Born in the East Bay and raised up in Sacramento, Amobi Okugo returned to Sac when his playing career was finally over. The Nigerian-American is now laser focused on growing his business and putting his education to work. We got a chance to talk about his growth as a player and as a man, from IMG Academy to MLS and USL veteran.

Can you tell me about your household growing up in Sac; playing in IMG Academy and parlaying all of that to go play for UCLA.
So, obviously I started playing with the youth soccer teams that I played for, did the whole ODP cycle. Which, ultimately led me to the youth national teams, and led me to residency, which shared space with IMG Academy. They don't do the U17 residency program now. They just do MLS Academy and then you have your national teams. But back when I was coming up, we had the residency program and from there that's kind of when everything took off and used that to parlay it into an opportunity at UCLA.

And then somehow UCLA happened quicker than expected; I left after my freshman year to pursue professional opportunities.

I see you were drafted into MLS during what would have been your sophomore season. In hindsight, would you have preferred to have finish college, or was striking while the iron was hot sort of the right choice?
That's a great point and I love that quote that you said because when I was going through my process, a family friend had said that exact thing, “you have to strike while the iron is hot.” In an ideal world, you know, my parents are very big on education. They moved out here for better life and better opportunities. And soccer gave me the ability to go to a school like UCLA.

If my dad was on this podcast, he would say that he would have rather me go to Stanford or Harvard! But UCLA was a close second, in his opinion, because it combines sports and academics. I was just fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go pro when I did. I ended up finishing my degree while playing, so I think he's happy about that. But if you were to ask my dad, I think he would say to definitely finish your degree. But the way soccer works here, you have to “strike while the iron's hot” or you might lose your opportunity.

You have at least 25 caps for the US under-17s, under-20s, under-23s. So, you don't get to do those types of things by saying no to soccer when the opportunity arises. But, at what point did you start to think what comes next, after MLS, after USL
Oh, that's a good question, because I mentioned both my parents are big on education. I remember getting drafted. My dad said, you're closer to the end of your career than the start of it. So I was always having that in the back of my mind, like, all right, how can I use sports as a vehicle for when I'm done playing?

For me, I think it was my third year and I was coming up to the end of my guaranteed years of my contract where I started thinking about, okay, if they don't pick up my option, what's next? Obviously, my agent is going to work with me to find the next situation, but you kind of have to have a glass half full, glass half empty mentality. And I was like, if this doesn't work, what will I be doing? And that's kind of when I started like initially thinking about that transition. Then as I continued to go through my career, the ups and downs, I thought about it more and more.

Now you're a speaker, a consultant, a creator, an educator, a contributor, and a trainer. Are these what you mean by multi-hyphenate on your on your website?
My mom says I like to have my hands in too many different pots, but multi-hyphenate, I think as athletes, we're so used to doing a lot of things and I thought I’d just take those same principles and apply it to what I do in my day to day. Whether it's consulting, speaking, acting as a sports trainer or intermediary for the next crop of talent.

I do have my day job as well, so, its just hustling man, just trying to make things work and you know, throw paint on the wall and see what sticks, and have fun doing it!

Here's your chance to sell OK U GO - Tell me how it came to be and where you're taking it.
So, with OK U GO… My Nigerian name, not everyone knew how to pronounce it back in the day. So, I just said, OK, instead of answering “how do you spell it?” I say, OK U GO. And from there, I just kind of turned it into a mantra. My mindset is like, what makes you OK and what makes you GO? And that U in-between, it's like you're the unique factor.

And I ask, how can you highlight and advocate for yourself; the things that you bring to the table that make you go to that next level. So, OK U GO is kind of like my personal mantra, helping people go from zero; helping people create action, helping people reach that next level. And it's just a mantra that I've stuck by… but it initially started as a way for people to just learn how to spell my name.

Where are you based out now? Can you, I don't know if you're allowed to, but can you reveal any clients or clubs that you're partnered with?
I'm based in Sacramento - I grew up in Sacramento after I was done playing my last stop. I moved back just to have it as a home base and be closer to family. In terms of clients that I'm currently working with, or have worked with, we work with MLS. We've done some things around personal finance, athlete transition development. We worked with MLSPA, obviously just using my experiences in both those organizations.

We've done some stuff with USL; from USL Championship to USL League One to USL Two. Some of the local clubs in Sacramento that I used to play with, like San Juan - I've done some stuff with them in terms of like specific clubs. We're in talks with some of my old clubs to try to do some things. Obviously, Philadelphia has a great academy, So, hopefully want want to lock some things in partnership with them.

But that's essentially it in terms of actual professional soccer organizations. From a working standpoint, we work a lot with collegiate organizations whether it's mentorship, speaking engagements, consulting. Obviously, with NIL being a big part of opportunities now, we do some things there. But if you know anyone that's looking, we're we're open and available.

As we mentioned before, you’ve been capped for the US at various youth levels, but were you ever close to playing for your parents’ country?
There was a moment in time where it it got kind of close. So, after um the U23 Olympic cycle and we didn't qualify, there were talks about me potentially getting the call up for the US men's national team.

Unfortunately, that never happened and that's when Nigeria's federation kind of stepped in, but nothing ever materialized. My dad even met with the Federation and some of the folks and stakeholders involved with that. But nothing ever materialized. So, I never got a full team call up for either national team, whether it's U .S. or Nigeria. But I was very fortunate to have the career that I had… but, you know, I always wanted that.

Can we backtrack a little bit we talked about your career and we talked about your family's heritage, can you tell me at what point you fell in love with soccer?
I mean, I grew up with the sport; I think I fell in love with it when I realized what soccer could provide, and not from the standpoint of making money or going pro, but it was the fact that it built long lasting friendships, ability to travel and embrace new ethnicities and cultures.

So, I think my first trip with the US men's national team, at the youth level - the U 14 trip to Mexico and it was the first time I've been out of the country. It was because of soccer and because of my talent in soccer. And that's when I fell in love with it, you know, being able to embrace a new country, being able to do it with people from all walks of life.

That was when I was like, wow soccer is a springboard for everything. It enticed me to even work harder, get more involved, to be more disciplined in my day-to-day and ever since then, I've just been using soccer as that that springboard for everything I want to do.

You spent so much time in Philadelphia - when you reflect on that, did you leave at the right time or was there unfinished business? Do you wish one or two things could have gone differently?
Obviously, Philadelphia is where I made my mark. And I had the longest time spent at a club there. It's where I came in as a boy left as a man! I think the only thing that I really would have loved to see is finishing with the trophy because Philadelphia has done so many good things since 2010. I was there in an expansion year. And even with the five years that I was there, it was a lot of growing pains.

So, to be part of those growing pains, I would have liked to cap it off with the trophy. We did have a couple opportunities to do that; it would have been amazing but you know like every career there's gonna be a beginning and an end.

I know that you wrapped up your career at Austin Bold. Did you play amateur soccer or pickup soccer after you after you took your boots off for the last time in in Austin?
Yeah, so after Austin, I retired - I had a great run. You know, you can't get away from the game, so, when I moved back to Sac a couple of my buddies started to play. It was my way to stay in shape, stay involved - I played amateur; NPSL, UPSL and I even coached a USL 2 team where I would come in and play every now and then. I'd play TST. They have like the seven on seven paid tournaments.

Every now and then I'll do adult league men's league stuff like that but unfortunately, sometimes it gets a little bit more competitive than I'm hoping for. I've had my career. But for some reason, sometimes when you play in those ah up in those leagues people want to go against you. like like it's still that environment so there's been some mix-ups and bust-ups that i've had to navigate out of but That's just the beauty of the game, you know.

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH AMOBI OKUGO HERE

- by Josh Duder