In previous features we have looked at two Nigerian footballers who played for Prescot Cables in the early 1960’s (Elkanah Onyeali and Fabian Duru). However, ten years earlier there was another, now largely forgotten, player who played for clubs on Merseyside and who was a pioneer for later Nigerians to come to these shores. His name was Ahmad Tijani Bakrin Ottun.
Ottun, who played for the Lagos Marine club, was one of four “Mariners” in the party of eighteen Nigerian footballers who toured England in 1949. At 27, he was the oldest of the touring party, leading to his Nigerian nickname of “Experienced”! He was described as a tall, well-built defender, always sound and never ruffled under pressure; A “pillar of strength” who could play at either left or right-back. (In the photograph of the Nigerian touring squad, Ottun is standing, second from the left)
The party began their tour with a 5 – 2 victory over Marine at Crosby, before playing a series of matches in London, including an 11-0 drubbing by a strong, Athenian League Representative side, in which Ottun had the misfortune to concede an own goal. The tour ended with a match against South Liverpool – the first game under the new floodlights at Holly Park, watched by a crowd of 13,000.
He returned to Liverpool in 1950 to undertake a typographical and compositing course at Liverpool School of Art. Whilst he was based in Liverpool, he proved himself to be a useful athlete, winning the high jump and 100 metres in several local athletics events. But he wanted to continue to play football and, remembering the warm welcome that the Nigerians had received, he signed for South Liverpool for the 1950/51 season.
On his debut for South Liverpool Reserves against Liverpool ‘A’ he made a profound impression in his first English competitive game, until, half-way through the second half, he came into collision with an opponent and was carried off with a suspected collar-bone fracture. Fortunately, the injury was not as serious as first thought and he was back to face Haydock the following week!
After showing excellent form with the Reserves, Ottun made his first team debut against Mossley at the end of September 1950. However, Ottun remained, largely, a reserve player at Holly Park, perhaps considered not quite up to Cheshire League standards, but always available to step into the breach when needed.
He transferred to St Helens Town during the following season, playing 8 games and scoring once during their relegation season (although Town records have him listed as two separate players under different names!).
It appears that Ottun drifted out of football after that and, eventually, returned to his home country in February 1956 after obtaining a City & Guilds Diploma in Printing.
Sadly, in August 1957, his body was found floating in the lagoon at Lagos, having apparently committed suicide.
In 1953, Swindon Town signed Titus Okere, followed by Peterborough United signing Tesilimi Balogun in 1955. It was widely reported, at the time, that Okere was the first Nigerian player to sign for an English club, and he is still, generally, recognised as such today.
Whilst this may have been, technically, true for Football League clubs, it was the pioneering A.T.B. Ottun who was the first Nigerian to sign for the Cheshire League side, South Liverpool on the 29th August 1950.
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