A true Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) legend, Victor Ezeji announced his retirement from football on Wednesday February 10, 2016 at the SWAN secretariat Lagos branch.
Victor Ezeji, a graduate of Accountancy at the University of Port Harcourt who had wore the colours of Nigeria at international level and clubs like Sharks, Enyimba, Dolphins and Tunisian team, Club Africain ranks as the most decorated player to have played in the NPFL shared some beautiful memories of his last twenty years playing in the apex football league in Nigeria and offers players playing in the domestic league an opportunity to secure their future.
Ezeji got his football career started at Port Harcourt based club, Sharks FC in 1996, before moving to Dolphins and then Enyimba where he helped the People's Elephant lift the CAF Champions League trophy. He however thanked his former team mates, clubs and the media for all the support he has gotten.
He stated at the press briefing: "I'm ending my career for good, without any form of injury, my ligaments are complete but I just have to say goodbye because it's obvious that I won’t be playing forever," Ezeji said at the media briefing.
“I won’t forget how Barrister Chris Green discovered me at a very tender age, took me to Sharks FC for trial where I signed my first contract. It has no doubt been a good drive for me though with some tough yet interesting moment but I’m glad I made an impact playing for 20 years. I'll also like to appreciate the media because they made me who I am as a footballer. Whenever I felt I couldn’t go on, they gave me the courage to believe in myself,"Ezeji stated.
Life Insurance Scheme For Local Players
Playing in the domestic league for such a long time came with so much experiences to share and one of such practical situations Victor Ezeji talked about was players welfare. He called on the League Management Company (LMC) who he praised for their impact since they came on board but suggested that the LMC must take the welfare of players playing in the league very serious.
The striker who won the CAF Champions League in 2003 with Enyimba FC stated that he has floated a life insurance scheme for the players and gave the reason why he had to find an antidote.
" One of my main target is to help insure players on the local scene. I’m already talking to the players on this project, a life insurance scheme will help the players to have something to fall back when injury or permanent disability comes up while playing soccer," Ezeji informed
“ it's an Insurance Scheme that will involve all the players playing in the domestic league. I truly want to advise players to invest at least 30 percent of their salaries In the scheme. Players are to pay N25, 000.00 as registration fee and if a player gets injured in the course of playing, he will receive the sum of N1m. And in terms of permanent disability, a player will get N10m,” Ezeji stated.
