Super Eagles and Leicester City midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi, has said his passion for football caused him to disobey his father who did not want him to take up professional football as career.
He also said he skipped schooling to live his dream of making it big playing the round leather game.
Ndidi made this revelation in an exclusive chat with Leicester Mercury.
He said: “My family was not really into football. My dad wanted me to go to school, not play football.
“My dad watched it on the television but he didn’t want me to play football. He is a soldier, but he didn’t want me to follow in his footsteps, he just wanted me to go to school.
“I did miss out on some school because of football. When I moved to Nath Boys academy, then I started to miss out on some of my schooling.
“My family hasn’t been over to see me play yet. They only see it on TV.”
The ace midfielder further reminisced how his joining Nath Boys Academy took him to Genk in Belgium.
Ndidi said: “I remember kicking a ball around as a child, but I was not in any training or anything. I just had a very small ball and I just kicked it around by my home.
“I was 14 when I joined Nath Boys Academy. We played in a competition and a scout from Genk was there. I was 16 or 17 when they came in for me.
“I was offered a trial at Genk and the president of Nath Boys came with me to Belgium for the trials.
“It was very different to what I was used to but before that I had been travelling with Nath Boys and we played in a tournament in Portugal. We had played against Hull City and Celtic, so it wasn’t completely new.”
