Passage of an enigma — Ara

[FILES] A football is rests on the pitch. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis<br />

He was an enigma. Last Sunday, ‘Ara’ died as quietly as he had lived his entire life.

Otunba Deji Osibogun, my friend based in Ibadan, Nigeria, called to give me the sad news.Some time ago, for some reason, Deji and I had discussed Ara, a nickname this prodigious football genius inherited from his late father, probably the most famous Nigerian footballer in the history of the game in the country – Tesilimi ThunderBalogun.

For some reason (I don’t remember why now), his name came up and we both wondered where he was hibernating since he left for the USA.

On the day I could have met his more famous father for the first time, Tesilimi Thunder Balogun died.

My team, Housing Corporation FC Ibadan, were to play against Mighty Jets FC of Jos in a friendly football match at the famous Liberty Stadium, Ibadan, the supreme theatre of football at the time in Nigeria, when it was announced as the match was about to begin that Thunder Balogun died in his sleep whilst taking his regular afternoon siesta in readiness to go and watch the match.

We all observed a minute’s silence in honour of the legendary football player whose career was a compendium of incredulous, mystical stories.

Tesilimi Balogun was one of the first Nigerians to play professional football in the United Kingdom. Playing without any shoes, with only bandages strapped to his feet, his performances during the famous 1949 UK tour by a selected team of Nigerian football players had impressed some English coaches enough to be recruited into Blackpool FC after the tour. Teslimi Balogun was a member of that pioneer national team of Nigeria. He was also its best player.

There were mythical tales about him and his