I felt at home at West Ham- Nsofor

Former Nigeria striker, Victor Obinna Nsofor talks about his time at West Ham United and his love for the English Premier League side, his fondness for eccentric coach, Jose Mourinho, and more, in this interview

Despite spending a year with West Ham, you are adored by the supporters. How does this make you feel?

I remember being at a beach in Miami and this West Ham fan recognised me and said, ‘Irons’. It was so funny. Then we spoke about my time at the club.

I’m so grateful that the fans still remember me and they still say nice things. I was only there for a year but it feels like I played for the club my whole career.

I watched the Premier League as a kid in Nigeria but never thought one day I’d play in England. I was at Inter Milan and I was in my last contract year. After the World Cup in 2010, West Ham approached my agent and when he asked what I thought, I immediately said yes. When I told my family they were so happy and they couldn’t wait to watch me on TV.

What was your time with the Hammers like?

I know when I arrived, fans would have thought, ‘Who is this guy?’ But I felt no pressure when I joined. I wasn’t scared. I saw it as an opportunity to prove myself in England. I had played for Inter Milan, Nigeria and in a World Cup, so I backed myself to do well.

Which was your most memorable game?

The moment I won’t forget is my mum and little sister seeing me play for West Ham. It was the game where I had four assists against Manchester United and that’s one of the highlights of my career. That was my ‘I have arrived’ moment.

My mum kept telling people, ‘That’s my son, that’s my son’. I felt so proud after. I remember my teammates giving me a standing ovation in the dressing room. I’d like to think I proved to them that I was good enough and that I could contribute to the team. Then I scored the hat-trick against Nottingham Forest and all my teammates signed the match ball, which I still have. My celebration was somersaults and I worried the manager would tell me to stop doing it. But after the game, he said there’s no reason for me to stop doing it and he wanted me to teach him how to do it!

How was your time with the club?

I felt at home at West Ham, almost as if I was still in Nigeria. The fans really supported me and, no matter what happens in my life, I will never forget them.

The other day someone asked me why my Instagram profile picture is of me at West Ham. I said, ‘Why not?’ I wish I could’ve stayed longer. We got relegated at the end of the season and I really wanted to stay, but sadly we couldn’t reach an agreement for me to sign a new contract. Then I moved to Russia to play for Lokomotiv Moscow, but West Ham was still on my mind.

Who did you form the closest relationship with during your time with West Ham?

Carlton Cole was like a big brother to me. He went out of his way to make me feel settled. I enjoyed playing with him and we formed a good understanding on the pitch. I remember Avram Grant saying we had good chemistry after one of our training sessions.

Me and Carlton are still in touch. He’s one of the reasons I had a great experience at West Ham. You have to remember we had lots of strikers. Sometimes it was 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 so there was a lot of competition. But it was Carlton who I most enjoyed playing with.

Do you still follow the club since you left?

I still watch West Ham, that’s how close I feel to the club.

How was your time playing for Inter Milan?

 It was a privilege to play under Jose Mourinho (at Inter Milan). He was ahead of his time with how he got the best out of players. You wanted to go the extra mile for him and he knew what to say to certain players. If you were injured, sometimes he wouldn’t talk to you, so it motivated you to get back on the pitch quicker.

Then you have players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Javier Zanetti, who used to be the first at the training ground after a match, doing extras in a gym. They had already achieved a lot in their career yet were still willing to go the extra mile.

It made me look at myself in the window, so naturally, I started doing what Ibrahimovic and Zanetti were doing. My time at Inter Milan helped change my mindset and that’s the environment Mourinho created.

He’s the best manager I’ve played under. Now I’m involved in coaching, I aspire to be as good as him. It was only one season but I learned a lot.

You survived a car accident on your way home from training while at Chievo in October 2007. How grateful are you to God for that moment?

I’ve always been religious but that moment strengthened my relationship with God. He saved me that day and it’s something I will never forget. That incident happened in a split second.

I thank God that his angels covered me, because if you saw how the car looked after, you wouldn’t have believed I survived that. I was still in shock after it happened. I didn’t even phone my mum straightaway. I only had a few scratches on my face and elbow. I had no internal bleeding, nothing serious. I’m grateful to still be alive.

– Culled from The Washington Post