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Teenage goal machine Excell Agada was left in tears after his father torpedoed a Swedish chance in a desperate bid to stop the “predatory” agents.
On the surface it seems like a case of a blocked future, but on closer inspection it seems more like a case of a determined father protecting the interests of his young and talented son.
Just over a year ago, 17-year-old forward sensation Excell Agada returned to Nigeria with a golden ticket, a proposed professional contract from a Swedish club. But instead of a hero’s welcome and the popping of champagne corks, the young prodigy was met with a wall of cold, hard steel from his father.
Excell’s father, a respected attorney, flatly refused to sign the paperwork proposed by the agency that closed the deal, effectively ending the deal.
The drama began when some European agents approached the tall forward, hungry for a breakthrough at the tender age of 16. His father, a strict disciplinarian, had promised that the player should finish high school in Nigeria before thinking about traveling abroad to play football.
The naïve striker will later be manipulated by agents who used the influence of a close relative to lure him, despite strict orders from his father and the deliberate withholding of his international passport, Excell, with the help of his relative who traveled outside Nigeria.
Using back channels, they managed to obtain travel documents and took the player to travel through various Scandinavian countries to show off their skills to European explorers.
“They went behind my back,” his father told our reporters, his voice shaking with a mix of fury and protective love. “I withheld his passport because I wanted him to concentrate on his studies and complete his basic education before traveling anywhere. He wasn’t even old enough to make his own decisions but they took him away from under my nose without the slightest consent, as if he were a commodity.”
When Excell returned home, dazzled by the prospect of European football and with a lucrative contract offer, he expected his father to be proud and overjoyed. Instead, the lawyer received the news with an absolute and uncompromising “NO.”
Even when officers offered the family significant sums of money, an offer that could have changed their circumstances, the father remained steadfast.
“Money doesn’t buy everything,” the father said. “If these agents can take my son without my knowledge and permission, what kind of people are they? I don’t trust them. I will not leave my son tied to individuals who operate in the shadows. He is a child, not a pawn.”
The officers involved are said to have been stunned by the rejection, but the elder Agada remains impassive. He gave his son a chilling ultimatum: cut all ties with them immediately, finish your high school education, and wait for the right time and opportunity.
For now, the prodigy is back to square one, left to ply his trade in the difficult terrain of Nigeria while the initially proposed deal gathers dust in some drawer. Rumors are currently circulating that another Swedish club is showing interest in the striker.
It remains to be seen if this was a case of a father saving his naive son from the underbelly of football, or if it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he missed. One thing is certain: Excel Agada’s path to stardom hit a huge family-sized roadblock and time will tell if another opportunity will materialize.
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