Growing up, dad coached my footy and cricket teams, but that's all he could do for me.
Even the superstars need to be coached once in awhile.
Coach Amodu has coached the cream of Nigerian football players and I had the privilege of working with him albeit for a very short time during the preparations for the two-legged Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Egypt.
My dad has been my coach since I was seven years old - from 7 to 18 is when he coached my club team - and so it was always in the family. He introduced me to soccer at a young age and also kind of molded me into a good player at a young age, too. Which then I grew to love the game and be as passionate as he was.
My dad has always played and coached, so that's what I knew. I played other sports but always turned toward soccer and had the same love for it as my father. They never forced me to play; I always wanted to. I was always around it.
Kids can really get better quickly. Here's another thing I would like to say: Kids should never be coached by their parents, ever. They should be as natural as possible.
I'd have considered myself fortunate to be coached by Guardiola because he really puts his stamp on teams. He builds them, moulds them, guides them, berates them, nurtures them. He makes them great. He takes them to a higher level; a place beyond mere football.
When I grew up, my father taught us the value of hard work. He wanted us to enjoy ourselves, but he also wanted to know what it took to be successful. He coached a lot of our sports teams growing up. We weren't very good, but we learned about hard work and enjoying life and your teammates.
I always love being able to dance with athletes because they just know how to be coached.
Playing all these different sports, you learn so much from the people you get coached by.
