'I grew up watching Usain Bolt – now I'm the third fastest Premier League star'
Luton star Chiedozie Ogbene grew up watching Usain Bolt - and is now breaking new speed levels in the Premier League.
Ogbene has been recorded as the third fastest player in the Premier League behind Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven and Manchester City ’s Kyle Walker. But the Nigerian-born winger says he wants to emulate his hero, Olympic champion Bolt, and has learned from his technique and wants to become the top flight’s fastest player.
Ogbene said: “I'm currently third at the moment. When I was younger, I was quite slim. So I spent a lot of time in the gym to build more muscle mass. As a kid also, I watched a lot of sprinting videos, a big Usain Bolt fan. I have two brothers who also perform track and field.
"In the summer, I spent a lot of time with them learning how to run because to sprint, to run, it is a skill that you have to learn I know naturally, we're all able to run but as a kid I always try to be more efficient in how.
“So watching a lot of sprinting videos, I've watched the Olympic finals multiple times, just watching Usain Bolt. If I can perfect how I can run and obviously added with my football skills it does give me that extra 1%. I'm hoping to [top third fastest player], maybe not now, maybe in the summer when the weather's nice and my muscles a bit warmer.”
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Ogbene was talking to TNT Sports’ Sign Up: Into Football which is a new show aimed at raising the profile of the deaf community and raising the visibility of British Sign Language.
The Premier League’s latest sprinting stats have van de Ven at 37.38 km/h, Walker 37.31 and Ogbene 36.93 and seven of the all time top ten speeds have been clocked this season. Bolt’s average speed in his record-breaking 100m run of 9.58secs was 37.58km/h but with a top speed of 43.99km/h.
Ogbene is also enjoying life in the top flight and is convinced that, despite their struggle against relegation this season, they can beat the drop and part of their motivation comes from proving people wrong.
Chiedozie Ogbene has impressed for Luton in the Premier League this season (AFP via Getty Images)He added: “Playing the Premier League was something that as a kid I dreamed about. So I remember when Rob Edwards was the manager and gave me a phone call to come to Luton, it was a call I had to take, but I'm really enjoying it.
“I feel like I'm playing better than I expected and the team is doing better than we expected. But it's an opportunity that we're all enjoying, and I'm totally enjoying as well.
“It's unique. That's one thing I will say, it is unique. We all come from different backgrounds. But we all have the same vision, the way the manager brought the players in, he brought hard-working players who have grafted to get to the top.
“We've been written off many times, and we've still come out and proved teams wrong, proved people wrong and that's the kind of culture we have.
“We believe in ourselves. And I always said before that opinions can't play the game for us. So that's what we believe here so we play for ourselves and we fight for each other.”
Into Football airs on TNT Sports on Friday at 5:30pm (TNT Sports)Meanwhile, Ogbene did find it difficult to acclimatise when he first arrived in Europe - and wanted to run straight back to Nigeria.
He said: “I was very young when I left Nigeria with my family. I was about eight and a half. Nigeria is obviously quite tropical so there's a lot of red soil, a lot of sandy roads compared to Ireland - very green, very cold so it was two different extremes.
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“I went from a very hot tropical country, to a very cold country so it was quite different for me, especially as a child going to Ireland. I didn't have many friends but as time grew, I made friends.
“The first thing that I did notice massively is coming off the plane - I remember the cold air just taking me. My little sister tried to run back into the plane.”
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