John Akinde: “If I had a normal job, I’d be playing for free on a Sunday somewhere”

As part of me volunteering to write a piece for the programme, I get to also speak to the players a little for the site. This week I got to chat to John Akinde.

He’s such a softly-spoken bloke, very grounded and quiet. You can read in the programme about settling in Lincoln, internet criticism and what the major factor in his move here was.

As a taster, I’ve got some of the outtakes now from a phone conversation twice as long as the usual interviews I do. Maybe I got carried away, being a John Akinde fan, or maybe he’s just a nice lad to chat to.

Either way, we touched briefly on football. I asked if was comfortable as a lone striker,

“I’ve played lone striker in the past over the years, I used to play on my own up top at Barnet so it’s something I’m pretty much used to.”

Veering away from the serious stuff, Lee Frecklington had said in the Football League Paper that John had bene late for training a few times, incurring a fine or two. John, as someone who doesn’t read the FLP, had to be told twice what his captain had said.

“Lee said what? No, I don’t read the Football League Paper! The thing is I share a car with a few boys, there are a few that are occasionally late, I’m just a victim of that. It’s tricky, you know? Besides, everyone is late compared to Freck, he’s always in three or four hours before everyone else.”

It seems inconceivable to think the powerful striker had any other calling than a centre-forward, certainly to Barnet fans who watched him score 20 goals a season every season, but it could have been so different. Our record signing might have been coming around to fix your sink.

“If I hadn’t got into football, I think maybe I would have been a plumber. The thing is, I love football, during my apprenticeship years plumbing appealed to me, but I’d still be playing football. This is the game I love and if I had a normal job, I’d be playing for free on a Sunday somewhere, no doubt at all.”

As for after the game, don’t expect to see him move into coaching or management, certainly not if he has his way.

“More recently I’ve been looking at Financial Advisor. Potentially, I could be thinking of going into giving financial advice. I’ve got a lot of years left on the pitch at the moment, but there’s going to be a day when that ends and being a financial advisor is something that has caught my eye.”

One light-hearted argument that seems to emanate from all football club dressing rooms is around music. With such a mixture of different ages and backgrounds, there’s always going to be some disagreement and if John had his way, we’d be running out to the rapper Giggs.

“If I could choose, I’d go for Giggs. Some of the grey-haired brigade in the dressing room get a bit moany when the younger lads stick the music on. There are too many young players who get on the tunes though, the old blokes don’t get a look in!”

Finally, one question my other half loves to ask footballers is what super power they’d have if they could choose any. She set a list of questions back when I did A City United and they still come in handy today. Most players seem to get stumped, but not John. He was all over it.

“If I could have a super power, I’d love to read minds.”

I made a lame joke about keepers and penalties to which he had the good grace to chuckle.

“Haha, yeah some might say that. The brain is always working, you know? I’d love to know what people thinking all the time, in those quiet moments when it’s still ticking over. It’d keep me one step ahead of the game, wouldn’t it?”

John surprised me. I don’t know what I expected, a surly centre forward, maybe someone who played their cards close to their chest, but John was none of that. He was considered in his answers, is very clear of his own mind and is as focused as any player I’ve spoken too.

There’s a nice human side in there too though, a man who is driven not by financial reward or by facilities, but by a vision. He wants to be a part of what we do at Lincoln, just like Jason Shackell and Michael Bostwick dropping levels to buy into the dream.

I like that and furthermore, I respect that.

Read the rest of the interview in We Are Imps, the matchday magazine on sale this weekend.