Who is he? I vaguely remember asking this question on the old board, sorry if I did and it's been answered. He's currently involved in training Africans to send to Finland, and it is claimed that he's some kind of Nigerian footballing deity.

Can't tell you anything apart from that his full name would be Ladipo and he is a Yoruba.
Never heard of him and if he is sending players to Finland, then he obviously does not have good connections.

His one and only connection appears to be Finnish. The Nigerian players I've spoken to say he played in a world cup and in Europe for a bit. now he's in Bangladesh, where the players earn four times what they do in Finland, but still sending them here. the players say that 'for us Africans Europe is the dream' and Finland is a good stepping stone to the bigger leagues. Ladi apparently wants to come over here to coach as well.

Come to think of it, it'll be quite interesting to see how these lads do and how their progress affects the standing of the people who've helped them. The guy in Finland got them over here at just the wrong time, and they had to start in the fourth tier because of registration issues, where they are currently destroying everyone (when not injured or suspended).

They might move this month, but if not they will stay in the hickest of hick towns, pretty much equidistant between Helsinki and Murmansk. And one of them left Mohammedans to sign for this club because he just wanted to play in Europe. He's earning almost nothing compared to what he got there.

I detect a good WSC article (at least a somewhat-long post on goldstone97's blog) in this story...

There'll be something in next week's Helsinki Times, if goldstone wants it for his blog he's more than welcome to it. I'll email him when it's done.

Bombanersson wrote:

QUOTE:
Bangladesh, where the players earn four times what they do in Finland

I know the clubs in Finland are no great shakes, but that is pretty astounding.

What's going on in Bangladesh?

I mean foreigners. They can get 10k euro pcm in Bangladesh, but in Finland you're doing very well if you get more than 5. And then get taxed to fuck on it. The reason is the crowds - in Finland 2k is about average for a top flight game, over there teams can draw anything from 20-50k. And the sponsorship money is bigger because there are so many more Bangladeshis than Finns.

This guy was the foreigner at Kajaanin Haka last season. He moved to the newly formed mutant club AC Kajaani in the winter, and brought along two brothers and a mate for the ride. Apparently his departure caused some ructions and KajHa decided they needed some new foreign flavour, hence them signing Ladi's boys. That pitch is what counts as a 'good stadium' in Finland, by the way.