To understand the intrigues of Segun Odegbami’s life, one must first understand the tyranny of his youth. At 17, he possessed the sensitive hands of an artist, seemingly destined for poetry, illustration and the colourful solitude of a canvas. Then football came, swallowing him whole and transforming him into a household name across Africa — a celebrity so enormous that a simple factory visit could reportedly bring an entire corporate facility to a standstill.
Today, at 74, the stadium roars have given way to the quieter rhythms of reflection. Odegbami does not sit around replaying old matches in his head, neither does he agonise over the multi-million-dollar salaries enjoyed by contemporary football stars. Instead, as age increasingly reminds him of mortality, Nigeria’s legendary Number 7 is looking ahead with striking urgency and clarity.
There is the marriage he admits he could not save. There is the distance that separated him from his young family. There is the freedom of living alone which, by his own admission, came with a price. And then there is Oyin Adeyemi — the woman he almost married, the mother of his son, his former lover and, more than a decade after their romance ended, still one of his closest friends.
