GLOBAL SOCCER

and stand him out in his new club.” Okoku, who is a keen follower of English g football said he has watched manyyggood many good defenders strugglegg struggle in Englandg England not because theyy they are not ggood, good, but because they y couldn’t withstand the pace of English football. “Due to the ppacyy pacy nature of English g football, defenders don’t have all the time in the world to think and some of them don’t recover too qquicklyy quickly and this is what Balogung Balogun would have to contend with in England,g England, unlike where he was coming g from in Germanyy Germany where their football is majorlyjy majorly based on tactics and less of speed,” Okoku noted. Balogung Balogun will have to competep compete for a pposition position in the central defence alongside g Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffyy Duffy and the Superp Super Eaglesg Eagles defender has stated he was not afraid of competition. p "It's alwaysy always ggood good to have that competi competip - tion; it will improve p all of us as defenddefend - ers and then we have to take it from there. I've seen the qualities q of Lewis and Shane in the past p week or so since I've been here. Both are very strong physically and you can tell that they've played here for a long time already, but I have qualities myself and I'll put in my best and see what happens from there," the 30-year-old told the club's website.

Balogun played in all three of Nigeria's group stage matches at this year's World Cup but understands that his international achievements do not guarantee an automatic starting role at the club.

"The strikers in the Premier League will have a bit more quality than the World Cup, in my opinion, and I think the qualities of the offensive players in the division mean it will be an exciting challenge for me," he added.

"I've come into a side where the two central defenders did very well last year - I just have to do my best, work hard and then you hope it's enough. I can't come in and say I've played in the World Cup and I should start - it has to be about me earning a place in the team."

Balogun is however delighted to feature in his second pre-season game for Brighton and Hove Albion when he replaced Lewis Dunk in the 74th minute in his side’s 1-1 draw with the home side, Birmingham City last Saturday.

He had earlier played his first game for Brighton in last Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Charlton Athletic at the Valley.

“Nice to get some more minutes into those legs against @BCFC

#BHAFC #Seagulls,” Balogun wrote on his Twitter handle on Sunday.

It remains to be seen how much value Balogun’s move to England would add to his game.

“His transfer to England is a move in the right direction. It would definitely improve his game and importantly too, Nigeria football fans would get to watch him play more often than when he was playing in Germany, because of the kind of followership the Premier League commands back home,” Okoku said.

On why he chose Nigeria over Germany in spite of having played for the European country at age-grade competitions, Balogu said a telephone call he received from former Super Eagles boss was responsible for that.

“One night in March, my phone rang. It was a Nigerian number … it was Stephen Keshi, the then Nigerian National Team manager. I was sweating as soon as he introduced himself. I wanted him to say the words I had thought about for so long. He spoke for a while about how he wasn’t totally familiar with me, but he liked how I played.

“Then he said it: ‘I would like to invite you to be a Super Eagle.’

“Those words … they meant so much to me. It meant validation for every step of my footballing journey. It meant happiness for my family. Most of all, it meant an opportunity to go to Nigeria. “And that … that was everything to me. “I never supported the German national team, mostly because I thought they were arrogant and their football was boring to watch. Even in 2006, when Germany hosted and the whole country had World Cup mania — I secretly cheered for them to lose. Because I was a kid and I was rebellious. And because, even though I felt in my mind that I was just as German as all the other kids, a lot of people didn’t see me like that."

Born to a Nigerian father and a German mother, Balogun was born and brought up in Germany with little knowledge about Nigeria.

“My grandma died when I was 16 years. Because I had never met her, my dad didn’t tell me right when it happened. He actually waited a few days — that’s how distant my relationship was from her. She only spoke Yoruba. So when we talked on the phone when I was little, my dad would try to translate for us. He had never taken me to Nigeria, for reasons he didn’t make clear to me, and I only ever saw photos of my grandma.”

The grief he felt over the death of his paternal grandmother led him to know more and reconnect with his Nigerian roots.