Tijani Babangida facts for kids
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 25 September 1973 | ||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Kaduna, Nigeria | ||||||||||||
| Height | 1.69 m | ||||||||||||
| Playing position | Winger | ||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||
| Arewa Textiles | |||||||||||||
| Niger Tornadoes | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† | ||||||||||
| 1991–1996 | Roda JC | 78 | (26) | ||||||||||
| 1991–1993 | → VVV-Venlo (loan) | 34 | (19) | ||||||||||
| 1996–2003 | Ajax | 77 | (20) | ||||||||||
| 2000–2001 | → Gençlerbirliği (loan) | 12 | (2) | ||||||||||
| 2001–2002 | → Vitesse (loan) | 14 | (1) | ||||||||||
| 2002–2003 | → Ittihad (loan) | 5 | (0) | ||||||||||
| 2003–2004 | Changchun Yatai | 29 | (8) | ||||||||||
| Total | 249 | (76) | |||||||||||
| National team | |||||||||||||
| 1994–2004 | Nigeria | 36 | (5) | ||||||||||
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Honours
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Tijani Babangida (born 25 September 1973) is a former professional footballer from Nigeria. He was known for playing as a winger, a player who runs fast down the sides of the field. People often compared his speedy playing style to that of another famous winger, Marc Overmars.
Tijani Babangida spent most of his football career playing for Ajax in the Netherlands. He played in five different countries across three continents. In total, he spent nine years in the Netherlands, playing for clubs like Roda JC, VVV-Venlo, Ajax, and Vitesse. With Ajax, he won both the Eredivisie (the top Dutch league) and the KNVB Cup (a major cup competition).
He played over 30 games for the Nigerian national team, including four matches at the 1998 World Cup in France. He also took part in two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. A big highlight was winning the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics with Nigeria. Tijani Babangida first played for his country in 1994.
Contents
Football Journey: Club Career
Tijani Babangida was born in Kaduna, Nigeria. His journey in professional football began when he was just 17 years old.
Starting Out in Europe
In 1991, after playing well at the 1991 All-Africa Games, Tijani left his Nigerian club, Niger Tornadoes. He moved to the Netherlands to join Roda JC, a team in the top Dutch league, the Eredivisie.
Roda JC loaned him to another Dutch club, VVV-Venlo, for a short time. During the 1991–92 season, he played six league games and scored three goals. Even though VVV-Venlo was moved down to a lower league, Tijani stayed with them for another year.
His big moment came in the 1992–93 season. He scored 16 goals, which helped VVV-Venlo get promoted back to the Eredivisie. The next season, Tijani returned to Roda JC. He quickly became a key player, scoring 11 goals in 29 league games.
Tijani played two more seasons at Roda JC. In the 1995–96 season, he was the club's top scorer with 10 league goals. He also played in his first European competition, the UEFA Cup, scoring a goal. His strong performances caught the eye of Ajax, one of the biggest clubs in the Netherlands.
Playing for Ajax
In the summer of 1996, Tijani Babangida joined Ajax in a big move. In his first season, he played 29 league games and scored four goals. He was also important in Ajax's European games, scoring three goals. One of these was a winning goal against Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Champions League, which helped Ajax reach the semi-finals.
His second season at Ajax was very successful. He helped the team win another Eredivisie title by a huge margin. He scored 13 league goals in 26 games, making him the third-highest scorer for the club that season. Ajax also won the KNVB Cup by beating PSV Eindhoven 5–0 in the final, with Tijani scoring the first goal.
Things started to change for Tijani in late 1998. He missed the start of the season due to malaria. He also began to lose his regular spot in the team. The coach was trying to improve the team's performance. Tijani played in fewer games, and Ajax had a tough time in the Champions League that year.
After 1999, Tijani played even less for Ajax. He only appeared in eight games the next year and didn't play at all in the first half of the 2000–01 season. Ajax decided to loan him to Gençlerbirliği, a club in Turkey, for half a year.
Later Career Moves
His time in Turkey was not very happy, and Gençlerbirliği did not keep him after the loan. Tijani wanted to leave the Netherlands. He almost joined AJ Auxerre in France, but then got a call from coach Ronald Koeman and decided to join Vitesse instead. This was another loan move. He played regularly under Koeman, but when Koeman left for Ajax, Tijani lost his place in the team again.
In September 2002, Tijani signed with Ittihad in Saudi Arabia. However, he left the team in November after disagreements with the coach. He returned to Amsterdam to end his contract with Ajax. On 30 April 2003, his contract was finally ended, three years after his last game for the club.
As a player without a club, Tijani tried out for a Chinese team, Tianjin TEDA, in 2003. But this move was delayed because of the SARS outbreak in China. Soon after, he signed with Changchun Yatai, a team in China's second division. He scored four goals, helping his team win the league title. This also led to him being called back to the Nigerian national team. He scored four more goals for Yatai the next season before retiring from football in 2004.
International Football for Nigeria
Tijani Babangida first joined the senior Nigerian national team in 1994 for a friendly game before the World Cup. He played in another friendly but did not make the final squad for the 1994 World Cup.
His chances to play for Nigeria were sometimes limited because another great player, Finidi George, often played in his position. However, Tijani played a very important role in Nigeria's gold medal win at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Nigeria beat strong teams like Brazil and Argentina, who had many famous players.
Tijani was part of Nigeria's team for the 1998 World Cup. He played a total of 120 minutes, starting one game and coming on as a substitute in three others. He scored Nigeria's only goal in their second-round loss to Denmark.
Tijani made his Africa Cup of Nations debut in 2000. Nigeria had not played in the previous two tournaments. In 2000, Tijani scored two amazing goals against South Africa. These goals helped Nigeria reach the final against Cameroon. The game ended in a 2–2 draw, and Nigeria lost narrowly on penalties. He played in all five of his team's games in that tournament.
He also helped Nigeria qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals. He scored two important goals against Ghana, which secured Nigeria's spot in the World Cup. Tijani played in all of Nigeria's games at the 2002 African Cup of Nations. However, he was not chosen for the World Cup squad that year, along with other experienced players. He was called back to the national team for training in 2004 but did not make the final squad for the 2004 African Cup of Nations. The 2002 Cup of Nations was his last major international tournament.
Life After Football
Tijani Babangida, sometimes called "TJ," was born into a large family in Kaduna in 1973. Two of his nine brothers, Ibrahim and Haruna, also became footballers. Ibrahim played for five years at FC Volendam. Haruna became one of the youngest players ever to play for FC Barcelona when he made his debut in 1998 at just 15 years old.
In 1997, Tijani appeared in a TV commercial for a bank. In 2004, he signed a big contract to bring new footballs to Nigeria. That same year, he opened a shopping mall in Kaduna. After he stopped playing professional football, Tijani started working as a football agent, helping other players with their careers.
Honours
- Summer Olympics: 1996 (Gold Medal)
- Eredivisie: 1997–98
- KNVB Cup: 1997–98, 1998–99
- Turkish Cup: 2000–01
- Jia B: 2003
