Former Super Falcons’ Goalkeeper, Rachel Ayegba Turns Bus Driver In UKA former goalkeeper of Nigerian women’s national football team, Rachael Aladi Ayegba, has turned into a bus driver in the United Kingdom.
Ayegba played in the 2007 Women’s World Cup, the 2006 and 2008 African Women’s Championships and had an 11-year stint as a pro in Finland.
She made a huge success in Europe by winning the Finnish Naisten Liiga title with PK-35 Vantaa in 2013, making her the first African female goalkeeper to enjoy such breakthrough abroad.
According to UK’s Evening Standard Newspaper, bus drivers’ pay starts at £26,000 (over N14m) and rises to more than £31,000.
This perhaps explains why Ayegba who has a UEFA A Goalkeepers License, is happy with her newfound love on the wheels.
The 35-year old while speaking with the Evening Standard showed how her experience as a goalkeeper is positively rubbing on her new role as a bus driver.
She told Standard UK that;
When you are trying to save the ball, you need safe hands. But there are ten others on your side. When you drive a bus, you are on your own. In goal, the whole game is in front of you. Driving a bus, at least half the things that could go wrong are behind you or otherwise out of vision.
Mentally you have to be 100% ready, if you are a goalkeeper the defenders can help you. You can’t make any mistakes driving a bus.
Ayegba, whose favourite player is Cristiano Ronaldo, says she doesn’t play football anymore, though she has coaching licenses.
She added;
I am old. You have to know when to stop. Mentally you have to be 100% ready, if you are a goalkeeper the defenders can help you. You can’t make any mistakes driving a bus.
There is a national shortage of bus drivers in the UK that is forcing people into cars and clogging up the roads and thereby opening new opportunities for the likes of Ayegba.
The former goalkeeper revealed she had visited London for years on holiday and always admired the double decker buses.
Barely three years after relocating, Ayegba now drives the number 185 between Lewisham and Victoria.
