"If football didn't work out, I was finished" — Ola Aina opens up on life beyond football

Super Eagles defender Ola Aina has admitted that he had no real backup plan if his football career failed to take off.

Speaking during a sit-down with fellow footballers, Aina revealed that academics were never his strong point and that he was fully focused on making it as a professional footballer.

“If I didn’t play football, I was finished,” he said.

The Nottingham Forest star joked that while some of his colleagues could have become doctors or mathematicians, he wasn’t as academically gifted.

Aina added that despite representing England at youth level, he never felt guaranteed of a successful football career, saying young players always know that things can still go wrong before they get their big break.