Arsenal out of EPL race, have slim chance of winning UCL – Jarus

Popular career coach and businessman, Surajudeen Oyewale, also known as Jarus shares his enthusiasm for football and his love for Arsenal, in this interview with ABIODUN ADEWALE

As a successful career person and now a businessman, you seem to have a strong connection with football. How do you create time to unwind?

I will say my connection with sports is very deep. Especially when it comes to football. I play football, preferably as a striker, hence the name deadly striker. I own the same amateur football team I play for which is Jarus FC and I also support Arsenal.

As a player, you share videos and keep a record of your goals. How do you keep going despite your busy schedule?

It’s fun for me, and it’s not just about being fit alone; it is something that keeps me happy. At the beginning of every year, I set a target of scoring 60 or 70 goals and every single goal I score, I count. It doesn’t matter whether it was in a five-aside or 11-aside game. I play football three to four times a week, and I have a dedicated cameraman who follows me for recording. It’s about consistency and setting a target for the number of goals and counting them from January to December is like another life goal that I have to achieve.

Why do you play so much football at this level?

Most people actually played football when they were much younger and mine is now a reverse. I didn’t play much football when I was younger because I didn’t belong to the set of people that got to play a lot of football. Normally there are three sets of people who get that opportunity and they are the guys who own the ball, the best among the players that everyone would want on their team and the bullies. I didn’t belong to any of these sets so I didn’t play as much. I was usually among other guys who would be selected last or belonged to a residual set. But I like football and when I started working and settled down in Lagos, I wanted to keep myself active with football so I met some boys in my neighborhood and I told them I would love to play with them. That way I graduated to the set of people that could own the ball. They made me the striker because I couldn’t run so much and that was how I started. I kept enjoying it. Anytime I scored I felt happy and in the past 15 years, I can hardly go a week without playing football. So it’s like playing all the football I missed as a young boy.

What was the inspiration behind setting up Jarus FC?

In all the places I have lived, from Offa in Kwara State to Ajah in Lagos State, I join the boys on the street to play football and they would usually approach me to register them for competitions. Sometimes in 2013, there was a competition in Ajah in which I sponsored them to play and since then we have usually taken part in every edition and won the tournament on a few occasions as well. We started like that and in 2023 I decided to register the team formally with the CAC. So far, so good, one of our players who has been trying to get some moves abroad had gone to the Manchester City Football School in the UK where he studied for about a year or so. We facilitated his movement and he also got some things done himself. He played for the schools against other schools from Manchester, Liverpool and Arsenal. At the end of his course, he couldn’t join the Manchester City Academy proper, but another club snapped him up and he is still with them.

Your team was featured in the Lagos Liga last year, but you guys couldn’t go far. How was that experience for you, and was that the biggest tournament you have played so far?

The Lagos Liga was a good experience for me. My friends are the promoters and I was one of the first people they contacted at the conception stage, which was about a year before the tournament. It lived up to the expectations, largely in terms of the exposure my players got, our fans were the most lively, taking about three or four buses from Ajah to the match venues, and anytime we played we trended on social media. I could say we were one of the most popular teams online and I am happy that I contributed to the popularity of the whole thing. Aside from the Lagos Liga, we also played the NNPC/Oleum Cup last year, and we won that. It was shortly before the Lagos Liga but I think the Lagos Liga is the biggest tournament we have played. We also have Jarus FC in Offa and we play two times a year against another Offa-based team. We call it the Offa Classico. It’s just a way of supporting the youth and fostering community development.

With all these experiences, are you considering floating Jarus FC in any of the lower divisions of the Nigerian league?

I didn’t know it was that expensive to run a football club. When I got in at that amateur level, the cost was not friendly but bearable. I remember we played a match against the Abuja Twitter Community and the cost of transporting our players from Lagos to Abuja and accommodating them cost about N5m. Lagos Liga also gulped about N8m and the NNPC tournament was also like that. The whole thing cost about N20m, for an amateur team that we aren’t making a profit at the moment. So, the whole experience gave me an idea of what it will cost to have a team in the NLO or NNL. If one game in Abuja cost us about N5m, imagine playing 10 away games when you have to make the players more comfortable and even put them and other officials on salary at that level. So, right now, I am just evaluating the feasibility, and I will decide if I want to expand or leave it at this recreational level. We are yet to register with any state FA or any of the leagues in Nigeria.

Let us talk about Arsenal. Your team mesmerised again in the Champions League, and a club legend, Thiery Henry is tipping them for the title. How do you see the chances, even in the Premier League?

For the Premier League, I think it’s gone. I don’t see Liverpool dropping the number of points that we hope to see them drop for us to catch up. Things can still happen but that would be a miracle. For the Champions League, I won’t say I am highly hopeful because the PSV we beat are far from being enough to judge our chance of winning the Champions League. They are not Madrid, Liverpool or any of the big sides in the UCL. Will I say we are unlucky? I just think we have this history of not rising to the occasion when it matters most. I don’t think we would win the Champions League. I don’t see how we will survive in that bracket, so our chances aren’t high, but it’s better than the league.

So, are you bracing for another heartbreak this season?

Well, yes, we are used to heartbreaks, especially those of us that have been following the team for long. I started following the team in 1999, that was some 26 years ago and the last time I had something to cheer was in 2004. I remember I once had an interview during my 9-5 days and during the pre-interview discussion, I told the interviewer that I was an Arsenal fan and he remarked that we are indeed resilient. I was extremely disappointed that we got close to winning the title two seasons ago and we started losing some unnecessary matches. Last season, we performed well but still came second. This season, I didn’t raise my hopes about the EPL title at all. Two seasons ago, I raised my hope but afterwards, I just decided to lay back.

You have been to the Emirates Stadium before. How does that live experience compare to what we have in Nigeria?

I am not proud to say that I have not watched any Nigerian club football live in the stadium. I wanted to start this year by watching Ikorodu City vs Kwara United in Lagos some weeks ago, but I needed to be out of Lagos. I follow the Nigerian league, and I have a couple of younger friends playing for Kwara United and that is the team I support as a Kwara man. I really want to have the live experience with them or perhaps with some Lagos teams as well. I have watched some matches in the UK and the atmosphere was electrifying and I hope we have something close to that whenever I get the chance to watch a live game here.

One of the revelations of this season at Arsenal is Ethan Nwaneri. At the crossroads of his international career, would you advise him to play for Nigeria or England?

I absolutely want him to play for Nigeria because we need him. We lost Saka to England and if we get Ethan, it will help us because he comes with some skills and ball playing ability. I’m sure he will be a quality addition to the Super Eagles. Iwobi started like him and hopefully he would see that example.