(CNN) -- When Sunday Oliseh was a young boy kicking a football around the dusty streets of Lagos, he never dreamed he would one day carry the hopes of 170 million people on the world's biggest sporting stage. "As a child, the World Cup was something that was not for us but for others," says the man who became one of Nigeria's pioneering football exports. "It was something like a mirage for my nation until my generation came around." Indeed, football was not even considered a respectable profession in the Oliseh household. "For my parents growing up, football was taboo and you could understand them because way back then, in Africa, nobody made a living out of playing football," the 39-year-old tells CNN's Human to Hero series.
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Sunday Oliseh played for Nigeria at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups
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Former midfielder was the first Nigerian to play in Italy's Serie A
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Oliseh won an Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games
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He believes African nations must change their approach if they are ever to win a World Cup
With a confident and enthusiastic attitude to life, much like his playing style, the position of nomadic footballing trailblazer suited @placeholder.