Page 8 - LionKing

BUSINESS
A NEW KIND OF
GOLD
By Olawale Hamed
Iremember back in the days when you would ask your parents if you could go and play football with your friends in the
yard. If you were lucky, you would come off with just a scolding and stern words from them about unfinished homework and unattended housework. Other days, such an audacious statement could earn you a smack in the rear side for “lacking focus”.
All that, before names like Austine “Jay Jay” Okocha, Yaya Toure, Nwankwo Kanu and Samuel Eto’o became popular in Africa. Back in the days, football was for the unserious elements of the society, the layabouts, the dropouts and the rascals. Success was measured by achievement of academic laurels. Parents wanted
their children/wards to go to school, get educated and get employed in decent and respectable professions like banking, law, medicine and engineering.
Today, the world has undergone a radical change in ideals and values. Physical talent and skills are increasingly gaining recognition and sports have become a major industry where mind-blowing talents are getting showcased and rewarded handsomely too. Parents are now wiser to the potentials of nurturing athletes in the family given the huge income, if not fame, that African-born sporting superstars plying their trades in Europe, Asia and America now bring to their household. Some of the salaries these athletes get paid are simply mind-boggling especially when converted to our local currencies using today’s exchange rates.
Many African athletes are now breadwinners for their families, live in the highbrow areas in Africa’s largest cities, drive some of the poshest cars and have become fashion icons within the society.
Sports has become a tool to connect and
8 | The Lion King | April - June 2019