I don’t remember the very first time we met. It probably was on the football field, during a football match.
Thinking back now, it could have been in 1977, during the epic FA Cup match that year when my team, Shooting Stars FC, played against Raccah Rovers of Kano, the team that he played for at the time. I am not so sure again as I write this.
It could also have been when he was invited to join us in the national team, the Green Eagles, in 1977, by Coach Father Yelisavic Tiko.
Either way, his impact on the national team from when he joined was massive and instantaneous. He was a different kind of player, of a different breed. He was a serious football player playing as if his life depended on winning every match.
He was left-footed, something the country was in short supply of at the time. Since the exit of Haruna Ilerika and of Adekunle Awesu, both left-footed players in 1976 and 1977 respectively, there was not a single left-footed player left in the entire national team. It was a great deficit to the team for a short while during which Nigeria, that was a master at wing play with fast runners on both flanks, had to improvise with Adokiye Amiesimaka, a right-footed player but who could effectively use his left foot. Adokiye was an undergraduate at the University of Lagos, but loaded with football credentials as a young player in the Lagos area. He was drafted to the Green Eagles from his inside-forward position to the left side of Nigeria’s attack, to fill the gap. No one missed Awesu again from the moment Adokiye stepped in with his mesmerizing dribbles and pinpoint crosses.
Shortly after that, Felix Owolabi showed up on the national radar with a left foot that was deadly and packed with ‘venom’.
Felix was extremely fast, with the ability to dribble even at top speed, cutting back the ball sharply, and accelerating away in the next movement. Slightly limited in height, and with packed muscles in his legs, he could swivel on a coin whilst dribbling. He was as strong as an Ox.
When racing with the ball at his feet, he was the most difficult player to mark. The only way to stop him was to physically bring him down, or kick him to halt. He was fearless, could ride any tackles with the single mindedness to get close to an opposing goal through the shortest and fastest route and release one of his bombs in his left foot.
He moves like a train meandering towards goal with the ball glued to his left foot. His attitude earned him the respect and love of fans and coaches.
On top of all those attributes, Felix Owolabi also had ferocious power behind his shots with the left foot. His right foot was like my left foot, fit for standing and as support only. He was a true attacking wing-back on the left flank of attack.
So, Felix joined us in the national team and became a challenge for Father Tiko who could no longer replace Adokiye whose dribbling skills and pull outs with the right foot from the left side of attack were creating goal scoring chances particularly for me coming from the blind side of defenders to nod home floated balls.
That’s how Coach Father Tiko put on his creative cap and came up with the wing-back system that has now become the norm in modern day football. He converted Felix to the left full-back position to replace the aging right-footed player manning that area of Nigeria’s defense. That’s how Samuel Ojebode’s career in the national team ended and Felix Owolabi’s began.
It was a tactical master stroke. The weaker side of the Nigerian team suddenly became its stronger flank. Coping with fleet-footed, master dribbler Adokiye was hard enough for opposing defenders. To now add a second layer, a hard-nosed, unstoppable power-house charging down the same flank from defense, became a nightmare for opposing teams.
That’s how Felix Owolabi earned the nickname ‘Owoblow’. He was blowing like a tornado, breaking up attacks and blowing down defenses.
Meanwhile, following the only match that he played for Raccah Rovers against Shooting Stars FC, he became a target for the Shooting Stars’ scouts recruiting exceptionally gifted, Yoruba-born players from all over the country (a response to the system established by Rangers International FC after the Civil War in 1970. They recruited only Igbo players to their club).
That’s how Felix joined me at Shooting Stars FC and together we became very influential members of the Nigerian national team as well as of Nigerian domestic football as a whole for a few years.
When I retired from the game in 1982, Felix, almost single handedly, won the national league for Shooting Stars FC the following year.
In 1984, I came out of retirement to play in the African Club Champions Cup in an attempt to win the continental trophy for the first time, and, possibly, earn my most-sought-for ‘Africa’s Best Player award’, something I had come close to winning twice before.
Had Felix not missed playing in the finals of the 1984 championship due to accumulated yellow cards, and I had not suffered a debilitating knee injury in the first leg of the semi-final match that would not heal uptill the final match, Shooting Stars would have won the African Club Championship that year, with Felix’s presence making the important difference.
That’s was how our shared dreams were terminated and our football careers, playing together, ended.
He went on to play for another 8 to 9 years for Shooting Stars FC after I had retired rather prematurely it now seems, adding to his chest of medals a second continental club trophy.
His longevity in the game was not a surprise – his level of self-discipline and professionalism was uncanny. He never had time for the frivolities in the life of a superstar. He was, and still is, a staunch practicing christian, a teetotaler, no messing around with girls and drugs, limited socialization and a strong family man.
He was every player’s friend, and we have been very close without being socially close.
On the football field, the rest of us always took lessons from Felix’s professional attitude and practice, traits that he took to his life after football.
That’s why he succeeded in his academic pursuits, as well as in his civil service career to which he retired.
Felix Owolabi ‘Owoblow’ remains an epitome of decency, dignity, industry and family.
This week as he celebrates his climb to the 7th floor of life, I join with all members of our football ‘fraternity’ and generations of football players in Nigeria, to wish him a Happy 70th Anniversary. May his journey through the years of his life ahead be full of life’s best gifts.
Congratulations ‘Owoblow
