Chelsea Ladies of England attacker, Eniola Aluko has cast a look back at her early days as a footballer and recalls that her parents tried to stop her from playing the round leather game.
The Nigerian-born lass, whose brother, Omatsone ‘Sone’ Aluko has been capped by the Flying Eagles and Super Eagles, revealed that her relatives did not want her to play football because they felt it is a male sport.
The 29-year-old Aluko, though, defied all the odds and has grown into a top star at club level and for England women’s national team, for which she has made 103 appearances since her international debut.
Though born in Nigeria, Aluko moved to England with her family while still an infant and started playing football along with some boys in her neighbourhood before she was scouted by the English coaches and invited to the national team.
She, however, recounts that it might not have been such a pleasant story had she bowed to pressure to give up her passion for ‘the game of the century,’ which members of her family back in Nigeria did not take a fancy to.
“I’m really grateful to my mum for not listening to relatives in Nigeria who said it wasn’t ladylike to play football. They wanted me to play tennis because you could wear a skirt. My mum knew it was a gift,” Aluko told BBC Radio
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