From ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja
An England-based Super Eagles player recently proved his immunity against the present biting recession in Nigeria when he purchased a flashy, exotic, state of the art expensive Ferrari 575 GTZ Sports Car for a whopping sum of N33 million in Abuja.
A member of the Eagles backroom staff, who made the disclosure in a chat with Daily Sun sports , said that the Nigerian international plying his trade with an English Premiership side bought the expensive car while camping in Abuja during Eagles recent FIFA World Cup qualifier clash against Algeria.
Narrating what transpired on that fateful day at the Super Eagles hotel camp, our source recalled that the player had while going for launch seen the car strategically parked inside the hotel, became interested, made inquiry about the dealer, bargained before finally paying the dollar equivalent of the N33 million worth of the car.
Our source who observed that the present FOREX regime is favourable to the players, argued that with little amount of international currencies, the players can afford to have more than enough naira to spend as reckless as they want, expressing reservations how the player effortlessly returned to his hotel room and paid such whopping amount on the car.
He further revealed that car dealers have devised new strategy of tempting players with exotic cars by bringing them into the Super Eagles hotel camps and parking them at strategic places to attract their attention, adding that the method had been effectively working well for the dealers considering the sales they have made so far.
“Let me tell you that car dealers have devised new means of tempting these players. What they do now is to drive those flashy exotic cars into their hotel camps, park them at strategic positions where the players will see them especially during launch hours.
“It is working out for them because during this their last camping in Abuja, a player based in England, I withhold his name for security reasons, had come down for launch and seen this flashy Ferrari car, fell in love with it, made inquiry and priced it. The dealer had started the negotiation from N45 million but after much bargain, they agreed on N33 million.
“The player simply went back to his hotel room, made arrangement and paid immediately. You know that the current exchange rate is very favourable to the players because once they change dollars they would have enough naira to spend anyhow they like. I don’t think he felt the amount paid for the car because of the exchange rate.
“Car dealers invading Super Eagles hotel camp with flashy expensive cars is now a regular occurrence and it seems the players are enjoying the new tricks by car dealers. I want to believe that they are smartly making their sales because the one that happened that day cannot be the only sale they made. The other players may have purchased secretly to avoid attracting attention towards them,” our source said.
He however lamented that the incident of day attracted his attention because it happened the day the player’s youth coach visited the camp to solicit for financial assistance from that same player, quipping that he did not however know whether the player actually rendered any assistance to that coach.
“I personally felt bad because on that day, I had seen the player’s youth coach hanging around the hotel to see him. But when he came down and saw the car, he became more interested in the car than his former coach. I don’t know whether he finally sorted out the coach but I won’t be surprise if he did not because that is the nature of some Nigerian players,” he contended.