Everything that is happening around me is like a dream” were the first words Enyimba’s left-back, Idris Aloma, uttered when www.npfl.ng caught up with him at the team’s camp.
Aloma is originally from Kano State, but raised in Lagos.
The youngest of six children, he squeezed through street football and daring the wrath of his retired soldier father, he joined a number of amateur and professional football clubs to land himself where he is today as the first choice left-back for one of Nigeria’s most successful clubs. He has also had a place in the national team.
Reflecting on his career path so far, Aloma said: “I thank God for what is going on in my life. My mum loved football, but my dad didn’t want me to play. He insisted that I must go to school. But my mum bought me my first boots and registered me in the Pepsi Football Academy in Lagos.
“I started my football with them, playing there and going to school at the same time. The year I wrote my WAEC was the same year I joined my first club – Babanawa Football Club of Kogi State…based in Lagos then. Whenever I come back from school in the afternoon, I go to the pitch to train with them in the evening.”
During his National Examinations Council (NECO) exams, he lost his supportive mother and his father insisted he must finish his exams, and even further his education to the university level. At this time, Babanawa had relocated to Kogi.
“I had no option but to leave Lagos State and relocate to Kogi State without my dad’s permission.
He said: “Not that I didn’t appreciate my dad’s insistence that I go to school, but I believed that this talent that God gave me is my life. When I got to Kogi State, I called my dad and told him.”
As one who has found his desired vocation, he laced boots with different clubs. “From Babanawa, I joined OUK (Orji Uzor Kalu) Football Club in Abia State. When I left OUK, I went back to Babanawa Football Club. From there, I joined Kaduna United where I played half season, then to Abubakar Bukola Saraki FC (ABS). From ABS, I joined El-Kanemi Warriors and from there I joined Enyimba.”
Through the many different clubs, varying twists and numerous disappointments, Aloma said something within him refused to give up.
“I did not really believe that I will be where I am today,” Aloma resumed. “All these years, I had been playing ‘thank you football’, playing in a club like Babanawa where there was no money. Then to Kaduna United with all the stress involved, it has not been easy. Honestly speaking, I passed through a lot of stress in this football.
“You look at yourself after playing for a full season and going back home and having nothing to show for it because nobody was paying you anything in those small clubs. At the end of the year, you have nothing to boast of. It feels like you are just deceiving yourself, like you are wasting your time. You want to go for trials and the biggest problem is where to get transport money. You start going from one person to another, one place to another to get money to go for trials. Sometimes some of my friends back home then would contribute money for my transport. And I went for so many trials. You get there, you work so hard, but at the end, they would drop you.
“You go back home. Back to Lagos. At this time, my father had moved back to Kano where he built a house. Instead of going to Kano, I remained in Lagos. I kept praying to God, paying my tithes with any money that came to me.”
When all those things were happening, he thought to himself that “since it is God that gave me this talent, he will make a way for me”.
“Some of my senior friends would encourage me and tell me to look at these problems as stepping stones. That is why I will never forget them. Some of those friends of mine who helped me then, at the end of the season, I would buy jerseys for them. Sometimes I would put my salary together and give to some of them,” hen added.
Aloma’s career effectively took off from his time at ABS from where he signed for El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri. He got his first national team call-up in January 2015, when the home-based Eagles played two friendly matches against Cote d’Ivoire and Yemen. From then, Enyimba came calling and he joined the Aba-based club during the Glo Premier League Super Four Invitational Tournament in Abuja.
He acknowledges that he is not at the peak just yet, but will continue gunning for the top.
Aloma spoke of one regret though: “I miss my mum so much. She stood by me and encouraged me, and right now that things are working, she is no longer alive.
“But I know she is with me, inspiring me to do better. She helped bring me into football and it is painful that now we are rejoicing she is no longer here. Look at me today, God has helped me get to a place where I can help other people. I can get money today that I can send to one or two people to solve some problems. It’s sad that she is not here, but I still give God all the glory.”
The full-back believes Enyimba is not the end of his football career. “I still believe I will move forward. I believe in God. He is the one that gave me the talent, He is my coach, He is my manager, He is my everything. He will take me to where He determined that I will be.
“The Big Boss (Stephen Keshi) has invited me to the national team for the Nations Cup qualifiers (against Chad) and my dream is to put in my best to make the country proud,” he told www.npfl.ng.
Aloma scored Enyimba’s first league goal of the 2014/15 Glo Premier League season against Lobi Stars in Makurdi and he was ever present in the Enyimba Champions League squad that was eventually knocked out of the 2015 CAF Champions League by Egyptian side, Smouha SC.