Commerce City, Colo.- Rapids fans, the “Destroyer” has landed in Colorado. This superhero patrols the Colorado Rapids midfield, demanding 100% from himself and his teammates. Hamzat Ojediron doesn’t work alone, however, and stresses to his fellow Rapids mates that they all can take on that mentality as they look to turn around a program in a rebuilding mode.
“I tell the guys, ‘I am not the only destroyer. We play 10 positions so it’s for you’, the Lagos, Nigeria native recently told Burgundy Wave. “This system gives me some motivation. I take it as positivity, and I’m loving it.”
It hasn’t been a direct route to the Rocky Mountains for the 22-year-old midfielder, who left Africa for Europe as a teenager to fulfill his dream of football, but also to push and motivate himself in helping his family back home.
“I was born into a football family, and my father played also,” Hamzat remembers.
“Being born in Lagos, I think for you to really help your family, I think football is the way to help. Football is like a religion to me. I tried not to be too crazy about football – take it easy, what doesn’t come, doesn’t come, take it easy, keep going.
“I have a brother who plays football also in Lagos, making tryouts, hopefully he’ll get one chance like me too (to play professionally). I know how many times I went to Europe then go back to Nigeria, but keep going, keep going.”
That attitude radiates from Hamzat despite his laid-back, very relaxed persona off the pitch. A mellow, and somewhat soft-spoken young man easy to have a conversation with, Ojediron switches quickly between the lines into a very focused, intense, and determined player driven to improve and dominate in his play.
“I never back down,” he says with self-confidence. “I always keep going, because if you come from where I come from you don’t have choices. That’s the only choice you have is to keep going.”
Hamzat’s football career began to chart a course in his younger teenage years in Nigeria, courtesy of development at the Emmanual Amunike Academy. Once he realized his place in the game, and the Nigerian Youth National Teams, he started to see a future and looked for clubs to believe in him the way he believes in himself.
“I played in the youth National Team in Brazil at the U-19 youth World Cup, but even if you play as an international player for an African team, it still doesn’t guarantee you make it as a footballer. I still know a lot of my teammates keep looking for a way out so I’m fortunate to be here.”
“My agent came to Nigeria after the National Team, he saw me, then promised me he’ll take me to Europe, but I have to wait until I was 18-years-old,” Hamzat explains of those early steps, while also realizing his window to move up was small at the time.
“If you stay too long in Nigeria after the international tournament, a lot of clubs will think you’re not playing, so I was back home training at the Academy.”
Once he turned 18, Hamzat traveled extensively trying to find that first opportunity to show himself, but also make that important first step in what he hoped would be many to the top flight.
“I went to so many clubs for tryout before I started in Albania because I need to start playing. I went to Spain, Denmark, Turkey, a lot of clubs, but KF Egnatia was the only club that really believed and gave me the chance.”
His first contract in Albania gave him a taste of European football, however after 6 months he realized he needed to continue moving up in level and experience to get to where he saw himself.
“I try to adapt really fast, but when I got to Albania, I thought ‘Enjoy this time for me.’ When I go to Albania, and see the football, I said ‘I need to move.’ I just know that I need to keep going and go back to the top level. When you play, you don’t see, you only have it in your mind yourself.”
His next move was a risky one, but one a young man like Hamzat had the belief in himself to carry out. “I went to Hungary on loan, and after 6 months they decide to sign me permanently for 3 years,” Ojediron explains of his move. “I always believe, so when something happens, I’m not surprised.”
“If a club signs you permanently from loan, this is where I learned patience in football. The first 10 games, I’m playing maybe 20 minutes, so I almost went to the second division in Hungary. I believe only by playing I get to show myself. It’s not about playing 90 minutes all the time but it’s just about being involved. This makes you part of where you are, to be valued is important to me where I am.”
Turns out, that failed move to the second division might have been a blessing in disguise for Hamzat, as he remained with Debrecini VSC.
“I went for a medical but they didn’t get to pay for the transfer. So, I had no choice to decide to stay and fight and the opportunity started coming. I started having that feeling of it is now or never. It was a crazy season – goals were coming, assists.”
Following that newly-discovered success on the pitch, Hamzat’s big move came around just a year after his signing in Hungary – a long term deal to the French Ligue 1 and RC Lens.
He’d always seen himself at that level in Europe and thought it would play out to his plan. “When I’m in Nigeria, I saw Premier League, Spain, Ligue 1, and I said I want to go see what they do there. Sometimes negativity will come, but if you have so much positivity in your life then you’re going commit in any way.”
“The first season was good. It was a little bit crazy, but I wasn’t getting the best out of myself. The experience I gained in France, I tried to be calm now, just stay in the present moment,” he admits of the lessons learned on his travels.
“When I went for my second season I wasn’t prepared for what was happening over there, but I just stay positive in every situation. I had good preseason, but the season starts, management change, and so in this moment I bring positivity in my life.”
Once again, his belief is paying off, as more than one MLS side had taken notice of him most recently. However, Hamzat also knew that if he didn’t continue to give 100%, the chances of catching the eye of others would be difficult.
“I wanted to come to the States before,” he tells fans.
“Even before Colorado, they had to come looking so if I was catching myself not ready, they would think he’s not playing and not ready.”
Colorado thought he was ready, and has brought Hamzat in on a four-year deal to be the lynchpin in HC Matt Wells’ revamped system trying to “dominate” on both sides of the ball.
“There was a (Rapids) scout in France. First, he showed me the project. What he said to me was you know what you do in everything?…..bring that!,” the Rapids number 8 says with a wide grin.
However, leaving a top European League for MLS wasn’t exactly a no-brainer for Hamzat, as he admits, “It was no easy decision for me until I speak to everybody and I see what kind of football we’re going to play this season.”
Hamzat got on a phone call with President Pádraig Smith and new Head Coach Matt Wells. Wells sold him on the project.
“It’s due to how the gaffer wants to play. I’m so happy to be in this environment, like if you see how we speak, everything is possible, the vibes around the club we have to keep going win or lose. When you see the role you’ve been given – with the ball, without the ball – you sacrifice for the team, you have to keep going.”
So how does a football-intense, but calmer person in a new country and new city get on outside of his job? Hamzat is a dedicated reader, and is open to experiencing all he can where he lives.
“My journey has made me a cultural man,” he says proudly. “I just get in a habit to move away from football, let me read some good books to move away from football. I just read what I think will be interesting. I’m reading Denial of Death right now. In the end everybody’s going to die so it’s interesting.”
He also likes to stay connected with teammates off the pitch, in ways that bring them together, but not always in what fans would think is a natural friendship. Even though Hamzat speaks 3 languages, including Yoruba (his native language in SW Nigeria) and some French picked up in Lens, he explains he doesn’t exactly need the language bond to be one of a group of teammates.
“When the MLS called I thought, I’m coming to an English country – no stress! It’s easy with the other guys because I just speak English, so I bond with them. You come in that environment, you feel at home, people speak what you have from childhood.”
“I’m with the Spanish guys because I’m an energy guy. We don’t understand each other but we laugh all the time,” he says of his ability to fit in wherever he gets together with friends.
“We create good energy out of that – (Alexis) Manyo(ma), Miguel (Navarro), Rafa (Navarro). Last week, we went to play golf. If you’re in America you have to try everything, you have to enjoy the moment. We just went to have fun and create memories.”
Hamzat did say there’s one Colorado memory he’d like to avoid, though, even though this local writer has offered to take him into the foothills West of Denver.
“I heard there’s mountain lions so I don’t want to go to the mountains. I’ll watch them on videos. I’m from Lagos and I’ve never seen lions in my life. Maybe I’ll go to the zoo to see them,” he says laughing and shaking his head.
For now, Hamzat Ojediron is loving his football, seizing this chance to make a difference, and be infectious with his energy.
“For me, I see a lot of young players who really know what they want for theirself. This motivates me, because I’m not here for what people think. I’m here to do the work.
“I see a lot of good things and energy in training (with this Rapids team) – everything we do. This is the most important thing to me because I’m an energy man, so I love this about our team.”
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Spencer Baldwin 
Eamon Shaw 