Atlanta Olympics gold medallist and former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is bitter that he didn’t retire as the best goalkeeper in the world and one of the richest in the game after his career was cut short by a car crash in 1997 when he just 23 years old. He said it is painful that the accident changed his entire life.
The legendary goalkeeper who spoke with Sunday Telegraph stated that he was closed to having a chronic high blood pressure coupled with his spinal cord injury when he saw that his whole career which he started as a youth player at Nigerdock FC of Lagos was over.
“It was not easy watching my teammates run up and down on the pitch playing robust soccer while I was confined to one spot in excruciating pains. But God knows best, if I had continued my active career more so with my last Italian clubside, Reggiana FC, I would have been a household name in world soccer.
After winning the Olympic gold medal in Atlanta, I did not play active professional football for two years before the unfortunate incident that abruptly sent me on premature retirement. Professionally, if what I lost finally is quantified, it would run into billions of dollars.
“The good thing about it all is that, with the help of my family I was able to overcome this deep thought and I thank God that today I am a successful football manager. The secret of my success was that I never gave up hope and this gave me the grace to put myself together to face reality instead of brooding over split milk.”
Dosu, who is from a family of goalkeepers as all the four boys in the family of six were into goalkeeping, noted that, the people who stood by him during his period of travails were great psychologists despite not being trained to do such job. “They ensured I was told the truth everyday as I recuperated from my injuries.
I was made to understand that some great soccer stars died on the pitch while playing actively, while some sustained injuries that ended their careers. My comforters went as far as citing physical examples.
Their conclusion was that at a point in my life, I will stop playing football, and that I should forget the fact that it happened less than two years into my professional career in the European league. The series of reality talks constantly rang a bell in my mind.”
He recalled the day the car crash happened in Lagos hours after the Super Eagles’ France 98 World Cup qualifiers against the Harambee Stars of Kenya.
“On that fateful day in January 1997, I left the team’s camp after the match to pay a short visit to my family in company of a friend around 8pm, a policeman when the crash happened at the Obaniokoro end of Ikorodu Road.
I ran into a herd of cattle and lost control forcing the car to somersault a couple of times and it stopped with the four wheels up. At this point I was still conscious and I asked my friend in the car while waiting for help if he was okay, and he answered in the affirmative, at this point I told him that I wasn’t okay. As God would have it, we were rescued by some friends of one of my teammates Taribo West, who were also driving along Ikorodu Road.
One thing is to rescued at a accident spot, another is to be rescued by people who know you very well, so God did His mighty work again as I was rushed to the hospital with extra care. I remembered getting to the hospital in Ikeja and before I knew it, I passed out and when I woke up, I found myself in Plaster of Paris.”
Dosu, who is now the coach of Westerlo Football Academy of Lagos a team sponsored by KBC Westerlo of Belgium, expressed his delight for at least helping Nigeria to win an elusive Olympic gold medal and recording three caps for the Super Eagles against Burkina Faso, Morocco and Kenya.
“My consolation has been the fact that despite my short international career, I remain a household name in Nigeria and among Nigerian across the world. This is fulfilling and it gives me a sense of belonging,” he said.
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