Former Nigerian female footballer, Iyabo Abade now living as a man

Former Super Falcons striker Iyabo Abade lived for many years as a hermaphrodite - a person with male and female organ. She/he had surgery in the US in 2004 and is now living as a man named James Johnson. Punch caught up with him recently and he opened up about his life 

Now that you are a man, has it been easy playing men’s football?

I thank God for how far He has brought me. I have made every effort to get to the top as a footballer but there is no support from anywhere, even the Nigeria Football Federation. I am just trying on my own to get to the top but it hasn’t been easy. You go for trials and you do well and you are recruited but after sometime, they will start acting funny; they use my past against me. I try to ensure that I don’t let clubs know who I am.  I don’t like telling them that I am the former Iyabo Abade; I have to go there like every other normal player and fight for a place in the team. But when they hear that former Iyabo Abade has signed for either Crown FC or Plateau United, they start discriminating against me.