Q: You’ve always been associate with sports, please give us a brief background on your journey in sports?
LANRE: My journey in sports started in primary school. I tell people all the time that I didn’t start off as a good player, I think I was just average but for some reason the coaches always kept on picking me. I remember we had played an inter-house sports competition in primary school and I got selected to the All-Star team to play against the school team. I don’t think I played well during the match, but the coaches called me up to represent the school team and I remember we had a tournament in St. Saviours Ikoyi, which I performed okay in.
The actual transition to knowing that I was a good player was when I went for my interview at Whitesands School. Part of the interview process entails a football match with all of the other prospective students. Being selected out of about 100 kids gave me the belief and feeling that I was actually special. From there I became footy crazy, to the point where during class I would be drawing up tactics/starting line- up for the game ahead. It got to the point where my mum had to come into the school to request that I stop playing football as it was affecting my grades. Beyond football, I started to realise my sporting capabilities during my early teens where I won Junior Sportsman of the Year in GS3 and High Jump competition.
Q: At what point did you start considering a professional career in football?
LANRE: I started playing with clubs around the National Stadium (in Surulere). In SS2, the academy I was playing for at the time was being screened for potential Under- 17 players to represent Nigeria. My mum rejected the idea, which didn’t upset me too much as I was going to England soon afterwards, where there are more opportunities to go pro. In hindsight I should have gone for the trial as it was a direct opportunity to make it to the National team. Whilst at England, I went to Malvern School, where most the focus was mainly on education as opposed to having a professional career so that hampered my chances. After a stint at the Bobby Charlton Academy, I joined to a semi-pro team in Northampton while I was at the university there.
Q: What are the major differences between playing football in Nigeria and playing in England?
LANRE: Coming to England gave me the full understanding and value of a pre-season, and in truth it was a big shock to me. At Whitesands we never really focused on fitness and running whilst in England, even in comparison to other European countries, there was a big emphasis on fitness and training drills surrounding physical performance.
Q: Anyone that knows you at any capacity knows that you’re a practicing Christian, how much has your faith helped you through this journey so far?
LANRE: A lot of good things that have happened to me are put down to the grace of God in my life because it often occurs that I meet someone that wants to help me, they see my talent and capabilities and want to help me progress. I try to go to church at least twice a week and my faith has helped me massively on this journey. Usually people tend to write aspiring players off if they have not made it professionally by the age of 22/23, but I always share this story of favour in my life.
Following a church service that I attended at my local parish in 2017, I had some introductory conversations with the priest after the service as I was a new member. Whilst asking me what I did in life, I explained to the priest that I was football player looking for a club. As we were talking a gentleman walked past, the priest stopped him saying “Peter, meet Lanre! Lanre, meet Peter! Peter please let’s see what we can do for him”. Peter being Peter Taylor, former England player and caretaker manager, whose son owed Gillingham at the time. I dropped my CV at Peter’s place the next day and the club invited me over for a trial!
Q: Talk us through the trial process at Gillingham
LANRE: I was the first person to get to the training ground, getting there 2 hours before the session started. First session I bossed it, winning headers against 6 foot plus guys. When you take in consideration my height it doesn’t make any sense! After we finished with the usual drills the players, we moved on to an 8-a-side game where the players were given the choice to pick their teammates. Believe it or not I was the first player picked by the players- which gave me a natural confidence boost.
My initial 1-day trial was extended due to my performance at training. To get that opportunity at age 27 was unheard of. The major mistake I made was not getting adequate rest following the training session, I went for a birthday celebration and didn’t get enough sleep for my body to recover. So during the second session the following day I pulled my quad during training. By the time I had fully recovered the coach at the time of my trial was sacked and Peter Taylor himself leaves the club. The new coach was going with a different direction with a different set of players and unfortunately, I wasn’t in his plans.
Despite the setback I had always told myself that regardless of how the pro career goes, I would always remain involved in football at some managerial capacity. Simply because football will always be my passion. You can wake me up at any hour of the day and I will be willing to talk about football, be involved in the business side of things.
Q: What made you decide to get into talent management and start PlugSports?
LANRE: PlugSports started in 2018. I had been having conversations with my best friend, Asa Asika, who is the co-founder of Plug NG. Naturally we hang out together all the time and I see a lot of the people the likes of himself and Davido are exposed to (fellow entertainers and sports stars). It then got me thinking that we could do something for these sports stars, already knowing that a lot of them don’t have good contracts and are under- represented in their industry. For example, Nigerian players are not treated/paid adequately by clubs and corporations when compared to European players and I believe they should be on par and thus treated better. From speaking to some of these stars, these contracts only contain football boot provisions, or their contracts are merely verbal contracts. Asa and I sat down and discussed how we could change the landscape and provide better security and representation for these sports stars, using our experience, exposure and network. From there we started reached out to people to join PlugSports and December 2019, we announced our first signing Henry Onyekuru, who had just won the Turkish league with Galatasaray in the summer of that year. He’s a cool player with a natural superstar aura. The announcement had an instant impact on his career, with a large increase of followers on all his social media accounts. This has led to a host of other footballers engaging with us, like Asisat Oshoala, with an interest to joining the PlugSports family.
Q: With the likes of Asisat Oshoala and Tobi Amusan on the team, it certainly looks like Plug Sports have the strongest women roster in the sports management scene in Nigeria, was this a targeted move by the company to push for further female representation/management or is this just a coincidence?
LANRE: To be honest it was not a strategic decision to only target female sports stars. The aim was to be all inclusive and work with stars irrespective of their gender or ethnicity. All are welcome so far as they fit the model and align with our principles. We value integrity, trust and we look to work with pioneers and people that stand out (in a positive way). It just so happens that fortunately we have two of the most popular sportswomen in Africa. I’m personally grateful to God for the opportunity to manage them and play a role in their growth and development off the field. It’s given us the access to network with prominent individuals in the industry across the world and thankfully we are now in a position where everyone wants to work with PlugSports.
Q: With arguably the best World Cup ever just ending, Nigerians leave it with slightly bittersweet memories knowing that we didn’t participate in such a spectacle. What do you think we (as a nation) need to do on and off the pitch to improve our fortunes and get in USA 2026?
LANRE: We certainly have the players and the talent to compete and reach the semi-finals of a World Cup, like Morocco. But we do need better coaches. Bar Eguavoen, who was unlucky in the African Cup of Nations, we have struggled on a coaching front and I believe the National team needs a coach that has pedigree. A lot of the foreign coaches that have managed the Super Eagles haven’t had a strong enough CV to manage the team successfully. We need someone with a big name and a big ego, that would push our players and won’t tolerate any nonsense from anyone that is negatively impacting the squad.
We need a better recruitment structure, where there is greater use of data and analytics to finding players of Nigerian origin around the world.
Lastly, we need better infrastructure. Morocco probably have the best training complexes in Africa. You can tell that all the money they have received from FIFA and private donators has been well spent. Both their male and female teams are currently performing very well thus it wasn’t totally surprising to see Morocco reach the semi-final of the World Cup as this had been due to years of intentional preparation and investment into their infrastructure. It is astonishing that a football-crazy country like Nigeria don’t have our own equivalent of a St. George’s training ground. Our players should not be training at sub-standard training complexes. Better infrastructure would also attract more diaspora players to represent the country. You can’t have National team players sharing gyms/facilities with our private individuals at a popular/busy hotel for example. There should be a separate complex solely for that purpose, so the players can fully concentrate on the football. The money needs to be utilized in the right way in order for us to make the right steps to improve our football environment here domestically. We see that it can be done in Africa, with participation and interest in the South African and Egyptian league and Nigeria should aim to get its domestic football to reach such levels at the minimum. We need more genuine ‘football people’ involved in sports as progress would require everyone being aligned from top down on how to take our country forward.
Q: What is sport to you in one word?
LANRE: Sports is LIFE
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