Tijjani Babangida

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Tijjani Babangida
Personal information
Full name	Tijjani Babangida
Date of birth	September 25, 1973 (age 33)
Place of birth	Kaduna, Nigeria
Height	1.69 m
Nickname	"TJ", "Baba", "Okada".
Playing position	Winger
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1990 1991-1993 1994-1996 1997-2001 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005	Niger Tornadoes VVV Venlo Roda Ajax →Gençlerbirliği (loan) Vitesse Al-Ittihad Tianjin Taida Changchun Yatai	34 (19) 78 (26) 77 (30) 12 (2) 14 (1) 5 0(0) 9 0(11) 0 0(5)
National team2
1994–2002	Nigeria	40 (5)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15:23, 5 february 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of February 5, 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Nigeria
Men's Football
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Team Competition

Tijjani Babangida (born September 25, 1973 in Kaduna) is a former football winger from Nigeria. He played 40 international matches and scored 5 goals for Nigeria, and played at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, in the process scoring one of the goals of the tournament with a thunderous volley from the right side. He also won the Olympic gold medal in 1996.

Babangida came to the Netherlands at the age of seventeen, and was signed by Roda JC. After spending one and a half season on loan to VVV Venlo, Babangida played for Roda and became one of their most celebrated players. He was signed by giants Ajax Amsterdam, but gradually lost his place in the first team and was sent on loan to various clubs. Having been omitted from the 2002 FIFA World Cup squad, in 2002 he signed a six-month loan deal with Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia, but he walked out of the team in November after disagreements with the coach. After two years in China, Babangida announced his retirement from football.

Two of his nine brothers, Ibrahim Babangida and Haruna Babangida, are also professional footballers.

[edit] Trivia

• Babangida found unlikely fame in the twiglight of his career thanks to a computer game. In the popular Pro Evolution Soccer Series, Babangida is quite inexplicably one of the best players in the game. As a result of this Babangida attained cult status with gamers worldwide. By the time of the release PES3, Babangida's career was virtually over, but bowing to pressure from his fans, Konami included the speed merchant as a secret player for use in the game.

[edit] External references

• Nigerian Players

	Nigeria squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Rufai | 2 Oparaku | 3 Babayaro | 4 Kanu | 5 Okechukwu | 6 West | 7 George | 8 Adepoju | 9 Yekini | 10 Okocha | 11 Lawal | 12 W. Okpara | 13 Babangida | 14 Amokachi | 15 Oliseh | 16 Okafor | 17 Eguavoen | 18 Oruma | 19 Iroha | 20 Ikpeba | 21 G. Okpara | 22 Baruwa | Coach: Milutinović