“I made the celebration of Christian to annoy the Bernabéu, because I didn’t like how he left Real Madrid”. Emmanuel Dennis, a Watford striker who lived his great moment of glory with Bruges, when he scored a brace at the Santiago Bernabéu and celebrated with a ‘siuuu’ in front of the white stands.
Born in Nigeria, Dennis grew up without much interest in football. As a child he was a goalkeeper and the influence of the family, which always took him to church, made him more interested in being a priest than in becoming a footballer. Some tests changed this, they boosted his career, affected by misunderstandings in the Ukraine, the Champions League in Bruges and his first year at Watford, from where he attends Efe at the English training center.
How were your origins in Nigeria? What was it like growing up there?
It was fun, but also very hard. But well, it is the ecosystem in which you find yourself and you have to adapt. My father was in the military, so I grew up in the residences they had near the barracks. It was fun to go to school there, very different from outside.
And when I was little I didn’t want to be a footballer, I wanted to be a priest.
Yes, because my family was very religious and took me to school every day. Every day in the morning. I saw the priest every morning and admired them. So I said “I want to be a priest”. I loved their work, I liked what they did. He was very young and he told my family, my mother and my father. At that time he was not a soccer fan, he did not play. And then I grew up, and I was already aware of what I wanted to do, because even then I wanted to be a priest. It’s just that I didn’t like football, at school I played goalkeeper. It’s funny, because you see how things change.
And what happened for this to change?
My brother came and told me: “You have a soccer test.” It was a test at the Kwara academy, one of the most famous in Nigeria. So there I went. There were hundreds of people, thousands. Wow, a lot of people. If you saw all the guys out there, you’d never think you could get it, because there were just too many. We played the first game, with some very good guys, and they didn’t pick me.
My brother picked me up and told me that I had to try to haggle more, that I had to do things to get noticed. “Let them see that you are different.” The next day we started training and I didn’t stop trying to haggle everyone. The trainers paid attention to me and called me. “What is your name and your favorite team?” they asked me. “I’m Dennis and I like Arsenal.” They wrote down my name. The tests were going to last a week, but after the second day they told me that I didn’t need to come any more and that I could go directly to the final phase.
At that stage there were about 2,000 players. And they only needed 19. I was one of them and that’s where my sports career began.
From Nigeria he went to Ukraine, how was that movement?
I spent three years in Kwara, at the academy, then I studied in Abuja and from there we went to Europe to play tournaments. We went through Croatia, through Italy, playing regional tournaments. And from there they called us to go to Ukraine, to Zorya. It was hard, because it was very cold, they didn’t speak English… I remember a very funny story, when I went to the supermarket to buy body cream, but since I didn’t understand what was in the bottle, I bought shampoo.
After taking a shower, I put on the cream, not knowing it was shampoo, and went to train. When I began to sweat, my body was filled with soap. I didn’t understand anything, but “what cream did I buy?” So when I got home I showed the bottle to a colleague and he told me the truth, that he had shampooed me. It was a fun and hard stage, but that’s life, you have to adapt to these situations.
And from there he went to Bruges, where he scored a brace against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu in 2019.
It was a very big thing for me. I didn’t realize at the time how important it had been. It was after the game, when I saw the press, the social networks, the messages that they sent me, that I said “wow, this has been very brutal”. It also helped this that I did Cristiano’s celebration in one of the goals.
What was it like scoring those goals at the Bernabéu?
Real Madrid is the biggest team in the world. All children dream of playing for Real Madrid, for the club that it is, for the history it has, for the incredible footballers who have been there. Being at the Bernabéu is special. It is not something that happens every year, or every day. It may happen once in a lifetime, or never. If you have an opportunity to be there, you have to take it. I remember the day before the game, in training, looking at the stadium, all the memories of the great players who have been there come to mind. It’s crazy that you then play there. It was one of the best nights of my career. Being at the Bernabéu is, along with representing the national team, the best feeling there is.
If at some point he signed for a Spanish team, he could play more regularly at the Bernabéu.
You never know. But the first time is the most special. It can’t be matched. As much as you play more times, it does not mean that it will be better. As the first time there is none.
Why did you celebrate the goal like Cristiano?
I like Cristiano Ronaldo, but I didn’t like how he left Real Madrid. He has been one of the best players in the history of Real Madrid, but he had the feeling that he had not been respected enough to leave. Before the game I spoke to a friend and told him that if he scored I would celebrate Cristiano, just to annoy the fans. He told me that he was crazy, but when I scored I didn’t hesitate.
What positive things can you take from a season in which Watford has been relegated?
It hasn’t been a good season, neither for the club nor for anyone else, because nobody wanted to be relegated. But this is part of football, part of life. We know that next year we will be able to do better.
Is the Premier League what you expected?
It’s very difficult, in the best league in the world, and all the teams are strong, technical, fast… It’s a very difficult league, you have to work hard. It’s what I expected, but it’s also only my first season.