I made right decision playing for Hong Kong – Oluwatayo News

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I made right decision playing for Hong Kong – Oluwatayo

By Daily Sports Nigeria on May 10, 2024

Lagos-born Oluwatayo Akande, who plays for the Hong Kong national team, talks about his debut for the Asians, journey into kits manufacturing and more, in this interview with EBENEZER BAJELA

Can you tell us about your childhood and football career?

I was born in Lagos and I am a product of Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos. From there I moved to London before travelling to Hong Kong, where I became a professional footballer. I represented the Hong Kong national team, where I played in a World Cup qualifier. I also played in China before moving back to Hong Kong. I am currently taking time out from football because I want to make my Wura Sports go where I want it to go. I am heading towards the end of my career and before I stop playing I want to make a big statement and because of that I have taken a few months off. Hopefully next season I will return to playing football. I played against Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain and I scored against both teams. I played in the Asian Champions League three times and I scored two goals in seven appearances. I played 29 games for the Hong Kong national team and I scored 10 goals. I have played over 100 league games and scored almost 100 goals.

Playing for Hong Kong must have been an exciting moment for you. Why did you switch to Hong Kong?

When I moved from the UK to Hong Kong, I was very young and I started playing football there. I only played street football in Nigeria, but when I got to Hong Kong I signed for a club and you have to live here (Hong Kong) for seven years before you can get noticed or get your citizenship, which I did. The national team coach at that time always told me that he would need me in his team and we had many Nigerians before me who had played in the league. We had the likes of George Best here after he left Manchester United and we had a lot of players from after the 1986 World Cup that came down to play in the Hong Kong league. I met a lot of Nigerian players here but none of them represented the Hong Kong national team except former Julius Berger’s Collins and while I was there I saw a lot of African players in the league, we were about 12, and six of us eventually made it to their national team. I started playing for the national team in 2015 till date. It was a good feeling when I got the call-up and I scored on my debut.

What was Hong Kong fans reaction as an African representing their national team?

They love me because I always give my best and I am so happy to represent Hong Kong. They know who you are and they are always shouting your name and after the game, I go around signing autographs. They are nice people and I enjoy my time representing Hong Kong.

If you could turn back the hands of time and you get a call-up from Hong Kong and another from Nigeria, which are you going to pick?

(Laughs) It all depends, really. Nigeria has a lot of players all over the world and not all these players are going to represent Nigeria but it all depends on the time. There was a time when I came for the U-20s, I saw the ways things were at the camp and I asked myself if I wanted to go through this. Things are much better right now and I would commend the NFF for what they are doing now because the boys get the right salaries. I would say if I was meant to pick, I picked the right one because at that time Hong Kong would have offered me better than what Nigeria would offer me.

Now you are into kit making, what is the idea behind Wura Sports?

For people to have the right shoes to play football or the right equipment to do sports, that’s why we came up with this whole idea. From what I experienced growing up in Nigeria, we knew the salaries of our parents and we knew that most parents out there could not afford to buy the big brands. Also, these big brands don’t sell their football boots in Africa because they are too expensive if you convert the currency. As a professional football, it’s a way of me trying to help the kids and my way of giving back. They are recyclable, sustainable and affordable. That is what Wura Sports is for and we have signed some female players in the Nigerian league right now, we have also signed four players in the NPFL as well. We are looking forward to making a very big impact as time goes on. We have the likes of Odion Ighalo working with us as one of our ambassadors and we have me as well. Generally, that is what we are right now.

Are you bringing the brand to Africa?

This is our brand called Wura Sports. Wura is a Yoruba name and we came up with the name because everybody knows how important Wura (gold) is in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large. Wura means gold and everybody would love to have that, Wura was my mum’s name and when she passed I decided to speak with my partners to use the name with respect to my mum because she played a huge role in my life. Wura Sports is the name and we are not coming with any other big brands, we are coming with our brand, it is a new brand in town. The unveiling took place last year in Nigeria, December 17 in Lagos and December 23 in Ibadan. The response has been very interesting; people are still using it because it’s of good quality and lasts longer.

Are you hoping to reach out to other parts of Africa knowing that we share the same problem in terms of economy?

We have partners in some Francophone countries. During the Nations Cup, we had some partners ready and they are French. We met in London and had a meeting. Before then we already sent some boots over and they saw them. We are working on starting in the Francophone countries, we have people in Ghana and Cameroon and they have a few number of the boots already. We also have people in Kenya reaching out to us and from the Middle East and I am working on that presently. The product is going to go around the world, it is not only in Nigeria but because I am from Nigeria I want to give more to the people, which is very important and from there we will connect with other African countries, which we have already started.

You talked about your product being recyclable. Can you tell us what they are made of?

They are artificial leathers and it is easy to turn them into anything. Presently we are not producing in Nigeria, we are producing in Hong Kong, and for us to ship them back to Hong Kong to recycle is going to cost a lot. Now, we are having a meeting with a company that does recycling in Lagos so that people who buy from us, if they bring them back, we can give them to the company so that they can use them for whatever they want to use them for. If people return the boots we will collect them and give them a voucher, which they can use to buy anything else from us. In about five years now, we are planning on having a factory in Nigeria and most likely it is going to be in Ibadan because Lagos will be more expensive and we already have a meeting with the commissioner for sports in Oyo. We signed a deal to sponsor their female team. We plan to create job opportunities for people; we can make an impact on and off the pitch.

What are the exact kits you make?

Generally, we make every sports equipment but our focus now is on boots. Secondly, we have the jerseys which we will be unveiling in partnership with Ighalo before the end of the year. After that, we are going to be launching the running shoes and the outerwear, which we have already. But we are not going to be launching because we want to come in with the football boots first. Everything is already designed but our focus is on the boots now and before the end of the year we will be having others.

Source Punch Ng

Posted May 10, 2024