Spotlight  

Dora Kayode: Award-winning football agent, lawyer, mother, fashionista

By Guardian Nigeria

14 November 2022   |   3:57 am

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People rarely choose to chase many things at the same time, but when they resolve to toe this path, they apply no brakes until their goals are achieved. They are purposeful, determined, ambitious, and incurably focus-driven. These are the attributes that perfectly suit the persona of Dora Olanrewaju Kayode, a top football agent licenced by…

The Kayodes – Dora and Olanrewaju.. Credit: Instagram

People rarely choose to chase many things at the same time, but when they resolve to toe this path, they apply no brakes until their goals are achieved. They are purposeful, determined, ambitious, and incurably focus-driven.

These are the attributes that perfectly suit the persona of Dora Olanrewaju Kayode, a top football agent licenced by the FA and wife of top Nigerian striker Olarenwaju Kayode, whom she also represents as an agent.

Many things distinguish Dora Kayode. Her fearlessness to ‘fish’ in a male-dominated career can be easily and literally likened to someone running through a troop and leaping over a wall. It is hard to imagine a Nigerian or African woman negotiating deals, benefits, and bonuses with top European clubs and being mentioned in the same breath as renowned football agents such as Jonathan Barnett, Jorge Mendes, and the late Mino Raiola.

The statement that knowledge is power cannot be more apt, relevant, and applicable in this sense.

Dora Kayode attended the Federal Government Girls’ College in Umuahia, Abia State, after which she proceeded to study law at Madonna University, Okija, Anambra State, and later pursued her licence as an internationally certified football agent.

Speaking in an interview, Dora Kayode, mother of three fine boys, explained that the quest for knowledge and her drive for human rights motivated her to become a football agent and represent the interests of her husband. She has also been using her knowledge of the industry to advocate for the welfare of African footballers.

“As a lawyer, I decided to study the rules of football and combine it with fundamental human rights to ensure that my clients get the better of any contract,” she said, adding that that knowledge has helped her to liberate her husband from the “bondage of slave contracts.”

“I helped free Kayode from the bondage of slave contracts, which remains the bane of most African players. Unfortunately for footballers, most of them are not really enlightened, and I am sorry to say this. They need people who can tell them the truth, educate them on their rights. And I’m always ready to do this,” added Dora Kayode.

In 2021, Dora Kayode won the outstanding female football agent of the year award at the 11th Diamond Special Recognition Awards Worldwide, Nigeria Edition, which came on the back of an exceptional 12 months of positive contributions to the development of the sport in Nigeria.

“It is a testimony that the world is noticing the little things we are doing in the industry, and it gives us encouragement to strive to do more for the industry and the betterment of footballers, especially those from the continent of Africa, who have been subjected to much inhumanity and deprivation,” she had said on the significance of the award.

Her conquests have come with demands; one of which is to look good for the job, her footballer husband, and her over 250,000 social media followers.

“I married a fantastic football player, and you want me to just sit down and allow other girls to take him over from me? I have to look good for my man.

“He is too handsome for me not to feel good or dress good, but my husband doesn’t look at that, but as a woman, I have to look good — sexy for myself and sexy for my husband — whether we have kids or not, you just have to keep yourself fine. When you look good, you dress good. My dad once told me that ‘looking good is good business’. So you just have to look clean,” Dora Kayode humorously stated.