against Angola in 1989 (where Sam Okwaraji died). I consider myself very lucky to have played for Nigeria at all, given the number of talents that we have.”

Now that his playing days are behind him, does Ekpo look back in regret at any particular incident?

“Not personally. I do not have any personal regrets but I regret that Austin Okocha came when I had already left the scene. Nigerians missed an opportunity to see two great midfielders playing for the national team. If we had played alongside each other in the Eagles, I don’t know what would have happened. He was immensely talented just like me. It’s painful I didn’t play with him in the Eagles. If you ask me, I regret not playing alongside him in the Eagles. Okocha was a great player.”

Born for football, Ekpo still plays the round leather game although it is for pleasure now. “These days, play football for leisure and I’m a member of the All-Stars International in Lagos. Other members of the All-Stars include Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, Friday Elaho, Wasiu Ipaye, Teslim Fatusi, Victor Agali, Godwin Okpara, Gbenga Okunowo and sometimes Jay-Jay Okocha comes in to play with us. Mutiu Adepoju also comes around. Our All-Stars is actually star-studded.”