A FORMER star of the Super Falcons, Rachael Ayegba, is now a bus driver in London, United Kingdom.
Ayegba was a goalkeeper who represented Nigeria at the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup and won the Africa Cup of Nations title in 2006.
After starting out in Nigeria, Ayegba played professional football for 11 years in Finland, winning the league title in 2013 with PK-35 Vantaa.
According to the Evening Standard, Ayegba now drives the number 185 bus between Lewisham and Victoria in London.
She is in the middle of a year’s training.
The 35-year-old former shot-stopper told the London publication that she had visited the city for years on holiday and always admired the famous double-decker buses.
She moved to London three years ago and feels driving a bus and being a goalkeeper are similar: it is about safety first and not making a mistake.
She however admits that bus driving is harder.“When you are trying to save the ball, you need safe hands. But there are ten others on your side,” she told the Evening Standard.
“When you drive a bus, you are on your own.”In goal, the whole game is in front of you. Driving a bus, at least half the things that could go wrong are behind you or otherwise out of vision.
“Mentally you have to be 100% ready, if you are a goalkeeper the defenders can help you. You can’t make any mistakes driving a bus.”
She works for Go-Ahead, the bus and train giant that operates about a fifth of the capital’s buses on behalf of TfL.
The company’s apprenticeship programme lasts 53 weeks, a mix of classroom work and being on the road.
When asked if bus drivers do not get enough respect, Ayegba replied: “They don’t. I think we just see a bus driver as a nobody. “I see them more like a pilot, if anything goes wrong, it’s on them. Now I’ve done the training, the people I respect most, after my family, are the drivers.”
Evening Standard reported that bus drivers’ pay starts at £26,000 and rises to more than £31,000 per year.
Although, Ayegba would have earned more that from playing for Nigeria in the Women’s World Cup and professionally in Finland, she has no regrets.
Ayegba quit playing football in 2016, though she has coaching licences. “I am old. You have to know when to stop,” she said.
