Haruna Babangida

Haruna Babangida (born 1 October 1982) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a winger.

Haruna Babangida
Personal information
Full name Haruna Babangida
Date of birth (1982-10-01) 1 October 1982
Place of birth Kaduna, Nigeria
Height 1.66 m (5 ft 5 in)
Playing position(s) Winger
Youth career
Shooting Stars
1995–1997 Ajax
1997–1998 Barcelona
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–2004 Barcelona B 110 (42)
2002–2003 → Terrassa (loan) 38 (5)
2004 → Cádiz (loan) 14 (0)
2004–2005 Metalurh Donetsk 10 (2)
2005–2007 Olympiacos 33 (5)
2007–2009 Apollon Limassol 54 (18)
2009 Kuban Krasnodar 14 (1)
2010 Mainz 05 II 2 (2)
2010 Mainz 05 1 (0)
2011 Vitesse Arnhem 7 (1)
2012 Kapfenberger SV 24 (2)
2015 Mosta 11 (4)
Total 318 (82)
National team
2003 Nigeria 1 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only


Babangida is the eighth of ten brothers; he is the younger brother of Tijani Babangida and Ibrahim Babangida.

Club career

Early career

Born in Kaduna, Haruna Babangida started his youth career at Shooting Stars, before signing for Ajax at the age of 13. He was snapped up by Barcelona a year later. In 1998, aged 15, Babangida made his first-team debut for the Catalan club in a pre-season friendly against AGOVV Apeldoorn, becoming the second youngest ever player to feature for Barcelona. However, he did not make the breakthrough and in 2002–03 was loaned to second division side Terrassa, before spending the following season playing for Barcelona B and Cádiz (in the second half).[1]

Metalurh Donetsk then took him to Ukraine on a permanent basis.

Greece and Cyprus

In 2005, Olympiacos signed Babangida on a three-year contract after he impressed in a pre-season tournament in Spain.[2]

In the first season, he played 25 league appearances and started 11 times for the double-winners. He rarely scored, but scored his first UEFA Champions League goal at home against Lyon, in the third minute, but the match ended as a 1–4 loss.[3]

On 25 May 2007, Olympiacos officially released Haruna Babangida.

He made his debut for Apollon Limassol on 1 September 2007 against rival team AEL Limassol, where he scored two goals in an eventual 4–3 win.

Mainz 05

On 14 June 2010, he signed a one-year contract for Mainz 05 with an option to extend the contract for two more years.[4] On 26 June 2010, he scored his first goal against Panathinaikos. The half season that was less than successful for Babangida, with only a single appearance in the Bundesliga. In December of that year, Mainz released him.[5]

Vitesse

On 12 January 2011, he joined Vitesse as a testplayer and on 16 January he signed a contract until the end of the season.

International career

He made his debut for Nigeria on 20 August 2003, in a friendly match which Nigeria lost 0–3 to Japan in Tokyo.

Club statistics
Source:[6]
Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
Spain League Copa del Rey Copa de la Liga Europe Total
2002–03TerrassaSegunda División385––
2003–04CádizSegunda División140––
Ukraine League Ukrainian Cup League Cup Europe Total
2004–05Metalurh DonetskPremier League8200
2005–062000
Greece League Greek Cup League Cup Europe Total
2005–06OlympiacosAlpha Ethniki25261
2006–07Super League8120
Cyprus League Cypriot Cup League Cup Europe Total
2007–08Apollon LimassolFirst Division239––
2008–09319––
Russia League Russian Cup Premier League Cup Europe Total
2009Kuban KrasnodarPremier League141––
Germany League DFB-Pokal DFB Ligapokal Europe Total
2010–11MainzBundesliga10––
CountrySpain 525
Ukraine 102
Greece 333
Cyprus 5418
Russia 141
Germany 10
Total 16329
Nigeria national team
YearAppsGoals
200310
Total10

Honours

Club

Olympiacos

  • Greek Championship: 2005–2006, 2006–2007
gollark: Ah, but all its processors will be running flat-out after being compromised.
gollark: Well, yes, or just being annoyingly hot.
gollark: Likely result: security issues result in your house overheating mining bitcoin.
gollark: Why is AutoBotRobot's folder 2.2GB?
gollark: Insufficient blockchain.

References
  1. "Haruna Babangida: Im dritten Anlauf bei Mainz 05" (in German). 1. FSV Mainz 05. 14 June 2010. Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  2. "Babangida wins over Olympiacos". UEFA.com. 18 August 2005. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
  3. "UEFA Champions League". uefa.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2009.
  4. "Haruna Babangida: Im dritten Anlauf bei Mainz 05" (in German). 1. FSV Mainz 05. 14 June 2010. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  5. "Tuchel schrumpft wohl 05-Kader" [Tuchel plans to shrink 05-squad] (in German). Sport 1. 21 December 2010. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
  6. "Haruna Babangida". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.