The Indian Super League has seen a conglomeration of a lot of international football players. Such multinational leagues not just see the exchange of sporting brilliance but also the exchange of culture. In one interesting display of such, spectators were up for something special ahead of the Delhi Dynamos versus Chennaiyin FC match at Delhi.
It’s known to us all that it’s a ritual to have the national anthem played before the start of any match. While the Indian players sing their heart out, along with the crowd; the foreign players in the league are often seen to be just standing in respect.
But in different sight on Wednesday, Nigerian international Dudu Omagbemi, who plays for Chennaiyin FC, was seen signing the Indian national anthem. A video of the same was shared a by Facebook page where he can clearly be seen singing the anthem his heart out.
His gesture saw a thunderous response from the crowd on the field as well as on social media. The 31-year-old Nigerian forward has played in India for more than one and a half decades now. His Indian stint started with Sporting Goa back in 2001, where he stayed on for seven years.
Dudu was one of the leading scorers for the Goan side where he played 89 matches and scored 73 times. He was also the top scorer of the erstwhile National Football League of the 2004-05 season.
He, however, was sent out of India on loan in 2005 to Malaysia and then for the next five years he played in the Hungarian league. Dudu briefly returned to India in 2010 and joined East Bengal where he played 18 matches and scored 8 goals. But his real second long stint in India started in 2013, when he joined Salgaocar and later moved on again to East Bengal.
He joined the Indian Super League last year, where he played for FC Goa where in his first ISL stint, Dudu played 7 matches and scored four goals.
His long stay in India might have incurred his love for the country as recently he posted a picture of him wearing a kurta. He in many of his interviews has also claimed India as his second home after yesterday’s game, where he sang the anthem, we could clearly see his love for the country.
