Fanendo Adi urges active footballers to prepare for retirement

One-time Super Eagles invitee Fanendo Adi has urged active footballers to prepare ahead of an inevitable retirement, stressing that it is always sad to see players that played at the highest level “not doing well” after retirement.

Adi, 29, was a guest on Nigeria Sports Mouthpiece (NSM) platform on Wednesday evening and was asked what his advice would be to active footballers seeing how many of retired professionals are struggling after their active days.

“My only advice to active players is to PREPARE! It is something I always told the younger players that come out here (in the United States),” began Adi

“Some Ghanaians and a few Nigerians that I’ve played with, I always tell them that you have to prepare well and I give a lot of example of players in Nigeria who are not doing well and it’s just sad knowing that these guys played top level and now they don’t have much to offer for themselves.

“I always tell players you just have to prepare, you have to save, you have to do whatever you need to do to be able to know that after retirement you’ve got something coming in to feed you and your family so, as players that are going to retire some day, you have to be very smart on how you spend your money,” added the Columbus Crew forward.

Adi’s one and only invitation to Nigeria’s senior national team came in 2016 under coach Samson Siasia and the striker who made a name for himself at Major League Soccer (MLS) side Columbus Crew admitted that there is always a temptation for active players to want to enjoy the moment but in it, they must apply wisdom.

Adi continued:

“Obviously you have to enjoy your money, have the toys and do whatever you want with your money and even party if you like.

“But you just have to be a little bit smarter in all you do because if you don’t save, you’re going to end up in the situation of some of the ex players that are not faring well for themselves.

“You just have to save some of your money and do some investments that you think are valuable and have some trusted family members that can help you and advise you on best way to save your money,” he advised.

Adi has made his debut for his new club Columbus Crew in the new MLS season in March but has been unable to add to his maiden appearance due to the Coronavirus pandemic situation which has seen the league postponed.