Ex Flying Eagles midfielder Afeez Aremu opens up on some of the difficulties be faced when he moved to Europe in search of greener pastures, npflupdates.com reports.
Aremu moved to Europe signing for IK Start in the Norwegian League shortly after representing Nigeria’s Flying Eagles in 2012.
And before his move, he had short spells in the Nigeria Premier Football League NPFL. So, do not have any experience of what life in Europe means for immigrants.
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According to the 23-year-old, it was hard to find a restaurant where he can get African dishes. So, he resorted to eating burgers, as that is the only food he can manage at that time. But on the contrary, consuming burgers almost on daily basis is not encouraging his physical fitness.
Afeez Aremu highlights talks about his early days in Europe
“It was rough at the start because I could only find burgers around where I live and eating that was going to affect my fitness level,” he told The Punch in an interview.
“The only place I could get good Nigerian food was in Oslo which was three hours away from where I stayed.”
And luckily for him, he made some Nigerian friends who helped him locate where to get local ingredients for soup.
“But luckily, I met some Naija friends who showed me shops where I could get soup ingredients to cook.
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Speaking further, the Kaiserslautern midfielder confesses not knowing how to cook. So he resorted to watching tutorial videos on YouTube channels; and also calling for help from his sister back in Nigeria.
“All my years in Nigeria, I never cooked before,” he continued.
“So I had to call my sister to give me tips on how to cook so I could survive in Norway. I even tried Youtube videos to learn how to cook but my first meal turned out very bad. But eventually, I got it right. Now I can prepare some good soups to go with my amala.”
In addition, Afeez Aremu stressed that conversing with his neighbours isn’t a herculean task. Because he was provided with a translator, who helps him out in difficult times. However, his neighbours are predominantly conversant with English language, hence it was easy communicating.
“Regarding language I had a translator who helped me. And in the area where I stayed most people spoke English so it was a bit easy interacting,” he added.
