Odartey Weeps

Nii Odartey Lamptey, a child born into a poverty-stricken broken home, is an award-winning celebrated Ghanaian soccer superstar now-turned educationist with some good cash to spray around. At age 16 he was arguably the youngest player of Ghana’s senior national team, the Black Stars and he is best remembered for his outstanding performance during Senegal 92 and Tunisia 94. He was nominated in 1991 as the Best Footballer of the Year after banging 11 goals in 39 games and in the same year he was nominated as the World’s Youth Best Player after scoring 5 goals in 6 games during the Under 17 World Championship in Italy. Odartey has played for Anderlecht in Belgium, PSV Eindhoven in Holland, Club Athletics Union in Argentina, SPVGG Greuther Furth in Germany, Union Di Sportif De Leiria in Portugal and Aston Villa and Coventry City, all in England. Currently, he describes himself as a ‘Free Player’ and is the Proprietor of Glowlamp International, a first-class basic school he built as his contribution to society and arguably one of the best within the Tema Metropolis. The soccer star had in a no-holds-barred interview with DAILY GUIDE told the story of his life; how he entered Germany with a fake Nigerian passport, the impact of ‘juju’ on his soccer career, his love life, his current occupation and which team he would be playing for next. He was dressed in a white Versace T-shirt and was adorned in a golden necklace which had a crucifix as its pendant. Odartey was in his usual low haircut and was reading a book entitled ‘Building a World Class School’ when DAILY GUIDE entered his office. He was relaxed in an executive swivel leather chair and had a bottle of Lucozade energy drink in front of him. On his table were two computers - a desktop and a laptop. His eyes became heavy with tears in the middle of the interview conducted by DAILY GUIDE’s duo of Fortune Alimi and Halifax Ansah-Addo at his Spintex Road office. Why? Nature had conspired to betray him, truncating his blossoming football career. He still believes he is imbued with unexploited talent which he hopes to unleash in the nearest future. (DG): Who is Nii Odartey Lamptey? Odartey Lamptey (OL): He is someone who comes from a poor family and has struggled in life. I started very early in life. I was very young around the ages of seven or eight when I started to play for Falcons. By that time I was very young and later there was another club called Muhammedans which wanted to register me. So I left Falcons and joined them but when the time for registration came, Falcons was still expecting me to register for them, especially because most of their players were over-aged and I was still young. This resulted in a big fight between the two clubs. The incident happened around the now AMA office and I remember they were throwing a lot of bottles and stones at each other and none of the two clubs would allow me to register for the other. Falcons were from Accra New Town but Muhammedans was from New Town. A police man had to escort me home. When my mother saw me with the police she got scared and said she would not allow me to play football anymore. She was already having problems with me, because anytime I returned from playing football her sisters would beat me up and complain that I was not doing my house chores. I was then staying at Pig Farm. DG: So you were born at Pig Farm? OL: I do not know where exactly I was born but I know I grew up at Pig Farm but due to a divorce between my parents I had to go to Kumasi to stay with my father, only to realize when I got there that he had a new wife. She was not happy about my football so it got to a time my father had to choose between his wife and myself. Of course it was a new marriage and he chose his wife so I had to leave the house. I was originally to return to Accra but I had joined a club called Kalu Stars in Kumasi and when I informed them that I had to leave to Accra because of my stepmother they decided to take care of me. That was around 1988 and I had to become a Moslem because my new guardians were Moslems. DG: Were you in school? OL: Yes I was in school but I was not a regular student. Football was more important to me by then. Most of the time, I went to school only during sports time. Another factor was that I always owed fees in arrears and I remember one day that I was sacked for non-payment of fees but because I was good in football the girls in my class contributed and paid the fees for me. I was very grateful. School was not something that I was interested in. DG: At what point did you finally drop out of school? OL: That was when I was to write my Common Entrance. I did not write the exams because I had not paid and when my mates were writing the exams I was sitting on the pitch waiting for them to finish and when they finished the paper I went to my father and told him I had also completed school and that was the end of it. I was more interested in soccer and there were times I would be hired to play more than four games in a day. As soon as I finished one match, there would be another team waiting to take me away for another match. DG: Were you being paid for that? OL: They gave me something small. I was happy that at least I would eat and they would take care of me. DG: Were you happy with that? OL: At that time, that was the order of the day. We used to even help them to do other forms of work and stay with them just to get something to eat. DG: What happened after Kalu Stars? OL: From there I joined Kotoko Under 20. They wanted to register me but said I could only play the following year because I was very young and since I did not want to do that I managed to get to Cornerstone, and without any training, I signed for Corners. The club was later invited into the Under 17 League in 1989 and we went to Scotland for the World Championship. DG: How did you break to the international front? OL: When we came home from that tournament we were at camp when a gentleman came to me and said Stephen Keshie (now coach of Togolese national team) had asked him to bring me and that his club, Anderlecht, wanted to sign me on. We were chatting when some of the Ghanaian officials saw him and it turned into a terrible scene as they nearly sent him to prison. But he was made to leave the camp. Fortunately he had given me his card so when we broke camp, I decided to trace him up to Nigeria. I went to the Nigeria lorry station and explained my situation to the drivers there. I told them I did not have a passport and enough money but I needed to be in Lagos. My Ghanaian passport was with the FA by then. It was terrible. DG: But you had just ended Scotland 89 and had made some money. OL: At that time money was not the main thing. It is not like today. We all wanted to help our nation. At that time when you are invited to play for Ghana, the feeling was something else. That is why it hurts so much when you lose a match. DG: The Lagos trip please. OL: Yes, so the trip to Lagos was terrible. At the borders I had to hide under the seats of our vehicle because I had no passport. But I finally arrived and gave the address to a taxi driver, who took me straight to where I was going. I had no money on me and when we got there the man was not at home. The place is called Surulere. When my link man finally arrived, he called Keshie from Belgium and we spoke on phone. Fortunately, Nigeria had a qualifying series to play so Keshie came down two days later and I met him at his hotel the next day. I was with him when about three people came in and he gave them some money. Exactly two hours latter, I had a Nigerian Passport with my own picture in it but the passport with my picture had the name ‘Keshie Junior’. It was a normal passport and had my original picture and everything. All I was able to say was ‘wao’. Keshie had to return and I had to go with him. I was so nervous at the airport because of my Nigerian passport. I was very young around 14 or 15 years of age and I had not told anybody in Ghana where I was going. Absolutely no one knew I was in Nigeria and on my way to Belgium with a fake passport and that I was now the son of a Nigerian footballer. DG: Did you have problems at the airport? OL: I passed through very easily. I was following Keshie as his son and people were saluting me as if I was a hero. There were absolutely no problems. Six hours later we were in Belgium. The team registered me and I started to play with their younger side. Six months later I was promoted to the senior side and I scored my debut during my very first appearance with the team. DG: How many goals did you bang for Anderlecht? OL: That was a lot. During that season we scored about 18 goals. DG: Which year was your best at Anderlecht? OL: My first year for sure. I remember that on the coach’s birthday, I was parceled and put into a small box and given to him as a birthday present. DG: How did you change your passport? OL: We went to the Ghanaian embassy and I was given a note. You need to remember I was playing for Corners so they came to Belgium for the negotiations and that was done before they gave me my passport. DG: At what value was the five-year contract you signed with Anderlecht? OL: I cannot remember. It was Keshie who negotiated that deal for me. I was too young to understand it by then but once he said the money was good, I complied. I wanted to come back home because of the cold. I was freezing and feeling sad. Oh God, I do not even want to talk about this. I was with the youth club and anytime I went for training I would see my mates coming to training in their parents’ car and the cars came to pick them home after training. I had to walk home in the snow. It was terrible. But I was able to pass through all that successfully and after Anderlecht, I went to PSV Eindhaven. DG: Are you saying you do not know the contract sum you signed with Anderlecht? OL: Money was not my motivation; I only wanted to play. I started making money when I had a manager. He is an Italian and he said he would offer me US$100, 000 at that time. He started to negotiate other deals for me. Soon after that I had a three-year contract with Adidas and that was good money for me. But the problem was that my manager wanted to make money out of me. PSV wanted to sign me on but Anderlecht did not want me to go and eventually I was released on loan. I did very well for my new team and scored 22 goals in my first season. Then Anderlecth wanted me to return and PSV also wanted to sign me on. It created a problem between my manager and my club and I had to return to Ghana because I did not want to play Anderlecht. Two weeks later I had another deal, one with Aston Villa but Anderlecht did not want to release me. Unknown to me, my manager had bought my rights from Anderlecht and when I was thinking I was playing for the clubs on loan, money was actually being paid to my manager and he was cheating me. He would just bring me documents which I did not understand, to sign. It was four to five years later that I got to know and when I asked him he only apologized and said I should sign another contract with him. I refused and returned to Ghana DG: Are you on retirement now? OL: No. I should have been in South Africa now to sign for Jomo Cosmos. I was there last year and we have negotiated the deal. DG: Was it good money? OL: As compared to what I could get in Europe, no. But if African soccer would grow, people like us should sacrifice to play for the continent. The club owner is a very good person who wants to help African football. He has built an impressive facility in Johannesburg. DG: Would you welcome an invitation to play for Black Stars? OL: Well I think the current Black Stars is doing very well, considering our performance at Germany 2006 and the Ghana 2008, which I think we could have won. The team is united and they love each other. But for me to play for the Black Stars at this time? No way. I stopped playing Black Stars long ago. You know how Ghanaians are. If I play for the Black Stars now, someone would stand somewhere and insult me in a way that I would never forget for the rest of my life. I remember what Ghanaians did to Edward Ansah and I do not want to go through that experience. DG: How did you meet your wife? OL: That was in 1994 when I was playing for PSV. It brought a whole lot of family problems. My former Team Kalum Stars wanted me to marry a different person but I was not aware of that arrangement because they had not told me. They started to do all sorts of things against me. DG: Things like what? OL: You know this African electronics. I have been through so many problems. My parents too were also against her. They were thinking she was only coming to enjoy my money. I have been through hell. I lost my first boy, Diego, and also lost my daughter, Lisa. I have been through hell. DG: Who is your wife? OL: Her name is Gloria. She comes from a rich background and the father, Christian Kofi was one of Kwame Nkrumah’s right hand men. She once contested Miss Ghana. People did not want me to marry her. When my mother died people said I was not taking care of her and that I had killed her because of my wife. I know I did my best for my parents. I bought a house and a car for my mother and gave her all she needed. DG: So how many children do you have now? OL: I have four but two are gone so now I have two. DG: Do you believe ‘juju’ has any role in football? OL: I believe ‘juju’ exists. It works for you the way you want it to work. DG: Have you ever done ‘juju’? OL: Personally, no. But others said they were doing it to help me. Anybody who says ‘juju’ does not exist does not want to tell the truth. If not for ‘juju’, I would have gone very far but people were doing all sorts of things against me. DG: Do you believe in God? OL: I believe in God and know that without God I would not have survived. I do not go to church but I do the little things I should do as a God-fearing person. DG: What motivated you to build a school? OL: I wanted other children to have the education I did not have. Education was a problem for me and it really affected me in life and I do not want my children to suffer the way I did due to lack of education. The two children I lost also made me have a greater love for children. The school is called Glowlamp. It is a combination of the name of my wife, Gloria and my name, Lamptey. DG: What is your student population? OL: I started with a single girl, Naa Dey Koshie, but now I have over 400 children, from crèche to JHS 3. I started four years ago but my first batch of children has already written their BECE and the result was super. They all have their first choice schools. I have over 65 staff capacity. DG: How do you feel as someone who had not been in school but has a big school and actually pays graduate teachers? OL: I feel like crying. I wish I had education but because I did not, I would ensure my children get it. I know the best gift you can give to your children is education. I have been able to make some money out of football but not everyone can do that, so I wish every child gets some education. That is the secret to success. I want to build a secondary school but the frustration from the government is unbearable. Today this tax, tomorrow, they are threatening to close down the school and embarrassing me, and this and that. How do you expect others to emulate my example and contribute back to society? DG: Do you have political ambitions? OL: No. DG: Ike Quartey the boxer says he wants to make you his running mate for the presidency when he stands as an independent candidate. OL: He has never spoken to me on that issue. Ike is my good friend and we talk a lot but we do not discuss politics. He really helped me when my mother died. He is a good person and currently building a great hospital for his community, but he is also having problems with ‘pay this to this office’ and ‘pay that to that office’. DG: Are you a happy man? OL: I would not say no. I think Ghana should have benefited more from me. I should have given more to Ghana in terms of football. I stopped playing for the national team somewhere in 1996 and that was very bad. It is true I have played for the big clubs of the world and won the gold and the medals but I could have done more for Ghana. However, God has opened another door for me and I cannot complain. When I see the children in my school, they give me joy. DG: It seems you are angry with the system. OL: I do not know if angry is the word. I would say I am not happy with the system. I think I should have done more for my country but that opportunity was taken away from me. DG: Who took it away from you? OL: They know themselves. I do not want to mention names. It is a bit painful that where I thought I should have been I could not get there. DG: Is it not a case of poor planning? OL: Well, others may say so but if I should explain what really happened, you would understand what I am saying. Fine, it is God who plans for us. I want to do this but others are also planning something else for me. DG: What are your final words? OL: I think footballers should be given the opportunity to be in charge of our national teams because they have been there and understand the situation better. This is what countries have adopted. They have put their former footballers in charge of their teams. I also think we could have used the Ghana 2008 opportunity to build more stadiums rather than renovating the old ones. Ghana has thrown some of us away just like that. I think it is not the best.