Popular Nigerian content creator and streamer, Habeeb Hamzat, popularly known as Peller, has alleged that his professional football career was derailed after suffering sexual abuse by his coach as a teenager.
Peller disclosed the experience during his appearance on the latest episode of The Honest Bunch Podcast which was published on YouTube on Monday.
During the podcast, Peller revealed that the alleged incidents occurred when he was between 14 and 15 years old.
According to him, the experience forced him to abandon his ambition of becoming a professional footballer.
“I’m supposed to be at the World Cup currently,” he said.
The TikTok star said the team usually assembled at an uncompleted building before heading to the football pitch for training.
According to him, players who arrived late were often fined, but he was not always able to pay, making him a frequent target for the coach.
“He would ask the other players to go to the field and tell me to stay behind because I came late.
“Then he would call me closer and start pressing my breasts,” Peller alleged.
He also recounted an incident in Agric, Ikorodu, where the coach allegedly invited him under the pretext of helping him collect an item.
According to Peller, when he arrived at the coach’s one-room apartment and handed over the item, the coach allegedly removed his clothes and asked him to get onto the bed.
“I told him, ‘Come to the bed? I only came to bring what you asked for,” he recalled.
Peller claimed the coach attempted to persuade him by promising to give him more playing time.
“He told me not to worry and that he would allow me to play full matches,” he said.
The TikTok star said he later stepped outside after noticing some children playing football nearby and joined them briefly, a move that reportedly angered the coach.
According to him, the coach called him back into the room and locked the door.
Sensing danger, Peller said he told the coach he needed to urinate.
He claimed that as soon as the door was unlocked, he seized the opportunity to flee and never returned.
Peller said the experience forced him to abandon football and eventually led him into content creation.
“That was when I became wise and started doing my tap, tap, tap,” he said, referring to his transition into livestreaming.
Peller also reflected on the early days of his online career, saying he attracted only two or three viewers before meeting fellow content creator Jarvis, whose collaborations helped boost his popularity.
