Why  I stopped my son from playing football – Tijani Babangida

Newly elected President of National Association of Nigerian Professional Footballers (NANPF) otherwise called ‘Players Union,’ ex-international Tijani Babandiga opens up on the challenges of his new office, his aspiration and how his past achievements shaped him for the future.

The ambition of former Super Eagles star, Tijani Babangida, is certainly taller than his statue.  Babangida is well known for his accelerating speed in the right wing of the Nigerian senior team during its glorious era (1990s) when the Super Eagles shook the world like storm.

The pocket-sized attacker adequately made up for this with his great velocity that was the undoing of many defenders at club and national levels.

His playing style was reportedly compared to that of Marc Overmars, the Dutch winger with whom he played together and spent majority of his playing career at Ajax.
Overall, he played in five different countries on three different continents. At club level, Babangida spent nine years in The Netherlands, playing for VVV-Venlo, Roda JC and Ajax with whom he won the Eredivisie plus KNVB Cup double.

He scored combined 76 goals in 249 appearances in seven clubs across Europe and Asia between 1991 and 2004 before he hung his boot in China.

The height of his club career came in 1996, when he joined Ajax in the summer of 1996 for €5 million. He appeared in 29 league games, scoring four goals in his first season with Ajax.

Babangida played an important role in Ajax’s European campaign, scoring three goals, including one against Auxerre in the group stages, and the winning goal in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League encounter with Atlético Madrid at the Vicente Calderón Stadium, which put Ajax through to the semi-finals of the competition.

Making his international debut in 1994, he played 36 games, scoring five times for Nigeria in a ten-year career, including four at the 1998 World Cup in France. He played two Africa Cup of Nation tournaments, wining silver in the 1998 edition.

Two years earlier, Babangida played an active role in Nigeria’s gold medal feat at the 1996 Olympic men’s football event, brushing aside Brazil and Argentina along the way. He also played for the Super Eagles at the France ’98 World Cup, where he scored the consolatory goal for Nigeria in the 4-1 loss to Denmark.

Looking back at all these achievements, the former FC Taraba chairman said he is fulfilled for choosing football as a career.