Ricardo Agbor has shared how his parents prevented him from pursuing a professional football career because they believed sports were for school dropouts. Growing up in Surulere, Lagos, Ricardo was an exceptional footballer who earned the nickname “King Pereira” after the famous Brazilian player known for scoring spectacular free kicks. His football skills were so impressive that people would gamble on his ability to score, and he rarely disappointed them.
On Real Life With Aunty Ayo podcast, Ricardo explained that in the 1970s and 1980s, both acting and football were stigmatized professions that educated families discouraged their children from pursuing. Parents believed these careers were for wayward youths and dropouts rather than respectable professions for serious-minded individuals. Even today, acting has only recently gained acceptance as a legitimate and lucrative career, but back then, telling parents you wanted to act or play football professionally was considered unthinkable.
Ricardo’s football prowess was legendary in his Surulere neighborhood, particularly on the beaches where local tournaments took place. He could execute free kicks and penalty shots with remarkable accuracy, earning him comparisons to Brazilian legend Pereira. His sisters would be embarrassed when people called him “King Pereira” instead of his real name, wondering why he had adopted this strange moniker. Despite his talent and passion for football, Ricardo’s parents firmly shut down any dreams of a football career. Looking back, he acknowledges that professional footballers today earn tremendous amounts of money, but he has made peace with the path his life took through acting instead.
Ricardo Agbor said: “My parents were the one that really bent me out of it because they felt it was for dropouts. Even this acting we’re talking about, it’s today now it has become that lucrative and they’ve now found out that there are a lot of graduates practicing. Before now they felt it was for loafers so they would really not want you to go and tell them you wanted to act, not to talk of you telling them you wanted to play football. It was more like an abomination for you to mention that you wanted to become a footballer. But today you’ll see people take their kids, they bring them to acting and say how can my son or my daughter, people have now come to terms with the fact that it’s not wayward people that act, they now know it’s a lucrative business for professionals not just all comers…..See More
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