For a man whose list of soccer achievements appear endless, former Super Eagles superstar Nwankwo Kanu doesn’t want you to remember him for his exploits on the football field.

He said his proudest moments are when he looks into the faces of the kids his foundation saved over the last few years.

A few years ago, Nwankwo went through a life threatening situation leading him to establish the Kanu Heart Foundation. Through his foundation, the ex-Super Eagle takes underprivileged children from Nigeria to London for life saving surgical operations.

Nwankwo recently narrated his journey from the football field to hospital rooms. In 2000 while preparing for an African Cup of Nations game with other Super Eagles’ teammates, he was confronted by commotion in the team hotel when a woman bought her daughter to him and pleaded with him to help save her.

After the girl collapsed in front of him, Nwankwo said: “We had to pick her up and run to the hospital. Thank God she didn’t die.”

The girl’s name is Eniton and her mother had read news articles about Nwankwo’s health ordeal and searched for a way to reach the footballer. She finally tracked him down to the team’s hotel and dumped her child in front of him, begging him to save her life.

“The mum wanted to show me the girl for me to help,” Kanu recalled. “When she saw me at the hotel, she was shouting and suddenly the girl fainted. Later on at the hospital I promised the mum that the first kid we were going to operate on would be her daughter.”

True to his word, Eniton was the first girl the Kanu Heart Foundation flew to London for a heart operation at the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

“For a little girl of that age – not playing, no energy in her, not moving around; she doesn’t smile, the eyes are blue. They are really suffering, in a really bad situation, and you ask yourself: ‘If nobody comes in to help and they die …’

“But after all of the children had their operations, I went to visit them and they were full of smiles, jumping and playing with me, rolling around with me and when you looked at the mums, you saw the happiness.

‘The goal of the foundation is to build our own cardiac hospitals in Africa, starting in Nigeria. It would make it all much easier. As a footballer you win trophies and it’s good. But this is so much more.’

From that day, I said: ‘This is something that we have to do more and do more.’”

Today, Eniton is about to graduate from Lagos State University in Nigeria with a degree, and Nwankwo paid for her college education.

Nwankwo also announced that to this day, his foundation has saved over 500 children from certain death.

“We have saved 542. But we keep doing it. This week four patients went to Sudan and we’re hearing that the operations were successful and another six are about to leave as well.

“We have partnered with hospitals, we do check-ups, we talk to the parents, we educate them and at the same time we take the kids to other countries for operations.”

He said his ultimate goal is to build world class hospitals in Africa, starting in Nigeria so his foundation will not have to fly kids out to London for life saving operations.

“The goal of the foundation is to build our own cardiac hospitals in Africa, starting in Nigeria. It would make it all much easier. As a footballer you win trophies and it’s good. But this is so much more.”

Kanu lives with his wife and three children in Hertfordshire, Southern England. He said he planned initially to kick back once his football playing days were over in 2012.

“I thought: ‘OK, it’s holiday time,’” he said, but that was not to be for the 42-year old FIFA and Nigerian Football Federation Ambassador.

“I am called a legend and people see me as one but because of that I don’t think I should have to hide at home and only go on holidays, drink champagne and watch TV. I am somebody that wants to impact on to people’s lives,” Kanu said.

On September 30, a charity football match will be played at Barnet’s Hive Stadium benefiting his foundation. Players participating in the charity match include former Super Eagles’ captain Jay Jay Okocha, Sol Campbell, Teddy Sheringham and Robert Pires.

“That is my first priority. I want to help those back home that do not have anything.”

“I am a sportsman so what do you do? You try to advise other young ones that are coming through. You take boots and jerseys back home. You create an academy. You help them with their school fees.”

Kanu was born in Imo State. After playing for local team, Iwuanyanwu Nationale, he joined Ajax in The Netherlands but he says his priority now is to help those back home who are unable to help themselves.

He was capped 86 times by Nigeria, helping the nation lift the Olympics soccer trophy in Atlanta in 1996. He also won the UEFA Cup while playing for Italy’s Inter before moving to Arsenal where he won two EPL and two FA Cup championships. He won another FA Cup while at Portsmouth FC.

Kanu represented Nigeria in three World Cups and was named African Player of the Year twice.

He was diagnosed with heart condition while at Inter and was told he could no longer play football by British and Dutch physicians but a heart specialist in Cleveland, Ohio successfully operated on his aortic valve and saved his career.

“What they reported was that I had an issue with my heart and couldn’t play football any more. It was in the national papers in Italy as well. That’s how I found out – through the news.

“Later on, Inter came to tell me that, yeah, this was the situation. I said: ‘I have already heard about it.’ It was a big one – and for it to be revealed in such a manner. It should not have been like that. At that moment, everything was upside down for me.”

“What I went through after my transfer to Inter made me stronger,” Kanu said.

“There is no bigger test than when you are in between life and death so, if you can come up from there, you can handle anything. It gave me that push to go out and do whatever I had to do.

“It also changed how I saw the world. For example, if you haven’t been in a hospital, you don’t really understand what is going on in there. I realized there was more to life than only to be comfortable on your own.

“You can open up to help others. I know the pain that I went through as an adult, so imagine how it is for kids. It’s difficult for them to take that pain.”