3 Legal Ways to Make Money Being A Football Celebrity Impersonator

 All my life, I thought impersonation was a grave crime, until I read Ginny Soskey’s article “Almost Famous, The Business of Being a Celebrity impersonator.” It was something so different, something way out of the box.

It wasn’t that kind of story about Cynthia Okara, how she got connected to Kenneth Omeruo on his Facebook page and they began serious dating online. Then the Super Eagles defender wanted her to come over to London for summer.

It was like a dream come through when Cynthia received documents and photographs of the hotel where they would both stay together for a two weeks holiday.

All she needed do was to transfer £412 British Pounds Sterling as he requested to do some paperwork for her. Cynthia later found out it wasn’t Omeruo after all. Gush, she had been duped by some ‘Yahoo-yahoo boys!’

No this is different. It’s the legal way to impersonate a celebrity for regular cool cash. I hope ‘Yahoo-yahoo boys [internet-savvy fraudsters] read this and change their acts to become ‘legalized impersonators.’ This is the reason I decided to write this article. Of course, it could just be a new career opportunity for someone else.

The Different Type of Football Celebrity Impersonators

When you think of football celebrity impersonators, you probably think they all have to look, walk, act and talk just like the person they’re emulating. Well it turns out , you have several  different options.

1.     Tribute Promoters: These folk may not necessarily look or sound like the footballer they’re impersonating, but their work is to promote or pay some kind of homage to the football star.

Colins Abaraha impersonated Victor Moses, the Super Eagles star who plays for Chelsea, but now on loan at West Ham. He created Victor Moses fan page on Facebook and got over 3.5 million people to ‘like’ the page. A subscription far larger than what Victor Moses himself could gather on his profile page.

Abaraha devoted himself to following Moses. He watched his games and interview and updated his pictures and videos on the page. Reporting his status, especially when he performed so well as in when he score goals.

When the fan page became robust enough, Abaraha contacted Moses and let him know he was impersonating him and showed him what he had been able to achieve for him. Moses got excited and quickly offered Abaraha to become his Media and Personal brand manager. As I write, Abaraha is on the monthly pay roll of Victor Moses.

2.     Look A Like:  The impersonator is the spitting image of the football star he is emulating. But he may not sound or acts like the celebrity. He is typically booked only to pose for photo shots.

In his whole time at Oko Polytechnic, Louis Maduako was told how much he looked like the Nigerian football legend Nwankwo Kanu… but he didn’t do anything about it until one day, he was invited to sit as a proxy for Kanu; in an occasion where the organizers have publicized that Kanu will be the guest of honor. Louis was offered Fifty thousand Naira and assured that he wasn’t going to say anything, just photo shots with major personalities.

Since then Louis  career has taken off so much ao that he flies all over the world to impersonate Kanu and inspire crowd of raving fans, especially those in orphanage homes and refugee camps across Africa.

3.     Star Imitator: These impersonators go all out … they walk, talk, act and look just like a particular football celebrity. When in costume they’re entirely in Chararcter.

Ephraim Bukata took up the career of a football freestyler after he had watched several video clips of Austin Okocha and trained for several years to be like him.

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