Olympiakos striker Brown Ideye has admitted that he had a difficult childhood and was often in trouble with the Nigerian Police in his teenage years.
Ideye and his friends that he played soccer with engaged themselves in vices just to earn some extra money and his parents never wanted him to become a footballer due to his bad boy ways.
“It was my friends from school. I played football with them, played cards and gambled with them. It was very common in the neighborhood where I grew up, to do anything to earn money ,” Ideye was quoted as saying by gazzetta.gr.
“I played poker, gambled, played various games with these groups, which were my same friends with whom I played football.
“Overall, we were the bad boys of the neighborhood and that is why my parents did not want me to play football.
“One day, we played cards the police came and arrested us and of course my parents were furious.”
In his own right, the former Dynamo Kiev and Sochaux attacker can now claim to be a successful footballer, having played in the Fifa Under 20 World Cup, Confederations Cup, Champions League and African Cup of Nations.