He started from a humble beginning in Lagos, Nigeria but his passion for football led him to an academy in Abuja from where he moved to Italy with Serie A outfit, Spezia to Belgium with Club Brugge and back to Italy again.
This is the football journey of Venezia forward, David Okereke who is currently on vacation in Nigeria, on the cause of hunting for football talents in the grassroots and giving them opportunities to showcase themselves.
BG Sports Agency and Dream 2 Reality in conjunction with David Okereke brought a five days scouting tournament to Lagos to set up to help the upcoming footballers market themselves. which started Monday(today) 20th June, 2022.
After the conclusion of the first day of the tournament, David sat with Sports247 Nigeria in an exclusive interview to talk about his background, the motivation behind his sponsorship of the tournament and his future.
From Belgium to Venezia and with over 32 games and 7 goals recorded in your name, how would you describe your season?
“I had aims for the season but I couldn’t achieve them all but I can only thank God for everything, he has the plans and the final say. It wasn’t that bad, I expected more but I’m still happy with what I did.”
While speaking on his future, the 24-year-old forward disclosed that he will not be returning back to his Belgian club, Club Brugge.
You are currently on loan from Club Brugge, are you returning there?
“No, I’m not returning there. I was supposed to have already resume with them but I received an email but I told them there is no need.”
You finally found yourself vacationing in Nigeria and there is an existing saying that says all work without play makes David(laugh) this time around a dull boy!
You are back in Nigeria and the next thing you are doing is you are thinking of getting players out of poverty. At least for them to be useful to their family. What is the motivation behind this hunting program you decided to sponsor?
“We have always craved for an opportunity to be able to show ourselves so I have the opportunity to do something like this with brother I.K. We decided we have this chance to do something, we should do something for grassroots football.
We believe when people have the opportunities, they can also showcase themselves because we know it is not easy for the family.
It is not always about giving them, we figured out we can give them an opportunity to showcase themselves so that they can go out to struggle for themselves.
Day one, With this performance you’ve seen, you still believe that talents are dying in the country.
I think we have a lot of talents, it is always different when there is a lot of pressure. you have to show yourself, and do certain things, I think this is the most difficult part. If you can do it, I believe you can do it. We just have to give them chances, it is still a long way to go and I hope in the future they can come out of their shell and showcase themselves.”
David went further to talk about his upbringing noting that it wasn’t an easy one but he got to where he is now because of his hard work.
One would say, a life with different struggles is like not getting to where you are going. Can you share with us a little bit about your background before you finally find yourself in Europe?
“It’s a long story but I will just cut it short. In our neighbourhood then, it was really easy but by the grace of God and hard work because what I believe is that if you work even sometimes you don’t get fortunate to get what you deserve but the only thing you have to do is to keep working on yourself.
My childhood wasn’t really easy but with God’s help, I ended up in an academy in Abuja and I didn’t stop there because I believe in life sometimes, you have to start the hard way and these ways you can learn.
I believe sometimes it is better to start things in the hard way than the easy way because when you get it in the easy way, you won’t be able to value everything you have achieved. My story wasn’t easy but I thank God for it,” he concluded.
The five days scouting tournament will run till Saturday, 25th June, 2022 at the Legacy Pitch, Surulere, Lagos State.
