A few days after I returned to Japan, I received a message on WhatsApp from Dayo (former President Obasanjo's youngest son, secretary, and president of Obasanjo Farms).
How are you doing after that? Did you return to Japan safely? Is your business up and running?
Thank you for your concern,
"Please forget about the small talk. I love soccer so much that I ended up asking a strange question... so please forget about it."
What Dayo asked me for advice was that he is an avid European soccer fan, and in particular, he is a big fan of players who played for Feyenoord and other teams.
A passionate fan of "Shinji Ono"!! ❤⚽❤
I don't think that's possible, but if you could get a signature from Ono Shinji, please send it to me.
"It's my dream!" he said with shining eyes, I remember clearly.
A dream for Dayo-san, who has helped me so much✨⚽✨
There's no way we can't make it come true!!
That said, although Ono Shinji and I are close in age, we have no common interests...
Oh, by the way, just a little chit-chat, but my family has a long history of Olympians, with my mother competing in the Sapporo Olympics (a speed race on a single-person sled called luge), and my middle brother being the first high school student to compete in the Olympics in baseball.
Being a contrarian, I have never played baseball lol
After that, my brother joined the Hiroshima Toyo Carp as the second draft pick, then transferred to the Seibu Lines, ending his 19 years in professional baseball. After that, he served as the Seibu Lines first-team batting coach for about 10 years. (During his active career, he was the batting champion once and was nicknamed Red Godzilla.)
At that time, baseball was so popular that it was considered a national sport, and it was common for people around me to play baseball. I was born in 1980 (Showa 55), and was collectively known as the "Matsuzaka generation."
I always had this feeling in my mind that if I had played baseball, my life would have been different.
I sometimes think that
So why didn't you play baseball?
-My dad hits the ball with the same strength as his eldest son, who is six years younger than me, when I'm in the last year of kindergarten, and since I can't catch it, it just hits me somewhere on my body and hurts, so it's not fun.
・The kids I don't like in kindergarten are choosing baseball.
-I'm a contrarian, so I wanted to do something other than baseball, which my two older brothers were playing.
Well, for this reason I thought.
The ball is small, so it hits you and hurts. So let's choose a ball that you don't have to catch and that is big!!
So I chose "soccer."
He continued playing soccer through high school, attending Seibudai High School in Saitama Prefecture.
The school is a prestigious institution, with around 400 members in the soccer club alone, and which even competes in national tournaments.
So he was really good at soccer?
No, lol. I was so bad at studying that I had no other options for further education, so I was forced to join Seibudai High School on a sports recommendation, and I was just a member of the soccer club lol.
There were about 400 members in the club... Practice was tough, and before games there were mysterious shouts of "Spirit! Spirit! Spirit! Spirit! Spirit!" and I was forced to live in a hierarchical society similar to that of the military lol.
Now I see it as a good experience, and I am grateful that I have many friends who shared the same experiences with me, and that I still have many connections with them even after entering society.
Now, back to the main topic. Searching for a common ground with Shinji Ono. I found one right away.
At the time, Ono Shinji was a member of Consadole Sapporo, and had taken up front-office duties after Kawai Ryuji, nicknamed Mr. Consadole, had retired the previous year.
Since this is a column, I will call him Ryuji Kawai. He is my senior at Seibudai High School, two years older than me, and the vice captain. My younger brother was in the same class as him. We are from the same Saitama prefecture, and we have played against each other since elementary school. He is a senior who has competed with me to qualify for the national tournament, and someone I look up to.
As I wrote earlier, the soccer club is a military, hierarchical society. There was no way I could casually talk to the vice captain, who was two years older than me, and it had been 25 years since I graduated, so I probably wouldn't even remember me... but I sent him a message on Instagram.
Yes. I couldn't remember it at all lol
Of course, there are about 400 members in the club, and there is no way that the seniors who are so dedicated to soccer that they don't have time to pay attention to the juniors two years younger than them would remember them (laughs).
However, I wanted to keep my promise, and at the same time I wanted to hear why the promotion of baseball in Africa was not going well, so I had plans to go to Hokkaido for another reason, and I managed to get an appointment!!
I was excited to meet him for the first time in 25 years, so we headed to the sushi restaurant for which he had made a reservation (don't make your senior make the reservation lol).
After greeting each other and shaking hands firmly, we asked each other questions such as "Are you really a junior?" (lol) and "What's your cheer?" (lol), and finally got to the main topic.
Dayo, the youngest son of the former president of Nigeria, is a huge fan of Shinji Ono and wants his autograph! Is there anything we can do about it? (lol)
Hmm, we're close so we can talk, but if he doesn't want to talk then we can't.
Is that okay? By the way, do you want Ryuji Kawai's autograph? (lol)
Yes, sorry, I don't need it (too rude to my senior)
So, we ate delicious sushi and drank beer, talked about the nostalgic Seibudai High School soccer club, and when the bar closed, we went to a second bar and drank until late at night.
About a week later, I received a call from my senior.
Shinji is good! She said, "I'll send you an autograph so please tell me your address!"
It's hereeeeeeeeeeee ( *´艸｀)
I don't have any luck with planes, but I do have some good connections and luck!! I did it!!
I can keep my promise to Dayo!! ❤ I contacted Dayo right away and kept the promise I made.
You can get Shinji Ono's autograph! I'll send it to you when I get it!!
Dayo was so cute when he was acting like a kid on the phone❤
The autograph arrived quickly, and although I had imagined it would be on a colored paper, it was actually on a uniform!! What's more, since I had sent a photo of Dayo, it was also a large one!!
Thank you very much for your concern (´；ω；`)uuuu
I immediately contacted them to thank them and arranged for it to be sent by EMS.
Yes… I screwed up here…
The contents of the mail read, "Shinji Ono received a message from Dayo (former President Obasanjo's youngest son, secretary and president of Obasanjo Farms).
How are you doing after that? Did you return to Japan safely? Is your business up and running?
Thank you for your concern,
"Please forget about the small talk. I love soccer so much that I ended up asking a strange question... so please forget about it."
What Dayo asked me for advice was that he is an avid European soccer fan, and in particular, he is a big fan of players who played for Feyenoord and other teams.
A passionate fan of "Shinji Ono"!! ❤⚽❤
I don't think that's possible, but if you could get a signature from Ono Shinji, please send it to me.
"It's my dream!" he said with shining eyes, I remember clearly.
A dream for Dayo-san, who has helped me so much✨⚽✨
There's no way we can't make it come true!!
That said, although Ono Shinji and I are close in age, we have no common interests...
Oh, just a little chit-chat, but my family has a long history of Olympians, with my mother competing in the Sapporo Olympics (luge, a speed race on a single-person sled), and my middle brother being the first high school student to compete in the Olympics in baseball.
Being a contrarian, I have never played baseball lol
After that, my brother joined the Hiroshima Toyo Carp as the second draft pick, then transferred to the Seibu Lines, ending his 19 years in professional baseball. After that, he served as the Seibu Lines first-team batting coach for about 10 years. (During his active career, he was the batting champion once and was nicknamed Red Godzilla.)
At that time, baseball was so popular that it was considered a national sport, and it was common for people around me to play baseball. I was born in 1980 (Showa 55), and was collectively known as the "Matsuzaka generation."
Somewhere in my mind, I always had the feeling that if I had played baseball, my life would have been different.
I sometimes think that
So why didn't you play baseball?
-My dad hits the ball with the same strength as his eldest son, who is six years younger than me, when I'm in the last year of kindergarten, and since I can't catch it, it just hits me somewhere on my body and hurts, so it's not fun.
・The kids I don't like in kindergarten are choosing baseball.
-I'm a contrarian, so I wanted to do something other than baseball, which my two older brothers were playing.
Well, for this reason I thought.
The ball is small, so it hits you and hurts. So let's choose a ball that you don't have to catch and that is big!!
So I chose "soccer."
He continued playing soccer through high school, attending Seibudai High School in Saitama Prefecture.
The school is a prestigious institution, with around 400 members in the soccer club alone, and which even competes in national tournaments.
So he was really good at soccer?
No, lol. I was so bad at studying that I had no other options for further education, so I was forced to join Seibudai High School on a sports recommendation, and I was just a member of the soccer club lol.
There were about 400 members in the club... Practice was tough, and before games there were mysterious shouts of "Spirit! Spirit! Spirit! Spirit! Spirit!" and I was forced to live in a hierarchical society similar to that of the military lol.
Now I see it as a good experience, and I am grateful that I have many friends who shared the same experiences with me, and that I still have many connections with them even after entering society.
Now, back to the main topic. Searching for a common ground with Shinji Ono. I found one right away.
At the time, Ono Shinji was a member of Consadole Sapporo, and had taken up front-office duties after Kawai Ryuji, nicknamed Mr. Consadole, had retired the previous year.
Since this is a column, I will call him Ryuji Kawai. He is my senior at Seibudai High School, two years older than me, and the vice captain. My younger brother was in the same class as him. We are from the same prefecture of Saitama, and we have played against each other since elementary school. He is a senior who has competed with me to qualify for the national tournament, and someone I look up to.
As I wrote earlier, the soccer club is a military, hierarchical society. There was no way I could casually talk to the vice captain, who was two years older than me, and it had been 25 years since I graduated, so I probably wouldn't even remember me... but I sent him a message on Instagram.
Yes. I couldn't remember it at all lol
Of course, there are about 400 members in the club, and there is no way that the seniors who are so dedicated to soccer that they don't have time to pay attention to the juniors two years younger than them would remember them (laughs).
However, I wanted to keep my promise, and at the same time I wanted to hear why the promotion of baseball in Africa was not going well, so I had plans to go to Hokkaido for another reason, and I managed to get an appointment!!
I was excited to meet him for the first time in 25 years, so we headed to the sushi restaurant for which he had made a reservation (don't make your senior make the reservation lol).
After greeting each other and shaking hands firmly, we asked each other questions such as "Are you really a junior?" (lol) and "What's your cheer?" (lol), and finally got to the main topic.
Dayo, the youngest son of the former president of Nigeria, is a huge fan of Shinji Ono and wants his autograph! Is there anything we can do about it? (lol)
Hmm, we're close so we can talk, but if he doesn't want to talk then we can't.
Is that okay? By the way, do you want Ryuji Kawai's autograph? (lol)
Yes, sorry, I don't need it (too rude to my senior)
So, we ate delicious sushi and drank beer, talked about the nostalgic Seibudai High School soccer club, and when the bar closed, we went to a second bar and drank until late at night.
About a week later, I received a call from my senior.
Shinji is good! She said, "I'll send you an autograph so please tell me your address!"
It's hereeeeeeeeeeee ( *´艸｀)
I don't have any luck with planes, but I do have some good connections and luck!! I did it!!
I can keep my promise to Dayo!! ❤ I contacted Dayo right away and kept the promise I made.
You can get Shinji Ono's autograph! I'll send it to you when I get it!!
Dayo was so cute when he was acting like a kid on the phone❤
The autograph arrived quickly, and although I had imagined it would be on a colored paper, it was actually on a uniform!! What's more, since I had sent a photo of Dayo, it was also a large one!!
Thank you very much for your concern (´；ω；`)uuuu
I immediately contacted them to thank them and arranged for it to be sent by EMS.
Yes… I screwed up here…
The contents of the mail
"Uniform signed by Shinji Ono"
I honestly wrote it down...
What's wrong with that is... Nigeria is a soccer powerhouse, and soccer is the most popular sport in all of Africa. European soccer is especially popular, and Shinji Ono is one of the star players.
If it says that the contents are a uniform signed by Shinji Ono, it's not uncommon for the delivery person to steal it... Even if it's a package belonging to the family of a former president... there's only a risk that it will be resold at a high price... Oh no... ( ﾟДﾟ)
As expected, even though it was sent by air, it took a month...two months...to confirm that the package had arrived at the post office in Nigeria, but the package hasn't moved from the airport post office...(´；ω；`)Uuuu
Three months had passed and it still hadn't moved, so I had no choice but to ask Dayo to contact the airport quarantine officer or customs official to find out why my luggage hadn't moved from the airport.
Here's the conclusion.
If you want this package, give me money.
It's not about customs duties, but the contents are listed so I know it's valuable, so if you want it just pay me and I'll send it to you by mail...
Phew... it was my mistake, you see... I'm sorry... (´；ω；`)uuuu
About a week later, I got a call from Dayo.
A message of gratitude to Shinji Ono with photos and videos.
Oh! It arrived safely! And I'm wearing it! ❤⚽❤
After much negotiation, he managed to get the signed jersey back without handing over any money! (I wonder if that's true... What's even scarier than money is having your existence erased...)
Well, there's no point in being suspicious, so I sent the photos and a thank-you video to Shinji Ono through my senior, and I was able to keep another promise✨
Then, the next day, I received a message from former President Obasanjo.
"Thank you, Yasu, for making my son's dream come true. It was a chat, a consultation, and a request. Yasu says it was a promise, but it wasn't a promise. But Yasu did everything he could for my son and made his dream come true. Thank you. Now it's my turn to repay Yasu. As a family, we will do everything we can!! Family, let's work together to provide a bright future for the children of Nigeria!"
And (sob sob)...
Thank you for your kind words✨
I had no ulterior motives, I just wanted to make Dayo's dream come true.
As a result, more people are willing to help and support us, and we form a circle.
This will contribute to creating a brighter future for our children.
Through baseball, we aim to educate the players mentally and produce future professional baseball players.
I hope that through this project, the circle of goodwill will spread and a brighter future will be created for children. I felt as if I saw a faint glimmer of hope, even if it was just a vague thought.
Now, next up is an interview trip to find out the reason why baseball development in Africa is declining.
~To be continued~
⚾WE ARE ONE TEAM⚾
