Folks, please join me in celebrating another very important milestone in my life. After 18 eventful years of professional football career which I had to sadly quit as a result of chronic injuries.
A career which started at “Nitel” Vasco Dagama Football Club, Enugu, Nigeria in 1988/1989; later moving to the African Continental Bank (ACB) Football club of Lagos in 1990 and becoming one of the pioneer members of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) inaugurated on the 12th May 1990 as a player.
I subsequently played for 5 different professional club sides in Nigeria, before moving abroad. I became the first ever “African professional footballer” to play in the over 3,640 metre altitude Bolivian premier league with the Club Bolivar, Lapaz, Bolivia in South America after a record transfer fee as the leading scorer for Enugu Rangers FC in the Nigerian Professional football league in 1994.
After a short stint in Bolivia, I moved to the North-western city of Santiago De Compostela where I played for SD Compostela in the 1995/1996 -1996/1997 Spanish (LaLiga) Premier league before taking my football talents to the German Bundesliga from the 1998/1999 season and played for a total of 6 clubs and emerging as the top scorer each season for all the club sides and ending my career in the German second Bundesliga team FC St Pauli, Hamburg, Germany in 2005/2006 season.
I moved to the United Kingdom after ending my football career following series of recurring injuries to start a new career. As the saying goes, “whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
After my secondary school education at Agba Grammar School in Uromi, Edo state, Nigeria in the mid-1980s, circumstances including football made it difficult for me to continue to the university. Little did I know that this was a calling and a blessing in disguise and the rest today is history. As the saying goes, “It is never too late to be what you might have been”.
More than twenty years after, I am still able to pursue my dreams and after successful completion of my undergraduate Law degree with the Open University in England in 2009, I went on to complete the Legal Practice Course (with a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice) at the Birmingham City University (School of Law) in 2013. After this all efforts to secure a “Training Contract” (a two-year placement that is undertaken by “trainee solicitors” as final step before qualification became so difficult that I almost wanted to change career.
Nevertheless, like they say, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence”. “Life they say, begins at the end of our comfort zone”. I continued to trust in my dreams and had to voluntarily undertake a variety of administrative and legal works for free for various law firms in different cities in England believing that “No matter how long the night the day is sure to come”
I am happy to say that after a very difficult and challenging period of studies and legal training in what initially seemed impossible. It is an honour and a great privilege to officially announce that I have been admitted to the “Rolls of Solicitors” as a Solicitor of the “Senior Courts of England and Wales” and now a practicing solicitor and advocate in England and Wales.
My very special thanks go to the “Principal” (solicitor) of EcoM Solicitors here in Tottenham, London for making this dream a reality by giving me the opportunity and standing by me during the 2 years of my training at EcoM Solicitors. I also want to thank all the solicitors and staff of EcoM Solicitors for their immense support.
My gratefulness also goes to members of my family, friends, partners, colleagues and a very special people for their undiluted and unflinching support and encouragement during this very difficult period. Thank you for making these challenging moments more bearable. I cannot find a card that expresses my gratitude the way I wanted. All I can say is that you are all appreciated
This is a very significant moment and the start of a new chapter in my life. My joy knows no bounds. As I start a new dawn, it is my desire to give back to the community where I come from locally and around the world in any little way in appreciation.
God bless us all.
Festus Agu.