Zaidu Sanusi may have been the only person who foresaw his future will be at FC Porto because he flew out of Nigeria four years ago sporting the shirt of the Portuguese giants for trials with a second division club.
⚡ Zaidu 🔵⚪
— FC Porto (@FCPorto) August 30, 2020
👉 O primeiro dia de 🐉#FCPorto #NaçãoPorto #BemVindoZaidu pic.twitter.com/oH1hL7WgRO
Faisal Mohammed Abdullahi made this revelation to SCORENigeria after the 23-year-old defender signed a five-year contract with Porto Sunday.
“We all laughed at him when he wore the Porto jersey on his way out of Nigeria for trials in 2016 with Gil Vicente,” he recalled.
“That prophesy has now been fulfilled.”
Faisal had organised a scouting programme in Kaduna and it was there the promising Zaidu was picked by the Gil Vicente scout.
He was successful in the trials only to later suffer a massive setback when a mysterious ankle injury sidelined him for nine long months.
Abandoned and left to his own fate overseas, he was forced to pick up whatever remained of his career at Portuguese fourth division club Mirandela, where he was befriended by a former football star Luis, who today is his proud agent.
“Despite his many setbacks, Zaidu has remained focused,” remarked Faisal.
“His strength of character got him through everything.
“And today, he is very fluent in Portuguese and ready to take his football to another level with the massive platform that Porto will provide for him.”
What should Porto fans expect from their new signing?
“Besides that we all know he is very fast, he’s a deadball specialist, strong, intelligent, reads the game very well and plays according to instructions,” said Faisal.
“I believe in two years, we should be talking of another major transfer to a bigger league for him.”
For Zaidu, who could also play as a left winger or stopper, it has been a very long way from those days when he was part of his family’s yam farming business in Kebbi.
Football and not yams has now launched him to the rest of the world.
