I worked for Pastor Chris — Osimhen narrates when he left football to make money at Christ Embassy

Super Eagles ace Victor Osimhen recently shed some light on his humble beginnings, revealing that he once worked for a Pastor Chris Oyakhilome project at Christ Embassy.

The 26-year-old would see himself settle comfortably amongst the top five transfer fees paid for African footballers should his €75 million release clause be triggered this summer. He is also one of the highest-paid African footballers in the game.

However, Osimhen’s story only recently became associated with affluence, as before football, he had few prospects; washing spirogyra-ridden gutters or hawking in traffic were some of the things he did for money.

In a recent tell-all interview with legendary Nigerian broadcaster ‘Daddy Freeze’, Osimhen told more of his story, revealing that he also worked in Christ Embassy, one of the better-known Pentecostal churches in the country.

Osimhen’s talents had always been obvious, but after his secondary school education, his future seemed bleak football-wise, and he almost quit, prioritising menial jobs to support his family.

“After I finished secondary school, I wasn't playing football for almost 2 years,” Osimhen told Freeze. “I stopped because I was literally playing it without anything; I was just training and just playing ‘Jeun jeun’ [as a mercenary], but nothing was really coming out of it.”

Osimhen’s story eventually changed when, in 2014, he impressed in the literal ‘15 minutes of fame’ during the U-17 mass trial, which saw him join Emmanuel Amuneke’s triumphant squad for the 2015 World Cup. But before glory was the grind.

“I needed to support my family. I needed to because they were doing the most for me, you know, even if I was the last born,” he continued.

“I think I still needed to help them in some certain way, so I started working in Christ Embassy. Yeah, I was working. I was working for Pastor Chris, who was doing some signing up his members for something 

“I met him one-on-one, like, in front of me. I met him one-on-one. And as at that time, it was not just me. Almost like 15 of the guys in the same hood with me. We were working there, and some other guys who were, like, sleeping in the church.

We were sleeping in the church. They were feeding us and everything. So most of the time, if you want to go see your family, you can go. But me, I'm just like, 20 minutes with the, with the car to get back, to my hood. So I was staying in the church for almost 5 months. So I only come home to see my dad, my sisters, and then I go back.

“So I was doing it and I was bringing a lot of – at that time I was bringing money, sharing Rhapsodies of Realities, and meeting new people, becoming friends with even people you never knew before. So we were just vibing, and it was, it was good.

“And then we met Pastor Chris, such an amazing person; you know, he spoke with us and prayed for us. And I I think after I left, I also did some jobs like Baba Ijebu and everything. I was an agent – not a direct agent, but someone that I know, like a big agent there. So he was; he used to give me the machine and I used to go somewhere to work for him.”

Osimhen’s is the classic grass-to-grace story. He recently rejected a reported €40 million-a-year offer from Al Hilal, opting to leave his options open for competitive football in Europe, an amount he could never have envisaged being offered when distributing books and pamphlets for Pastor Chris.