16 The Times Magazine“I’m grateful for being pushed. Even just
in terms of dress, my mother wanted me to
look sharp, look proper. And my dad, well...
Just say he walked in this room right now.
There are only two chairs – he’d expect me
to stand up and offer him one. He might not
take it, but he would like the gesture. It’s a
generational thing. My mum and her siblings
called their father ‘Sir’. With Nigerian families,
you know who’s in charge. Education was
drummed into me as the key to everything.”
Itoje is his own man now. He campaigns
for Black Curriculum, a social enterprise
pushing for the wider teaching of black history
in schools. Last year he co-curated a London
art show called A History Untold showcasing
African art and also backed a campaign to
distribute spare tablets and computers to
underprivileged students during the pandemic.
“I’ve had lots of advantages. It feels like
a duty to do good where I can,” he shrugs.
Even when, last year, Gavin Williamson,
education secretary at the time, held a Zoom
call with Itoje to discuss the computer appeal
and then gave a newspaper interview
erroneously trumpeting his meeting with
Marcus Rashford, Itoje remained dignified.
Wryly amused, even.
“Due to recent speculation I thought it was
necessary to confirm that I am not Marcus
Rashford,” he tweeted.
“What can I say? He made a mistake,” he
says with a smile.
Itoje would rather concentrate on the big
stuff, like getting more black schoolchildren to
learn about 14th-century Malian king Mansa
Musa. I must admit, I’d never heard of him.
Musa was the richest man who has ever lived,
apparently. He travelled across his vast West
African empire with a retinue of 60,000.
“It’s so interesting that we hear about Jeff
Bezos or Bill Gates, great and wealthy figures
from today. But one of the richest men who
ever lived was Mansa Musa. So many great
moments in black history have been lost and
that’s a pity, because what you are exposed to
shapes who you are.”
Now he’s planning for his own future
beyond sport. He reckons he has another
eight years in the game and then, aged 35,
he will retire. He is currently doing an MBA
at Warwick Business School with a view
to developing a post-rugby career. Like his
sporting heroes Muhammad Ali and Shaquille
O’Neal, Itoje could be one of those who
transcend their sport. No wonder billionaire
rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z has signed him
to his Roc Nation management company.
“Jay-Z is more than just his music – and
ultimately I want a career beyond sport.
Rugby is my life, but careers are short
and risks are huge. I’m not clamouring for
£1 billion, but I want to look after my family
and extended family.”In rugby, that’s hard. Because, unlike
Premier League football, club rugby is subject
to a salary cap that, due to the economic
impact of the pandemic, was actually reduced
by 28 per cent at the end of last year. Itoje is
an Arsenal fan and friendly with members of
the team. Doesn’t he ever envy those Premier
League pay rates?
“Like I said, I don’t go out there trying
to earn £1 billion.” He smiles. “But there is a
problem with the salary cap – it’s about double
in France and Japan, so it means we will lose
the big-name players. The big names make
games exciting and, to be honest, some
matches I watched in lockdown were not
great. You need those big personalities.”
Itoje is one of those big personalities.
Rugby has its own weird vernacular and
“shithousery” is slang for gamesmanship- ie winding up the opposition or nagging
the ref over every infringement. Fans
love it and Itoje has been called England’s
“shithouse-in-chief” for the way he gets in
the opposition’s faces. It’s the same at club
level. In 2018, while playing for Saracens
against Glasgow Warriors, a video of him
sarcastically applauding a disallowed Warriors
try went viral.
“I suppose I can be quite vocal,” he says
carefully. “But my energy is directed toward
the team and myself. In the process, maybe
I rub some people up the wrong way.”
There it is again – that megawatt smile.
His chat with Alastair Campbell covered
the importance of team motivation. Campbell
is a rugby fanatic and in 2005 he went on the
Lions tour of New Zealand as the team’s
media director. Campbell recalled seeing
Lions team members relaxing in the hotel bar.
He had a bad feeling. There was no hunger.
There was no fear.
The tour was a disaster – the Lions lost
every Test match – a lesson that has not been
lost on Itoje.
“Yeah, you need the ‘fear’,” he says. “You
need that sense that it’s life or death to really
perform and get the best out of yourself.”
Locating it is the job of England team
psychologist Dr Andrea Furst. Every England
player has their own tailored psychological
treatment plan. With Itoje, though, Furst
doesn’t have to try to motivate him. She
has to calm him down.
“I guess my file probably says I need to
channel my desire better. For example, in an
opposition lineout I want to try to steal the
ball even though statistically it’s very unlikely
you can do that. In the past I have gone in
too strong, accidentally hit another player and
that cost us a penalty. That brings unnecessary
pressure for the whole team. I need to contain
that desire sometimes.”
He doesn’t seem to have contained that
desire to win today. Itoje is enjoying a “bye
week” – Saracens don’t have a game – so it’s
up to him to decide how much training he
does. This morning he got up early, ate a
bagel, drank a protein shake and then went to
the gym and did a whole body weight-training
session (he did his upper body and lower body
earlier in the week, he tells me). After that he
did a running session, then went home and
prepared himself a Nigerian delicacy called
egusi soup (it contains melon seeds, vegetables
and sometimes meat).
“Training is not work to me. It’s what
I love,” he says.
He lives in north London with his brother
Jeremy, who plays rugby for a local team in
Harrow. In the evening they watch sport or
listen to Nineties R&B artists like Boyz II Men
or Tevin Campbell. Itoje also tends his
collection of tropical fish.
“I have koi and blue orfe, some shubunkins
and until recently I had a black sturgeon
called Naomi Campbell because she’s so
beautiful. There’s something about fish. They
are calming when my head is full of stuff.”
When England line up for their opening
game against Scotland next weekend, Itoje
should earn his 51st England cap. At some
point on the walk from the dressing room to
the pitch he’ll have to forget about modelling,
art and politics. Is that hard?
“No, it isn’t hard to get your head in the
game,” he says. “There’s a lot of love among
the team from the moment you’re in camp.
Everything you do, it’s all about England. The
outside world feels like another place. There is
nothing except that drive to win.” n‘With Nigerian families,
you know who’s in
charge. Education was
drummed into me as
the key to everything’
GETTY IMAGES. OPENING SPREAD: GROOMING, BROOKE SIMONS AT CAROL HAYES MANAGEMENT USING DR SEBAGH AND COVER FX. JEWELLERY, MARO ITOJE’S OWN
With his family after a British & Irish Lions match, 2017