Seamless
Photography by Leonel Pillcorema & Peter Bonilla.
Sebastien Ibeagha: fashion icon, artist, and soccer player. In no particular order.
The LAFC defender has had quite the journey in MLS, and he’s also earned a reputation for being one of the most artistic and stylish soccer players in the North American scene.
Born in Warri, Nigeria, Sebastien quickly took a liking to soccer and fashion thanks to his father, Christian.
“My dad had a crazy amount of suits,” remembered Sebastien. “I would walk into his closet when I was a little kid and just stare at them, amazed.”
The memory of running his fingers through his father’s suits, mesmerized at the different textures, colors, and fabrics has stuck with Sebastien forever. For him, it was just one of the many moments as a kid that steered him into fashion and art.
“I also really liked cars,” added Sebastien. “My big thing was learning how to draw them. So I would just sit in my room and sketch, sketch, sketch. I wanted to know how to sit there and just draw a Mustang out of nowhere. From there, I started free-handing different things and began getting really abstract with all my drawings.”
Due to his father’s work, Sebastien moved around a lot when he was younger. Before the age of nine, he lived in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Scotland until eventually settling in the United States in 2001.
As he went through middle school and high school in Oklahoma, fashion and art slowly faded from his life. An occasional doodle on his notebook or the odd art class here or there, but nothing too serious.
Funnily enough, it would be his undeniable talent for soccer that would eventually bring him back into the art and fashion world years later.
“Back in high school, I didn’t see a career in art. I didn’t stop loving it, but I focused more on soccer and other sports.”
During high school, Sebastien ran track, played basketball, and he particularly excelled at American football.
With so many interests in mind, sophomore year of high school was a critical moment for Sebastien. He sat down to choose which sport to focus on, and his heart finally settled on soccer. Due to his creative nature, it was a pretty straightforward decision.
“The thing I didn't like about football was that the more I played it, the more I realized that days are repetitive -- the way you practice and the things you train. In soccer, you can do the same thing every day, but each situation is different. That’s what pulled me to play soccer completely. The game is physical, it's technical, but at the same time, no moment is exactly the same as the last one. You always have to have the mental ability to understand and read different situations. All of that really engaged me.”
“Football seemed so black and white, but soccer seemed like the opposite. There was something about it that made me want to explore it and grow in it.”
After his sophomore year of high school, Sebastien and his family moved once again. This time from Oklahoma to Houston, TX. With his newfound sense of purpose in the soccer world, Sebastien joined the Houston Dynamo Academy, eager to make his professional dream a reality. With his older brother Christian having played for the U-17 USMNT and having earned a full ride to Duke, it seemed Sebastien would follow in his brother’s footsteps.
“Once I joined the Dynamo Academy, everything changed,” reflected Sebastien. After getting called up for first-team training and excelling at the academy, Sebastien thought of foregoing college and playing pro. “I didn’t want to lose four years of development at the pro level, and I wanted just to start playing as soon as possible. Nevertheless, Sebastien’s parents were adamant that he go to college, and in the end, he’d end up enrolling at Duke to play soccer and study Earth and Ocean Sciences.
His first two years at Duke were not easy. “I disliked it because it was like a vicious circle. To play, you have to obviously have the grades, but I just wanted to play. And Duke is a great academic school, so those first two years were very challenging. I was just so focused on leaving that I didn’t put in a lot of effort. Then, when my junior year came around, I decided I was going to try to graduate early.”
Despite his early struggles at Duke, Ibeagha found his footing on the pitch, and he was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2012. During his last few years at Duke, he was offered multiple first-team contracts by the Dynamo, but upon graduating, he decided to play in Denmark.
Looking back at his time in Europe, Sebastien praised the opportunity as one that helped him develop tactically and technically. While in Europe, Sebastien played for AC Horsens and FC Fredericia in Denmark as well as Fram Reykjavík in Iceland. Beyond everything he learned on the pitch, his time off the pitch was also fruitful.
“I really tried my best to learn Danish, even though my teammates said it was not that useful. But in Denmark, I was also frustrated about my contract. They sacked the coach that had brought me in, and the new one didn’t like me. He told me I didn’t fit his system. That was the first time I experienced that. Growing up, I was always a top-five player on my team. So that was the first time I had to deal with that adversity, and I’m glad it happened when I was 23. Looking back, I did need that to learn what it takes to be a good professional in terms of understanding your role and knowing that you don’t need to be that guy in order to have a big influence on a team.”
“Then, when I got loaned out to Iceland, I also just decided to have a bit more fun with it and relax a bit more. Just try to live my life beyond soccer, which was all I had been focusing on for a long time.”
So, with a new outlook on his soccer career, fashion soon crept back into Sebastien’s life.
“Over there is where I started getting back into fashion. I wasn’t making any money through college, so it’s not like I could spend my parent’s money on clothes. I had to buy books,” remembered Sebastien with a laugh. “But in Denmark and Iceland is where I started dressing with a very European style. Skinny jeans and that type of stuff. Nothing wrong with that. Then, I moved back to the States, and it’s evolved ever since.”
Upon returning to the United States, the Houston Dynamo finally signed Sebastien to the homegrown contract they had been offering for years. Being close to his friends and family was an added bonus for Sebastien, but unfortunately, the season did not go as he had hoped.
“I had a terrible year. I didn't actually play a single game for them that year, which was really disappointing. I went on a couple of loan spells to their second team, and then I got loaned to Rayo OKC in NASL.”
Sebastien had an excellent year with Rayo OKC, helping the team to a deep run in the 2016 NASL playoffs. But just when he was expecting the Dynamo to pick up his second-year option for the 2017 season, they didn’t.
After scrambling to find teams to play for in MLS, San Antonio FC in USL offered Sebastien a contract, which he eagerly signed. In 2017, he would end up making 30 appearances for the club and winning the 2017 USL Defender of the Year award. His standout performances for San Antonio would soon catch the attention of none other than Patrick Vieira.
“San Antonio had an affiliation with New York City FC, so after that year, Patrick Vieira called down to bring me into their 2018 preseason. It was crazy. I’m a Chelsea fan, but growing up, Patrick Vieira was one of my favorite players when he was at Arsenal. It was surreal to have someone who played in the EPL watch me and then help me develop.”
After a successful preseason, NYCFC signed Sebastien to be their fourth center back for the year.
“I had already spent one year in MLS where I didn’t play, so I didn’t have too high expectations. But there were some injuries within the backline, and I actually ended up being on the roster for the whole year and playing in 26 games.”
The following year, Sebastien played in 23 games, helping NYCFC to reach the #1 spot in the East at the end of the 2019 regular season. Although the playoffs did not go as Sebastien and the rest of the team had hoped, having another successful year under his belt gave Sebastien the confidence to negotiate his own contract to re-sign with the team in 2020.
“I parted ways with my agent for personal reasons, so I ended up doing the contract myself. It was really cool to be in that space and talk to a GM directly and figure out all the numbers. There are so many ways contracts are constructed in MLS, and it all comes down to the salary cap. And there are very interesting ways a team can manipulate your base salary and your incentives to make sure they hit what you ask for while still technically staying under the salary cap for a given year. And the GM at NYCFC knows his numbers, so it was awesome to see how they shift things, and it honestly seems like it’s harder for a team to sign a player than it is for a player to accept a contract. I was also lucky to have Sean [Johnson] and Brad [Stuver] help me out with the negotiations because they know a lot about the league and how it works.”
Besides seeing his soccer career grow exponentially during his three years in New York, Sebastien also used his time in the Big Apple to grow his passion for fashion.
“When I moved to New York is when I saw my style change the most. I would just see people wearing some pretty crazy stuff in New York, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I can pull it off.’”
“And I look at fashion as an expression. I’m a very expressive person, so for me, it’s just a way to show who I am. I like to tailor things to express myself as opposed to just wanting to look good or just caring about what people see. I like to see what’s on the street and then switch it to fit who I am. But my style definitely shifted when I moved to New York.”
Beyond growing his own fashion sense, Sebastien has also enjoyed the intersection between soccer and fashion.
“I think within sports, there's a unique space in which fashion just fits seamlessly. Fashion, art, music, and sports all mesh with each other very well.”
“And it’s interesting, the more confident you are in your game, and who you are, you do see it reflected in how you dress. Not always, but I think it's just having that comfort with who you are. When you're confident in who you are on the field and what you produce, there's a certain level of confidence that you just exude and can translate into how you dress. In the end, fashion is such an expressive form of art. Just like playing, your surroundings help shape your fashion sense and how you want to dress.”
But beyond the intersection between fashion and soccer, Sebastien has also enjoyed the contrast between both of his passions.
“I love the experimenting aspect of fashion. In that sense, it’s a bit different from my profession. When it's game day, there are just certain risks that we don't take on the field. And I think fashion is a way to take risks and just try stuff. I think that’s an added reason for why I like it so much.”
And from his days in New York, it seems there are many other players from the team who are also not afraid to experiment with their style.
“I think Taty [Castellanos] is big into fashion. He’s pretty swaggy. You gotta call it when you see it. Maxi [Moralez] also has some pretty dope stuff that I really like. Then, Luis [Barraza] also was a guy that I saw his environment shape his fashion sense. When he first came, he didn’t really care much for it, but after a while, he’d show up with some cool stuff for team dinners or when we’d go out. I love seeing that kind of stuff.”
“It’s also just been interesting to see how the more expressive guys -- whether it’s positive or negative -- tend to dress a little bit flashier. The more understated players on the field, those who don’t care about the accolades, the introverts, and all that, tend to dress a bit more conservative. I like seeing how personalities on the field translate to fashion off the field too.”
Apart from his observations and experiences with fashion in New York, Sebastien has also recently taken the time to rekindle his love for photography and painting.
“I think my focus was again just switched primarily to soccer for a while, but now getting more comfortable in my role as a pro, I’ve just revisited a lot of the stuff that I enjoyed doing when I was much younger.”
At first, Sebastien first launched his own website to post his photography, clothing, and any other projects outside of his soccer career. “It's just a place where I can just throw all my creative stuff,” added Sebastien.
Since then, that’s also evolved into getting back to painting and art.
“I made a couple of pieces for some of my friends. One plays in Columbus, and one plays in Dallas. My friend from Columbus liked some of the work I posted, so he bought all the supplies for me to paint a piece for his mom’s birthday, which was a lot of pressure, but it came out pretty well, and they loved it.”
Since then, Sebastien has made seven canvas paintings. A Nike Jordan painting he made stood out to one of his friends, and that one got sold as well.
“During the season, I don't do it as much. I do it a lot more in the off-season, but it's something that just sort of happened, and some people picked up on it,” he said.
Most of his paintings take about five days to make, and he’s recently become more experimental with the flares and details that he adds to his pieces.
“The paintings take quite some time, so most times I just sketch everything on my iPad. But some of the ones I’ve made are just sitting in a stack in my room. My girlfriend gets pissed because she’s like, ‘Yo, what are you doing with this?’ and I just tell her I don’t know. But maybe I’ll put them up around my place or something.”
For now, Sebastien’s return to the art world seems to be more of a relaxing hobby than anything else. “It’s a relaxing thing for me. I'll just see something, and my gears just start turning, and I start drawing. I often start and then leave it there, and then I’ll start working on something completely different that I think might look even better. It’s usually like that with me, but it’s something I really enjoy doing.”
As for his plans with soccer and fashion, things seem to be clicking for Sebastien. He recently became a business development manager for a clothing line based in California called Mahwa Studios, and he also completed a move to LAFC earlier this month.
“I have a lot of free rein, but I’m in charge of finding ambassadors for the brand,” he said about his work at Mahwa Studios. “It’s been really cool to create ‘care packages’ for all these different athletes and tailor them based on what I think could suit them best. But the other cool thing about the company is that they give us the opportunity to use it as a platform to work through our own clothing lines. Then everyone gets to collaborate on these special drops, and it’s great to be part of that.”
“For me, though, it’s just cool to be a part of the process. It’s a learning experience. I don’t know if I’m going to push to try to make my own line in the future, but just seeing how it works firsthand is invaluable information. You never know.”
Photography by Leonel Pillcorema & Peter Bonilla.
