Raphael Onyedika has opened up on the difficult journey that took him from playing barefoot on the streets of Nigeria to the Bundesliga, with the Super Eagles midfielder preparing for a new chapter at Eintracht Frankfurt after completing his move from Club Brugge, Footynaija.com reports.
Onyedika joined Frankfurt shortly before the start of the Bundesliga season, bringing an end to his three-year spell in Belgium. He had established himself at Club Brugge after moving there from Danish side FC Midtjylland in 2022, playing in the Belgian top flight and gaining valuable experience in European football.
He started out playing street football in Nigeria before he was scouted into FC Ebedei, an academy owned by the brother of former Nigeria international Sunday Oliseh.
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He spent years at the Nigerian-based football academy before FC Midtjylland discovered him and took him to Denmark. From there, Onyedika developed into a proper midfielder, playing at the highest level, and eventually earning his Super Eagles debut.
Now at Frankfurt, he is preparing to play in the Bundesliga for the first time, but the 25-year-old has not forgotten the difficult years that came before his professional career.
Onyedika opens up on difficult journey
Speaking in a DFL Midweek Interview, Onyedika recalled how his football journey began on the streets, where he and other children often played without boots because their families could not afford them.
“You just come in the street, there are a lot of kids like you playing just for fun barefoot because you don’t have boots or money to buy boots at that time,” he said.
The move to FC Ebedei eventually gave Onyedika a clearer route into professional football, but he said making it out of Nigeria was never guaranteed because of the number of young players chasing the same dream.
“Almost every kid in Nigeria dreams about playing professional and going internationally, but the chance of making it is slim,” he said.
“You have to be lucky and you have to have God’s help as well. It’s not always easy. You have to go through a lot, and the story is very, very difficult.”
Onyedika also described the daily competition inside the academy, where young players had to keep proving themselves to avoid being sent home.
“Every day you have to fight, you have to push to survive so that you don’t get sent back from the academy,” he explained.
“It’s like a challenge every day; every day you have to give everything you have in training because the day you stop, you go back home.”
Those years have now taken Onyedika to Frankfurt, where he competes for a starting place in a midfield under returning coach Adi Hütter.
