The club in Nigeria is the former striker’s latest idea: from the attempted murder to gifts from his teammates, the story of a cult footballer
Oba Martins always said: “When football tires me, I will go back to Africa”. The moment arrived in 2021 after a career spanning Serie A, Premier, La Liga, Bundesliga and hundreds of goals scored. He has never defined himself as a lucky footballer: he has always been bold, confident. Often, however, he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was playing at Wuhan when Covid hit the world. At 22, during a trip to his country, someone tried to kill him. Oba Oba was at the wheel of the Mercedes, the door was shot and the friend sitting next to him was injured in the shoulder. He saved himself by hiding under the steering wheel of the car. Today his son Kevin, born in 2005, plays for Monza Primavera. He never comes to Italy: he enjoys the afternoons in the gym and the nights in Lagos. He will soon open a luxury nightclub together with his wife Nadine, he announced it on social media. Yet another unexpected somersault from the former goal acrobat.
Cuper’s intuition
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Oba Oba played and won, but everyone remembers him for the gymnast’s celebration that everyone has copied over the years. “It was born when I was 12 – he said – I played in the street and without shoes. I was the strongest, but my teammates weren’t amused when I scored. Then I started doing somersaults, everyone laughed. From that moment on I no longer stopped.” In 2000 he arrived at Reggiana together with three other Nigerians: he and Makinwa were the only ones to convince the management. Martins was just 16 years old and to stop him from feeling homesick he was adopted by a lady in the city. He moved from Serie C to Inter’s Primavera, a year later he was already playing in the Champions League with Hector Cuper: Recoba got injured, someone was needed up front. Oba Oba enters and scores a goal in his first start against Leverkusen. He also scored in the semi-final return match against Milan, but it wasn’t enough. He remained with the Nerazzurri until 2006, winning a Scudetto with Mancini, two Italian Cups and a Super Cup.
Bobo’s gift and doubts about age
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At Inter, Oba Oba was the group’s mascot: “Toldo gave me my first phone, an old Nokia. So I could call my family in Nigeria.” Vieri has always treated him like a brother: “Once he showed up in the locker room with an 8,000 euro watch and put it on my wrist.” Ronaldo impressed him: “At Pinetina there were hundreds of people at every training session, the fans were crying with emotion after his goals”. Martins’ career has been full of lights, but also shadows. During his years at the Nerazzurri, the Nigerian federation wrote to the club that there was a mistake regarding his age. According to them, Martins was not born in 1984 but five years earlier. In the end everything was resolved with an admission of guilt by the African country. Simple mistake or something more? Nobody will ever know. The striker said goodbye to Serie A in 2006, destination Newcastle: paid 16 million pounds by the English club. He took the number 9 shirt which belonged to Alan Shearer, a legend in those parts. And Oba said: “I didn’t think about it, he is the player who makes the difference, not the shirt he wears.”
A condemnation escaped
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He played three seasons in the Premier League, then moved to Wolfsburg and finally returned to Birmingham. In between also the experience in Russia at Rubin Kazan: “It was -30 degrees, an African like me can’t play there”, he said. “It seemed like I was disappearing as a player, I couldn’t afford it. So I went back to Europe.” Before his experiences in MLS and China he also moved to Levante in La Liga, but Italy remained in his heart: he was married to Abigail, Balotelli’s sister, Kevin is one of the couple’s two children. Mario is one of the few with whom Oba has remained in contact. He doesn’t hear from anyone, he avoids interviews and thinks about what to do now that he has stopped playing football. In Italy he had been accused by the Como Prosecutor’s Office of having evaded taxes for over 8 million euros: he never showed up for the trial, but in the end he was acquitted. Martins did not miss anything in his career. The ball saved him and he had fun with goals and somersaults. He escaped an ambush and also a possible sentence. At almost 39 years old it’s time to relax, that nightclub in Lagos could be the right place to do it.
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