Nigerian football legend, Segun Odegbami has expressed a twinge of regret for not treating his playing career as a business, admitting he “sold” his career “too cheaply” despite becoming one of Africa’s biggest sporting icons.

Odegbami, who turned 74 on August 27, spoke in a wide-ranging interview recently.

The former Green Eagles winger fondly known as “Mathematical” reflected on fame, family, and what he would have done differently if he played in today’s era of big-money football.

Asked how big he could have become with modern European salaries and endorsements, Odegbami did not mince words.

He said, “Ah, very big, I believe. I could have approached my football career differently, not just as an object of passion and for national service, but as one that had the power to take care of me for the rest of my life! I would have given it my all deliberately, and played more intentionally, packaged and marketed myself better. I ‘sold’ my career too cheaply!” he said.

Odegbami revealed that football was not his first calling.

At 17, he said he had “the sensitive hands of an artist, destined for poetry, illustration, and the scenic flurry of a canvas.”

He added, “I should have been a fine artist, painting, writing poems and illustrating them. Those were my natural gifts till I was 17. Instead, following the reality of my life in and after football, I was led to follow a life related always to football. Everybody saw me as a footballer.”

Speaking on fame, the septuagenerian said it cost him privacy but opened doors.

“The only thing it took away from me is my privacy. I cannot hide to do anything. That’s why my life is an open book,” he said.

Now in what he calls the “evening” of his life, Odegbami said aging has given him clarity.

“As I get older… my slowly ‘withering’ body makes me acknowledge mortality… There is no ‘whole lifetime ahead’ any more… Getting things done NOW… have become my response to the constant reminder of the inevitability of mortality,” he said.

He revealed that the greatest lesson he wished his younger self had learned was to build early.

“I spent too much time ‘enjoying’ life in the least important ways, instead of building a solid career early in a field of my passion,” he said. (The Sun)