Dudu Omagbemi loves the Indian national anthem, wants to learn its lyrics

everyone else in the stadium as the Indian national anthem plays out. AT THE START OF every Indian Super League match, both teams line up next to each other, standing in attention along with

The camera pans across every player's face as the song progresses. During this time, most of the Indian players can be seen singing along. But forheign players, who constitute more than half the number of on-field footballers, understandably remain silent. 

But Dudu Omagbemi, the Nigerian striker who has played in Indian for more than a decade, has become an exception. As the high refrain of the anthem comes to a close, Dudu can be seen singing along loudly with the final line of the song, "Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he, jaya jaya jaya jaya he."

The 31 year old centre forward who has played for all the major clubs in Goa (Sporting Clube de Goa, Dempo, Salgaocar) and Kolkata (East Bengal, Mohun Bagan) and three ISL franchises (Pune City, FC Goa and currently Chennaiyin FC), has a love for the Indian national anthem and wants to learn to sing the whole thing.

Speaking to Bengali daily Ei Samay, Dudu said that his affection for the national anthem comes from his love for this country,

"I love India. It's here that I first got to play for a professional club. First time I got fame. Playing for an Indian club got me picked for the Nigerian Olympic team playing here, and even gave me a chance to play in Europe."

Dudu said he wanted to sing the entire national anthem, but could not because he did not know all the words,

"I just sing the part of the end because those are the words easiest to follow. It's pretty tough to learn the whole thing. If somebody teaches me, I'd love to sing along from start to finish."

Playing in India for about 14 years has helped Dudu immerse himself into Indian society, and he has picked up a lot of the languages along the way. Asked about that, Dudu said,

"I was mostly in Goa so the Indian language I know most is Konkani. I know some Hindi too, and a bit of Bangla."