Mayowa Adeshina ought to, actually, be at work. It’s the center of Sunday afternoon, and he has not but completed his shift on the barbershop. He’s right here, clad in a red-and-white Arsenal jersey, solely by the great grace of his boss. Properly, grace is one phrase. Resignation is one other. “I took a break for the love of the sport,” Mr. Adeshina mentioned. “The supervisor is aware of this. He’s not new to the routine.”
Many West Africans reside to the rhythm of European soccer, with principally male crowds massing exterior bars, hair salons, road eating places — any institution, finally, with a display — to observe idols taking part in hundreds of miles away. Actual Madrid, Barcelona and Paris St.-Germain all have appreciable followings within the area, however in Nigeria, nothing matches the attraction of the Premier League.
On sport days, followers of all stripes flock to viewing facilities — road venues geared up with a couple of screens, a jigsaw puzzle of picket benches, a thicket of wires and a cover to dam out the solar and cut back the glare — just like the one Mr. Adeshina and his pals descended on to soak up his beloved Arsenal’s assembly with Tottenham Hotspur.
Mr. Adeshina grew to become an Arsenal fan within the late Nineties, when Nigerian cable channels first started broadcasting the Premier League. His older brother instructed him on which crew he ought to help, at a time when Nwankwo Kanu, one among Nigeria’s biggest stars, was a fixture within the crew’s lineup.
If something, although, Mr. Adeshina says his connection to the crew is even deeper now. Arsenal’s academy is stacked with English prospects of Nigerian ancestry. One of many membership’s brightest stars, Bukayo Saka, grew up in a Nigerian household in London. “He’s Yoruba, I’m Yoruba,” Mr. Adeshina mentioned, in a tone moderately softer than that with which he celebrated his idol’s first-half aim in opposition to Spurs.
