Sikiru Olatunbosun believes his move to 2017 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) will help him “leave the country for a better club abroad”.
The slightly built nimble-footed forward completed a free transfer to the Jos based side in October after five years with Lagos based MFM FC and he told busybuddiesng.com that the lure of working with Abdu Maikaba the newly appointed Federation Cup winning manager at Plateau United was the deciding factor in his move to Jos.
“[Abdu Maikaba] has called for me several times and for me, I really want to work with him as well as a player,” the 23-year old said about the motivation behind his move to Plateau United.
Having gotten his wish to work with Maikaba in Jos, Olatunbosun who was nicknamed ‘Messi’ by his former manager at MFM says he is doing his best to settle in and hopes to convince his coaches by dint of character and hard work that he deserves a permanent starting shirt in the team.
“I’ve been doing my best [to settle in] which the coaches know as well,” he says “I will not stop continuing to do what I know how to do [than] for me to put myself in the first team.
“It’s my game that will put me in the first team and my character as well, because every particular role that you play it’s not only you that play the position there are so many spectacular players as well so you have to put in your best to put yourself in the team and that is what I’ve been doing all this while and with God all things have been possible for me and it will continue to be possible.”
The 2018/2019 NPFL season kicks off on Sunday 13, January after a seven month enforced break with Plateau United starting off their campaign in front of the home fans against FC Ifeanyi Uba and Olatunbosun who is in line for a home debut emphasized the importance of securing an opening day and also expressed confidence that his team will cap the opening game with a home win.
“I am very happy that the league is starting on Sunday and we are playing our first match at home against FC Ifeanyi Uba. We are at home so we need to put in all our best because the first match is very important and it’s our privilege and with my teammates around me and I know we have been doing well in training and friendly matches we have played.
“So I know with everything we have been doing and with the boss and all he has been teaching us in the past month I know the coming Sunday we will put on our best and we will get the result by the Grace of God.”
The forward gained worldwide acclaim for an outrageously audacious goal he scored for former team MFM against Rangers International of Enugu in an NPFL game in 2017 which won the CNN Goal of the Week award – the first ever NPFL goal to win the award.
Although he has found it difficult to scale those heady heights subsequently mostly because he has been hampered by injuries, Olatunbosun says his target for the upcoming season is replicate the form that caught the eye of the world while at MFM and made him much sought after and in the process, put himself in the shop window for a move to a foreign club.
“Every season I have a target, last season I did not play much of the matches at MFM but I scored up to eight goals with all the injuries [I had],” he said.
“But this season I would like to score more than eight goals, more than the one I’ve been scoring because this is a new team and I need to do what make them to look for me that they need me because if I do not do much in my former team they would not say they want me so I have to even step up more than the one I have been doing in my [former] team. My target for myself is to put myself in a better position so I also can leave the country for a better club as well.”
