Posted by By ONYEWUCHI NWACHUKWU on
Naturally Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt utility player, Victor Babayaro, would have been glad to be related to former Super Eagles' star, Celestine Babayaro for obvious reasons.
...Victor Babayaro speaks on relationship with ex-Eagles star
Naturally Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt utility player, Victor Babayaro, would have been glad to be related to former Super Eagles' star, Celestine Babayaro for obvious reasons.
Apart from making fame and fortune playing in Europe for big clubs like Anderlect, Chelsea and Newcastle, Celestine had a glorious career playing for Nigeria where he won the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Japan in 1993 with the Golden Eaglets and equally won gold at the Atlanta'96 Olympics.
Before now, there has been insinuations that both players were blood brothers since they share striking resemblance and at the same time bear the same surname. But all that argument was laid to rest when Victor declared to Sunday Sunsport in an exclusive interview that he was not in anyway related to Celestine, even though both of them were adopted by the same foster father, Alhaji Sabo Babayaro in the early 90s in Kaduna.
"No, I am not in any way related to Celestine Babayaro. We just played under Alhaji Sabo Babayaro. My original name is Victor Ofunne, and I am from Delta State. When I lost my parents some years ago, it was Alhaji Babayaro that adopted me. And to show my eternal appreciation to him just like Celestine did, I decided to change my name to Victor Babayaro.
"The stories about players being forced by Sabo Babayaro to bear his name are not true. He did not force us to adopt his name. We did it because we wanted it that way. I have just told you why I did it."
Failed Premier promotion
The battling midfielder believed that players of the Port Harcourt club would be held responsible for their failure to qualify to play in the Premier League this season.
Dolphins, relegated at the end of the 2006/07 football season, retained all but one of their players, Victor Ezeji, who went to Tunisia but failed to make it back to the top despite being highly rated to deliver.
Babayaro said that Dolphins had everything to qualify to play in the Premier League, but the players ruined the club.
We lost a lot of away games, which we should have won. We kept blaming the referees for our woes, but I would want us to ask ourselves if it was the referees that caused our problems or we the players that failed to do our best. When we fail to convert our chances in away games, we shouldn't blame the referees for that. Rather, we should blame ourselves for our failure to gain promotion back to the Premier League."
He also gave the management some knocks for not being able to play the politics of the game properly.
The players messed up by not being serious with the promotion race, and at the same time, I cannot exonerate the management from the failure, because they too failed to live up to the expectations. They did not do certain things right."
Romance with Dolphins
Victor joined Dolphins from Wikki Tourists in 2005 and since then, he has won the FA Cup twice in 2006 and 2007 and has played in the final of the CAF Confederation Cup in 2005. He, however, said he's not through with the club yet.
"I know what I want to achieve with Dolphins. I know what I have achieved but I still want to achieve more.
"I want to play in Europe, but I must wait for the right time in order not to go on a wild goose chase."
With Akwa United
Babayaro, alongside Kola Anubi and Chijioke Ejiogu, left for Akwa United briefly, but returned when they had problems with their transfer, a situation that led to their being arrested by the officials of the Uyo-based club.
Victor had said then that he wanted a change of scene, but he returned when Akwa could not come up with the transfer fees.
"The former Sports Commissioner in Rivers State, Chris Green, placed N10million on each of us and when it became clear that Akwa United were not up-coming, we returned to Dolphins to save our careers."
Victor has played in central defence, full back, defensive midfield, offensive midfield and in the attack, but he said his best position would ever remain the right-full back.
"I am very comfortable in the right-full back, but being a utility player, our coaches usually assign me to any position where the team have problems. So, I have played in the midfield and in the full back positions while playing for Dolphins, and I did very well in each occasion."
National team disappointments
On the flip side, despite his performances with Dolphins, he has yet to get a call up to play in any of the national teams since his last stint with the Under-23 team at the All Africa Games in 2003.
He was part of the Flying Eagles in 2002, but Morocco knocked out the Nigerian team in the qualifying rounds for the 2003 World Youth Championship. He had earlier played for the Under-17 team in 1999, and they as well, failed to make it to the World Cup.
"People say that I am good. I also know that I am good, but each time they invite players to the national team, they don't usually look my side.
"I don't believe there is anybody in Nigeria today playing in my position that is better than me, but it surprises me that the coaches always overlook me when it comes to national call ups. I was shocked that even when the Home-based Super Eagles were called to camp, my name was not on the list.
"I want the national team coaches, probably Shaibu Amodu and Okey Emordi to come and watch my game at the FA Cup competition and see if I'm not good enough to play for Nigeria," Babayaro concluded.