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Johnny as he is known by friends and fans was a big football star. As a Super Eagle beside Okocha, Oliseh and the rest, he scored goals. For years he was one of the models for the Nigerian youth and most likely also for German teenagers, as he spent most of his career, playing in the Bundesliga scoring over a hundred goals.

Akpoborie’s fortunes changed for the worse in 2001, when a ship (MV Etireno) run by his family was said to be carrying children into slavery in Gabon when it was stopped in Benin Republic. The BBC would eventually describe the former star as “Mr Unlucky” in an article after the incident.

Now, almost ten years after, Akpoborie is granting an interview for the first since the incident, which he admits literally ended his career. This interview is coming on the heels of a documentary on the incident titled ‘Das Schiff des Torjäger’ (The Goalgetter’s Ship) and directed by Swiss Heidi Speconga. It tells the story of the “MV Etireno”, its passengers and owner and is attempting to shed light on a saga that has left many questions unanswered.

NEXTSports spoke with Akpoborie about his fate, the abrupt end of his career, his grouse with UNICEF as well as indemnity claims and his overall struggle for justice.

It’s almost ten years since you were alleged to own a child slave trade ship, an allegation that changed your life dramatically. How did you feel when you first heard about it?

When I consider it now, I can only laugh at it. But at the time it was horrible for me as someone made up an untrue story and used my name for publicity but I am in contact with my lawyers to institute legal review.

UNICEF reported approximately 250 child slaves that were supposed to be carried on board of your ship and cast a slur at you as the owner. You said someone used your name to gain international publicity. How did this affect your personal and professional life?

Oh well, not to put too fine a point on it, it destroyed everything for me. Even today when walking the streets in Lagos, people would shout at me saying: “Look, that’s the child slave trader from thence, that’s him”. But if one know’s the whole story and the details of the unproven allegations from UNICEF, then one can imagine how it affected my life. If you had asked to interview me two years after this incident, I would have declined right away, but now I am glad to be able to talk about it. I just cannot abandon this, that what I had built up in twenty years got destroyed in fifteen minutes. In the documentary one can see that UNICEF had not just committed a blunder, no they had been aware of it and knew full well what they had done and eventually hazarded the consequences. If one had asked me previously to tout for UNICEF for the child slave topic I would have agreed, but now it will get very expensive for them.

From your point of view, UNICEF used your name to draw international attention to the child-slave-issue. How do you evaluate this problem against the backdrop of your story?

When talking of child slaves, one has to define what it is in order to understand it in detail.

There are so many different interpretations in Africa. For instance in Benin one might find children that grew up and worked for their uncle or aunt in order to support their parents back home financially. If one talks about children being sold on a market, it’s new to me. I have been across Africa, but haven’t found any evidence that this is true. One shall show those children to me, then I’ll believe it, but now I don’t believe anything.

As you are planning to go to court, what exactly are you accusing UNICEF of?

After this story we couldn’t use both ships any more, our commercial activity was destroyed as the ships were eventually demolished. Basically, we suddenly couldn’t do anything as people thought we were actually responsible. I couldn’t play football any more. My life had been destroyed.

Last December, the film “Das Schiff des Torjäger (The Goalgetter’s Ship) by Swiss director Heidi Speconga was released. What do you link to it and what does it mean to you personally as you featured?

At the beginning I wanted to run away from it; I didn’t want to talk to them. But later we met in Switzerland and I gave them the go ahead. The information that I gained from the research within the scope of the documentary were very siginificant to me as UNICEF didn’t give me the opportunity to talk to the children who were on board the ship at the time. It also gave me courage, because now I had something to prove the falsity of UNICEF’s statements.

A 2001 CNN report tells another story of the events that differs from that of UNICEF. One can read about contradictory assertions regarding the incident. In this context, they speak of 43 children that were found aboard the MV Etireno and according to UNICEF and Tierres des Hommes were destined for slavery. How can you explain this?

This is just a deliberate misrepresentation. Not a single child aboard destined to be sold, not even were they alone. All were accompanied by parents or other companions on their way to Gabon. That had also been confirmed by the children questioned in the documentary. We, as the company didn’t even sell tickets to them, they bought it somewhere else. I don’t really know what UNICEF talks about. It is a mistake that needs to be corrected in court.

Why exactly should anyone be interested in a misrepresentation of facts?

I honestly don’t know. We have all documents of permit from the departure and the arrival of the ship. I have done my own researches in Gabon, Lome, and Benin and talked to the people on the spot and to UNICEF officials. How can it be that UNICEF in Benin saw 43 children aboard and UNICEF in Gabon claims the opposite? If UNICEF was right, the ship wouldn’t have gotten permit to departure in Gabon at the first place.

So you call it a sort of smear campaign?

Absolutely. We got the stories, facts and also several eye-witnesses.

For some years you have been working as a FIFA licensed agent in Nigeria and Africa. What are you doing exactly and how would you assess the opportunities for Nigerian talent to become professionals?

It’s just all about football. Scouting talent is always hard. One is always on the run but it gave me the chance to think things over and it eventually gave me the opportunity to continue working in the football branch after the incident of ten years ago.

It’s fun for me to see the boys play. But like I said, it’s very hard to scout them. As Nigeria is a big country, fewer good players live in the cities but rather in rural areas. That makes it very difficult to reach them. Also corruption is a barrier.

Could you be more specific about that?

The people playing in the national team are people who have money to pay, to gain the attention of the scouts, and that’s why they are in the public. The right people live in the villages and that’s what I am working on currently, to provide young talented children who normally wouldn’t have a chance in Africa with the opportunity of a future to return later to help their families just like me.

Is corruption also a topic within the Nigerian national team?

Well, I witnessed some trifles when I was playing. But I only say thereto; that I hope it’s not true. It’s of course a problem but one has to choose the right coach for the national team otherwise it will be an ongoing issue.

Can you be more specific about the mentioned incidents?

No, for the moment I have to keep it to myself but I always believed that it is better to have a European coach. That’s very important for us.

Footballers in Nigeria and Africa often make false age-claims to carve out careers in clubs and the national team. As a former footballer please give a professional opinion on that and give an idea how to solve the problem.

I really have to admit it’s a difficult topic. Seen from the Nigerian perspective it breaks our national team as the right people cannot get the chance of playing. I was in school when I played for the U-17 team. Now years later there are still some people who played 4-5 years in the Nigerian League and returned to play for the U-17 again. It is just ridiculous. That breaks our football. I don’t have any idea how to solve the problem but to provide a future for football one has to come up with solution.

In the evening hours, at the National Stadium in Abuja, Samson Siasia, the Super Eagles manager, will lead his players out in a crucial 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia, his first competitive match since taking charge of the team in December.

Unsurprisingly, the Eagles’ performance in that game will be the topic of choice for football’s chattering classes, considering their parlous state since last year’s World Cup disaster and the country’s desperate desire to see the team return to the flamboyant form of yesteryear.

But besides hoping, of course, that they earn the needed win, the team’s ‘exile’ to that overpriced concrete contraption called a stadium in Abuja, a place without a football culture, ethos and soul, evokes deep and bitter feelings in me.

Any genuine connoisseur of our game knows the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, criminally neglected by our federal government – as its decrepit, ugly form hauntingly reminds us – is our real theatre of dreams and Nigerian football’s spiritual home.

Who can forget the pleasurable and anguished moments on its hallowed but now patchy, miserable looking turf?

It staged our first Africa Cup of Nations triumph in 1980, when, to the delight of over 60,000 fans, Green Eagles captain Christian Chukwu proudly walked up to the arena’s state box to lift the Cup of Unity.

And who can forget August 12, 1989, when, amongst thousands of other fans in the terraces, I unknowingly watched midfielder Samuel Okwaraji convulse, collapse and die on its turf, in that unforgettable, tragic 1990 World Cup qualifier against Angola.

Or how Nigeria’s painful failure to win the 2000 Nations Cup final – after Victor Ikpeba’s penalty goal against Cameroun that never was – made captain Sunday Oliseh weep like a newborn baby?

“I cannot begin to recall all the important moments of my life, and in the lives of many great footballers, that took place in that stadium. That the ground is in its current state leaves me with nothing to say,” says former Nigeria captain Segun Odegbami.

And the dilapidated state of the stadium is made all the more poignant by its healthier, smaller next door neighbour – Teslim Balogun Stadium, the only decent football ground in Nigeria’s largest city.

After the Eagles’ unbelievable eight-year absence from the city, the recent friendly game against Sierra Leone, at the Balogun ground, served as a timely reminder, at least to me, of how the national team’s return to Lagos is the key to reviving its dwindling fortunes.

Given a bad rap

Rather than mollycoddle the present set of Eagles, some of whom are risk-averse and have to be pampered into doing their very minimum for the country – and hoping that they can get away with it in Abuja, where the crowd is quite temperate, putting the players feet to the searing Lagos fire will certainly improve the team’s work ethic.

Given a bad rap by previous FAs for their refusal to ‘blindly’ support the national team whilst playing at Sports City, as the National Stadium is nicknamed, Lagos fans are, unfairly, being given the proverbial bad name in order to ‘hang’ them.

The unadorned truth is that whilst a bit unruly at times, Lagos fans demand top draw performances from those wearing the colours of our country and are intolerant of sloppiness or an obvious lack of commitment. Lagos fans, at least most of them, can tell the difference between a national team that loses gallantly, after giving everything they’ve got and one that just couldn’t be bothered to deliver.

Why should their loyalty and support of the Super Eagles not come at the price of excellence and diligence?

The nauseating state of the National Stadium continues to offer an excuse for the Nigerian Football Federation, which points to the artificial turf at Teslim Balogun, admittedly not as good as a natural surface, as a reason not to stage competitive games in Lagos.

On paper, the Walya Antelopes of Ethiopia do not stand a chance tonight at the Abuja National Stadium against the Super Eagles.

According to the latest FIFA rankings, the Ethiopians are ranked a lowly 124th in the world while the Super Eagles occupy the 39th spot.

If that is the sole criteria for deciding who will end up with the three points at the end of tonight’s game in Abuja, then fans of the Super Eagles can rejoice and look forward to a one-sided encounter against the Ethiopians. The Walya Antelopes will be expected to just sit back, mass up their rank in defence, and await the flurry of attacks from Samson Siasia’s side.

But they will also be waiting for the perfect moment to spring a surprise and catch the Super Eagles unawares with quick counter attacks.

And one man who the Super Eagles have to be wary of in the Ethiopian side is Fikru-Tefera Lemessa.

He won’t be too difficult to spot as he will most likely be the sole man upfront doing his best to keep the Super Eagles defenders on their toes.

Standing six feet tall and currently on the payroll of South African club side, Supersport United, Lemessa is the only foreign-based player in the Walya Antelopes team and if the words of South African-based Nigerian goalkeeper, Greg Etafia are anything to go by, the Super Eagles will need to keep an eye on the 25-year-old throughout the game.

“I have played several times against him. He is a striker who chases lost causes, so we have to be wary of such a player,” Etafia told a football website. “For him, any match is war. He loves mixing it up with his markers and he is forever busy.”

He added: “He’s big, strong, hustles and loves to intimidate defenders. He is also comfortable on the ball, shoots with both feet and has a good turn.”

Lemessa, however, isn’t the only threat in the Ethiopian side as they also have the duo of Oumed Oukri and Shimeles Bekele who will be attacking from the flanks.

The Walyas will be placing their hopes on these players to make of making a first Cup of Nations appearance since 1982 in Libya, where coincidentally, they were on the receiving end of a 3-0 bashing by Nigeria.

Nigeria also beat them 6-0 in 1993 on the way to qualifying for the 1994 Cup of Nations in Tunisia which the Super Eagles won.

Maria Sharapova, the girl who left Siberia on a road to fame and fortune, still has unfinished business in an injury-blighted career that has so far brought three grand slam titles.

Away from the lucrative endorsements, the former world number one Russian’s appetite for hard work remains unchanged as she targets the two prizes that would complete her Cinderella journey – an Olympic gold medal at Wimbledon next year and a French Open title.

Sharapova, 23, missed the 2008 Beijing Olympics because of a shoulder injury. It remains a painful memory for a young woman who, despite the American accent and Florida mansion, still loves the country of her birth.

“It’s a huge, huge goal for me,” she told Reuters by telephone en route to the launch of the WTA’s Xperia Hot Shots – an Internet-based show that will follow six Tour players around the world, on and off the court.

“It was massively disappointing for me to miss the Beijing Olympics because I’ve always wanted to be an Olympian. “Growing up in Russia it was always a big part of our culture and more than anything I could feel what an honour it was to represent our country and watch the flag go up.

“I used to cherish watching it and hopefully I can look forward to becoming an Olympian in London next year but first I have to make the team because that’s a tough ask in Russia with so many good players.”

The first slam at Wimbledon

Sharapova came to prominence as a 17-year-old at Wimbledon when she stunned Serena Williams to win the title in 2004. A U.S Open title followed two years later and she won the Australian Open in 2008. The French Open, however, has always proved frustrating with a 2007 semi-final place her best effort.

“I’ve always said the clay court season is the toughest part of the year for me,” Sharapova said. “But it’s also one that I really enjoy. I love challenges. Physically, I feel I’m getting better and better at the clay court season.

“It’s the one grand slam I haven’t won and I’d love to have that on my resume.”

With Serena Williams sidelined by injury and health issues, her sister Venus also struggling and Justine Henin retired again; the women’s game lacks the rivalries that illuminate the men’s grand slams.

“There is a newer generation coming up,” said Sharapova who heads to Miami in confident mood after reaching the Indian Wells semi-finals last week, losing to world number one Caroline Wozniacki. “I think it’s an exciting time in our sport.

“Rivalries take time to develop and with Serena missing and Justine now retired I hope that that will be the case this year,” added the world number 13.

“Serena is a big champion, a big icon in our sport so to see her away from the game for a long while is obviously disappointing.

Hopefully we’ll see her return very soon because I enjoy competing against her.” With the virus that laid her low after the Australian Open clear and her shoulder in good shape, Sharapova is relishing the prospect of playing in Miami after missing the tournament for the last three years.

“It’s almost like home,” she said. “I love the eclectic Latin fans there and it’s one of my favourite events. I’m happy with my form too after my run at Indian Wells. I feel like I’m getting to where I want to be.”

Nigerian polo teams have for decades been flying the flag of this country at numerous international polo events, but none has attracted rave reviews like the El-Amin’s participation at the just concluded Dubai Polo Gold Cup Series.

Weeks after the Nigerian elite field of world stars and their Arab friends tangoed in the prestigious Dubai Polo Cup tournament, highly placed individuals and the media are still talking about the glamorous.

One such review came from none other than the life chairman of the Nigerian Polo Federation, Abdulmumuni Kabir, a traditional ruler (emir) who alongside other Arab kings and royalty, gave the event a regal touch.

The royal father who witnessed all the games in the Gold Cup series, singled out El-Amin for special mention, noting that Nigerian polo will eternally be grateful to Mohammed Babangida and his team for putting country on the global stage.

A place in history

Kabir, who described El-Amin’s campaign for honours in Dubai as an eye opener, says that history will reserve a special place for the Nigerian flag bearers, as the first African team to play in Dubai and in the Gold Cup Series.

“Dubai Gold Cup’2011 polo tournament may have come to an end, but the memories of watching the Nigerians making their fatherland and the African continent proud in a high class polo event that is dominated by some the best players from Argentina and Europe, will last a lifetime,” he said.

He noted that under his leadership, the Nigeria Polo Federation will continue to encourage Mohammed Babangida and his El-Amin polo organisation because of their zeal, commitment and focus, which are the hallmarks of trustworthy ambassadors that they are.

“Between goals and success, there is one crucial factor, passion. Passion is the will to win, the strength within, the courage that ignites success. These are some of those special tributes that makes El-Amin the best polo team in Nigeria today, if not the whole of Africa,” Kabir said.

The Polo Federation President, Francis Ogboro, who cheered El-Amin in all their games described their participation in the Gold Cup series an historic outing that further confirmed Nigeria as one of the leading polo playing countries in the world.

The NPF boss who hailed Babangida and his boys for putting up a brave campaign in a highly competitive field, despite the glaring shortage of the needed horse power to compete at such an international stage, said the Gold Cup trip was loaded with a lot of positives that would greatly enhance the game of polo in Nigeria.

“The experiences and the lessons to take home are quite many, but it is quite interesting to see El-Amin making their mark on rented horses where their opponents are fortified with their best mounts and are enjoying the full complement of three Argentine professionals each.”

He said apart from the numerous business openings that the Dubai Gold Cup offers, the Polo Federation intends to use the Dubai experiences to improve the game locally in terms of tournament organisations, Grounds maintenance, strict adherence to rules of the game and repositioning of polo as a powerful corporate sports with its highly revered marketing attributes.

Ogboro, who noted that the Gold Cup is a major part in the series of exposures aimed at preparing the Nigerian players ahead of the forthcoming Federation of International Polo Zone D Polo World Cup qualifiers billed for Malaysia in June, said Nigeria is blessed with a lot of talents who are capable making an indelible mark on the global stage.

Adding colour to the tourney

Apart from eulogising El-Amin for their skills and cohesive display of team work, the Arabs who apparently didn’t know the game of kings is as popular in Africa just as it is in Argentina, USA and in Europe, were full of praises for Babangida and his African team mates.

Arab media follows fashion dictates. For years, glossy magazine stories about the high life in Dubai were the only diet one could get. Now, however, the tide has changed to sports, and the flavour of the month is the participation of Nigeria’s EL-Amin in this year’s Dubai Polo Gold Cup Series.

There is some justification for this. Since the beginning of the year, the Arab world has been treated to high profile sporting championships, with all the big names in golf, tennis, rugby and now polo, descending on the glittering Dubai city, and the media cannot just ignore it.

To the residents of Dubai who trooped out in their droves to watch the Nigerians play, it was a life time experience for a city that has been so infatuated with superlatives, but in ten fleeting days they were really thrilled by the top firing Nigerians whose training seasons attracted a capacity crowd.

Some of the notable Arabs who were impressed with El-Amin’s enthusiasm and participation in the Gold Cup series include Chairman of Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club, Rashid Al Habtoor who led his Mahra team, patron of Dubai Falcons, Ghantoot polo boss, Saeed Bin Dral and the Jordanian, Faisal Yabroudi who powered his DCC Sumaya in the Gold Cup.

Gold Cup Tournament Chairman and Habtoor Polo patron, Mohammed Al Habtoor who hosted El-Amin and the Nigerian contingent to a farewell dinner, said EL-Amin as added real international colour to the event.

Faris Yabhouni, whose Abu Dhabi team defeated Dubai Falcons in the final to win the Gold Cup, says he is looking forward to playing the Africans next year in the high profile series played under the patronage of the Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Sashid Al Maktoum.

“Dubai has reached a critical mass and has positioned itself as a trading and service hub in an oil rich region, and now sports particularly the king of games, is warming up to complement global capitalist role model,” he said.

Red Bull racing team will go into the new season, starting today, confident that they still have the fastest car on the circuit and with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in tandem, it is hard to look any further for the team that will be triumphant at the end of the season.

But you can also never write off the McLaren team, especially with former champions as drivers. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will definitely have their say in this year’s championship and also mention will be made of the Ferrari team with Fernando Alonso, who contrived to throw away the title in Abu Dhabi last year.

All in all with the new adjustments to the engines of the cars and the other developments it promises to be a year that will put all race car aficionados on the edge of their seat as the drivers and cars go flying around the corners of the Australia Grand Prix circuit where it will start to the majestic Yas Marina circuit in Dubai.

F1A innovations for the 2011 season

Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) is back after a year on the sidewalk. KERS helps to draw more power from the engine whilst the car brakes and this energy is stored in a battery and made available to the driver in fixed quantities per lap via a steering wheel-mounted ‘boost button’.

Cars on average get an extra 80bhp from KERS, which is about 10 per cent more power from the engine. Though this has not been made a compulsory attachment, almost all the racing teams apart from Virgin, HRT and Lotus, have it installed in their cars. Renault has also made individual innovations to its car which includes the forward-facing exhaust while Toro Rosso has a ‘double floor’.

New adjustable rear wings can be moved from the cockpit which lends itself to more speed at corners and when overtaking. These wings will reduce the drag effect on the car it is pursuing. However, there are restrictions to this usage – which will be hard to interpret as the season begins today in Australia – the wings can be used in practice and qualifying, but can only be used during the race if the chasing car is less than a second behind its prey. There will also be pre-determined points where it can be activated. Reports from testing sessions before the season’s opener hint at an additional 12-14kmph to the driver, if used in the right way and it is actually more effective on straight laps.

Now the tyres are specified to become softer so that they will deteriorate at a faster pace – this will create more pit-stops per car per race. And the tyre supplier has been changed from Bridgestone to Pirelli in one of the most glaring adjunct decisions taken by the FIA. There are also more restrictions on the dry weather tyres; also driving styles will come under the microscope.

The clause in the FIA regulations outlawing team orders has been removed. This will definitely attract a re-shuffling of how racing chiefs organise or prioritise the two drivers representing each racing team like what happened between Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, where Massa was clearly instructed to slow down for Alonso to overlap.

And at the practise session on Friday, McLaren’s Jenson Button set the fastest time in practice on Friday ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, was in second practice at Albert Park.

Under Samson Siasia there seems to be a revival of wing play by the Super Eagles and that means that the transition from midfield to attack will be faster and more direct.

The likes of Ahmed Musa and Victor Moses are very fast and skillful and are able to attack down both wings. There is also Osaze Odemwingie, who can also do the job of a winger.

Chukwuma Akuneto, a former Nigerian international and presently first team coach at English league outfit, FC United believes, there are no easy games in today’s football.

Akuneto proposes that, the Eagles have to monopolise ball possession.

“Repossession of the ball will be very important and we need to play high and wide – either with three strikers or two wingers.

“The Eagles have an array of players who are exceptional going forward so we need to win possession back and let them go and destroy the opposition. What this means is that we can’t wait for them to lose possession but we go get the ball or make them lose it by applying pressure.”

He also added that the defensive players must push high up the pitch to congest the play in the Ethiopian half.

“We must press with a high line in front – the attackers have to put pressure on their defenders so we can win the ball back closer to their goal or they decide to just launch the ball into our half of the pitch thereby conceding possession,” Akuneto added.

But there are dangers of pressing that high like Barcelona does and he advises that the Super Eagles defenders must concentrate a hundred per cent to ward off counter attacks, which may be the strategy of the East Africans.

“The Concentration of our defenders, including the defensive midfielder and goalkeeper becomes very crucial in this game because we don’t want to be caught out by the long ball over the top or by a counter attack.

“We want to win the ball back close to their goal and allow our creative and penetrative players go do the business and more importantly we want to make them feel in constant danger like a team under constant threat and attack – a sort of psychological battering,” Akuneto concluded.