- Reveals How He Set Up MOYERO FC
Hon. Lanre Moyero is an influential politician cum sports promoter. He is the MD of Moyero Football Club Limited and a native of Odigbo local government area of Ondo state. Lanre Moyero is the first black man to speak on Azerbaijan television and radio station. This graduate of Philosophy was recently honoured by the Akure Rotary Club for his humanitarian service. He has received both international and local awards. Last week Friday, City People’s Ondo/ Ekiti Reporter, ADEOLA SHITTU, was his guest in Akure, where he spoke on why he ventured into football business among other issues. Enjoy.
For the benefit of our readers, can you briefly tell us who Hon. Lanre Moyero is?
Thank you very much. I’m Hon. Lanre Ebenezer Moyero, a native of Odigbo Kingdom in Ondo Kingdom of Ondo State. I’m the first born of Chief Festus Ogunmoyero of Odigbo Kingdom, while my mother is Princess of Ajue of Odigbo Kingdom. I am married to Mrs. Yemi Moyero and the union is a blessed with wonderful children. I’m a graduate of Philosophy from Ondo State University now Ekiti State University (EKSU) before then, I had a brief transit at the Institute of Education at the University of Ilorin for my A’Level.
Thereafter, one thing led to the other and I found myself in the football world. I’m today a FIFA licensed agent and a FIFA intermediary. I’m the Managing Director Moyero Impact Investment Ltd and MD Moyero football club Ltd. My major interest is in sports development in Nigeria and diaspora, I have footballers that are doing very well, not only in Nigeria but the West African region as a whole. I have some Nigerian players that are doing very well in some parts of Europe and Russia and some of the players are doing well. I also promote football in Nigeria and West Africa.
Will you say your growing up influenced the kind of person you are today?
My background actually contributes to 90% of who I am today. It will interest you to know that despite been the son of a rich businessman in Ore, growing up was not rosy for me. I will say I grew up in the hard way and I’ve held on to some of the experiences I passed through while growing up. My father is a disciplinarian to the core.
His concern was to see you succeed and go to school. You have to buckle up as a man, you have to prove you have a future for yourself and to discuss your plans with him. These are things that stood as my back up to building myself towards a goal; that I had no choice than to make my impact felt.
I went through a lot as a boy, as an under graduate and as a graduate.
After my degree, I moved to Lagos in search of a Job and this led me to take up lots of jobs just to keep me moving. I was staying with my late uncle who was then a top custom officer, and I acted as his driver. I will drive him to his office at Seme boarder. And while he was in his office, I will cross the border because I was using his influence and the opportunity to help people to carry loads and cross the border: They call it “kilegbe”. So, when the issue of football came in and with the little information at hand, I felt if I could work as a freelancer and if this is more visible, then I can marry them together. In my uncles place we were many living in a 3 bedroom flat, myself and 7 others graduates were with him and he had 2 wives with 14 children in 3 a bedroom flat. As time passed, I developed this instinct in me that I needed to do something that was more profitable. So all these lead to football and I will say I have no regret taking that decision then.
How has having studied philosophy helped you in life?
Philosophy encompass all human endeavours. Philosophy is the mother of all knowledge, mother of all sciences and courses. As a philosopher, you dwell into different disciplines.
The profession helped me to develop my instinct on what to do, what you should not do and what you will do. I will say being a philosopher helped me build my foundation and exposure into life.
You are a graduate of philosophy, why did you go into sports?
Like I said, it was during my training period that I got the information about football promotion from a friend. He explained what football is, What football entails and how people are flourishing through football. So, when I got the information, all I did was to key into it and I began to work on it and 2 years later I found myself promoting football.
How were you able to cope with the challenges?
The first challenge I have then was that, I have never played football all my life. My friend Alex was discussing football on what and what a footballer needs, what we could put together to build a footballer and I listened to him. I saw determination in him each time he talked football, that its a business I could do and would not want to leave for anything. So it got me thinking and this was in 1998 and this my friend was doing very well.
So I looked deep into him, if it was the football thing he was doing and I realized that it was only football business he was doing.
The second problem was how to spot a good footballer and what does it entails to play football that would attract a promoter in the football palace. So that was where I started from; that who is a footballer or who can score a goal or who is a striker or a mid-fielder. So, I began to look at football beyond just entertainment.
At what particular time or year did you decide to have your own football club/academy?
Like I said, I started as a freelancer football agency in 2002; for 6 years, from 2002 to 2008. I decided to return home from Azerbaijan in Baku (Russia) in other to register my club because we were faced with so much skill problems in Russia, but I would say I’m the first black man to appear on Azerbaijan Television. I was the first black man to talk about football on TV and radio station in Azerbaijan.
Before then, I met with a British man, Jefrick Phao, is father is the majority leader of British parliament. We met in the club and he said that am I the Nigerian man that speaks on sport on Russian TV? and I said yes! he asked me to meet with him the next day, which I did and on the third day we set up an academy and he was financing 85% of the academy in Azerbaijan. We got hostel, field and stadium. Players in Azerbaijan had to join our team and we formed an academy and by late 2008. He advised me to return to my country and register the academy for my football club and they would be feeding the academy here from Nigeria and Africa in terms of players. So, I returned in 2008 to officially set up the academy and football club. I began to feed the academy in Russia with Moyero Football Club. So this was the way I developed it and I began to export players. So, what I do majorly now is to expose African players to European countries that has been playing in the UEFA Cup for 10 years. This year is the most successful year.
Going by your passion for sports mostly football, would you describe yourself as a politician and what motived you into it?
Like I said early, I came back particularly to join politics because of my passion for the power that was in charge of the state then. My passion for Dr. Rahman Olusegun Mimiko have no measure. I have a friend who is very close to him and it was this friend of mine that asked me to come back home and play politics.
So, he introduced me to politics and as a matter of fact, I was one of the people that hate politics so much, I didn’t want to go near politics, I didn’t even like politicians. But I went into politics and I played in it until toward the end of his administration. I left the party out of disappointment to join another party. But if you call me a politician, I am one. As far as politics in Odigbo is concerned and Ondo State.
How do you relax?
I’m a socialite, I mean socialite extra ordinary. I enjoy meeting with people, going into people backgrounds to see if they can impact my life or the community they belong. I’m a devoted Christian, I communicate with God. So, I relax by been alone with God. I give widows in my community allowances every month, while I give bursary to 100 students every year.
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