Which Nigerian Footballer Did You pretend to Be When Playing with Fellow Kids At the playground?
We put out the question to Kids between age 6 and 15 years in major cities in Nigeria - and couldn't believe what these respondents said
Only about 5% of the Kids majorly around Lagos and the Eastern part of Nigeria said they pretend to be Jay Jay Okocha anytime they hold the ball to dribble and perform some sort of stunts in the playground.
About 3% kids said they see themselves as Nwankwo KANU when they make brilliant moves or play trick by swaying fellow kids or misleading them to go the other side when dribbling with the ball.
About 2.7% kids majorly from Kano, Kaduna and Plateau said they see themselves as Ahmed Musa, as they always aim to outrun their fellow kids with speed as well as when they score such flashing goals like the ones Musa scored during the last two world cups.
Kelechi Okoye, 15 years young goalkeeper from Enugu led the choice of about 0.5% kid goalkeepers who said they see themselves as Vincent Enyeama as they made attempt to stop any ball shot at their goal post.
There are spatial of choices for several Nigerian footballers made by about 9% respondents.
Surprised, most young kids didn't see any Nigerian footballer as their role model. Apart from Ahmed Musa, no substantial number of kids choose any Nigerian footballer currently playing, not even the popular Victor Osimhen or Wilfred Ndidi inspired the kids here in Nigeria.
Over 19% kids cut across the country said they pretend to be Cristiano Ronaldo in the playground.
Yet another surprise was 15% of the kids, mostly between 6 and 11, said they pretend to be one of the players in the cartoon series Super Strikers.
A little over 12% said they pretend to be Lionel Messi. While Vincent Kyranka, a young defender from Minna led over 9% kids who said they pretend to be the Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos.
By my own guess, I would have thought more kids will pretend to be some top performing African stars like Sadio Mane, Mohammed Salah, Fredrick Anbumeyang, but most of our respondent didn't see them as their role model.
