Maidstone United backed to spring huge FA Cup shock and beat Coventry by World Cup icon
WORLD CUP icon Roger Milla is backing Maidstone United to create more FA Cup magic.
The National League South minnows are in the last 16 of the FA Cup at Championship promotion-chasing Coventry on Monday night.
And Stones boss and former Wolves star George Elokobi, 38, has received a specially-recorded video message from his childhood hero back home in Cameroon.
He told SunSport: “It was to congratulate me. This is what the magic of the FA Cup does.
“He told me he had been watching us and to continue working hard.
“He knows I’ve been doing well for Cameroon and flying the flag high. He wants to wish us well for the next round of the FA Cup.
“And he also wanted to wish me good health and to keep working hard, keep developing and hopefully one day I’ll be able to help the nation.”
Milla, 71, had his message played to him during a televised BBC Sport feature.
He is among a number of high-profile Cameroon stars to have reached out to Elokobi after he led the team past League Two Barrow and League One Stevenage at their Gallagher Stadium – before stunning Championship promotion contenders Ipswich at Portman Road.
Asked who else, he said: “I don’t want to keep name-dropping but quite a few!
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“Sebastien Bassong who used to play for Spurs, these are good friends of mine.
“Alex Song who used to play for Arsenal, we go quite a way back, he has reached out as well.
“I’m good friends with Enoh Eyong who played for Ajax, and he said congratulations.
“So a lot of them have told me that it’s incredible to see what I’m doing, the transition I’ve made now into becoming a manager and flying the flag high for them as well.”
Elokobi, who only became a manager last year, was emotional when he watched Milla’s message as memories of his childhood came flooding back.
Although only four-and-a-half, he remembers vividly watching his hero almost beat England single-handedly in the 1990 World Cup quarter-final before the Three Lions prevailed 3-2 in an epic.
The Maidstone boss said: “We had to pay money to get into someone’s house and were in there in our numbers watching the game on TV.
“We thought we had nicked it and had a chance. It was an incredible time. He was such an inspiration when I was that young. I can remember and see myself in that moment.
“So to see his message just takes me back to 1990 when I was a young kid when football was the only thing to do. It’s incredible to think he’ll be supporting me and Maidstone.”
Elokobi’s journey has been an extraordinary rags-to-riches tale.
His dad Martin died of diabetes when he was ten and the youngster sometimes went without meals, having to scavenge for food out of trash cans – hunting birds, eating snakes and digesting unwashed raw potatoes from the ground.
His mum Irene left him and his 12 older siblings in Cameroon as she sought work in the UK to help better support her family before moving Elokobi over to study when he was 16.
The rest is history as he got spotted by Colchester playing for Dulwich Hamlet aged 18 and he went on to play for Wolves in the Premier League – including scoring in a win against Manchester United.
Whatever happens tonight, Elokobi and Maidstone have written an inspirational story.
And he said: “I’m just doing my job. I’m here to empower everyone around my environment – everyone that’s under the Maidstone umbrella.
“Yes, my title is the manager, I understand that but also my job is to try to give everyone that freedom to develop themselves and empower everyone to enjoy working under me.
“I come in every day wanting to make people’s day better so for me it’s not just football, it’s bigger.
“It’s about the environment you create: when you see someone in the morning, can you give them a hug or a handshake, just to brighten their day up?
“And then we can look at the day in front of us but yes, it’s important that I keep inspiring so many people and inspiring non-league teams.
“That’s part of my job too, to show everyone out there that it is possible – if we can do it at Maidstone then hopefully one day, another club out there can do it as well.”
The Stones, who reformed after going bankrupt while in the Football League in 1992, have made around £450,000 from this season’s FA Cup run so far – and are hoping to reinvest most of it into revamping their 4,200 stadium.