Tijani Babangida

Tijani Babangida (born 25 September 1973) is a Nigerian former professional footballer, who played as a winger.

Known for his pace, his playing style was sometimes compared to that of Marc Overmars.

Babangida spent the majority of his playing career at Ajax.

Overall, he played in five countries on three continents.

At club level, Babangida spent nine years in Netherlands, playing for VVV-Venlo, Roda JC Ajax, and Vitesse.

winning the Eredivisie plus KNVB Cup double with the latter side.

In 1991, at the age of 17, he left local club Niger Tornadoes to sign with Dutch Eredivisie side Roda JC, after performing well at the 1991 All-Africa Games.

He was loaned out to Roda's league rivals VVV-Venlo until the end of the season.

Babangida made a total of six league appearances, scoring three times in the 1991–92 season.

Despite Venlo's relegation to Eerste Divisie, Babangida remained at the club for another year.

Babangida received his breakthrough in the 1992–93 season as he scored 16 goals, helping Venlo to achieve promotion to Eredivisie.

The following season, Babangida returned to Roda, immediately becoming a first-team regular with the Kerkrade side.

Babangida made a total of 29 league appearances for Roda that season, scoring 11 goals.

Babangida spent two more seasons at Roda JC.

Babangida made his international debut in 1994.

Babangida's 10 league goals in 1995–96, made him the club's top scorer that season.

In 1995, Babangida made his European debut, scoring a goal in the UEFA Cup first-round win over Olimpija Ljubljana, Roda's first European campaign in five years.

Roda went on to beat the Slovenian side 5–2 on aggregate, but lost to Benfica in the second round.

Solid performances at both international and club level led to interest from Dutch side Ajax, as Louis van Gaal was looking to replace Babangida's compatriot Finidi George, who had recently departed to Real Betis.

He participated in two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and won the 1996 Olympics with Nigeria.

Babangida joined Ajax in the summer of 1996 in a long-anticipated €5 million move.

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, that put Ajax through to the semi-finals of the competition.

Babangida had a successful second season with the club as he helped Ajax to another Eredivisie title with a 39-point gap over PSV Eindhoven, while his 13 league goals in 26 games made him the club's third top scorer, behind Shota Arveladze and Jari Litmanen.

Ajax clinched the second title of the season with a 5–0 victory over PSV in the KNVB Cup final, with the Nigerian scoring the first goal.

He played over 30 games for his national side, including four at the 1998 World Cup in France.

Babangida's fortunes started to change towards the end of 1998.

Having missed the start of the season with malaria, Babangida gradually lost his starting line-up position as Morten Olsen was looking to improve on the team's inconsistent performances both in the domestic league and in Europe.

Babangida started two of his team's opening Champions League games.

The European season, however, ended in disappointment as Ajax finished bottom of their group behind Olympiacos, Dinamo Zagreb and Porto.

Overall, Babangida appeared in 18 league games for Ajax that season, starting only seven.

He didn't feature in the Dutch Cup final where Ajax managed to retain the trophy after beating Fortuna Sittard in the final.

Babangida saw even less playing time after the 1999 season, as he made a mere eight appearances the following year and didn't play a single game in the first half of the 2000–01 season.

In an attempt to offload the player, Ajax came to an agreement with the Turkish Süper Lig side Gençlerbirliği, who signed Babangida on a half-year loan deal until the end of the season.

The spell in Turkey, however, proved to be an unhappy time for Babangida and the Ankara side chose no to pursue their interest in the player once the loan deal expired.

Looking for a move away from Netherlands, Babangida came close to signing with AJ Auxerre, but received a last-minute call from Ronald Koeman and agreed to join him at Vitesse instead.

Another loan move followed.

He lost his place in the squad right before the 2002 World Cup.

After a two-year lay-off from international football, Babangida was recalled to the Nigeria team for the 2004 African Cup of Nations preparations in Tunisia.

Babangida was born in Kaduna, Nigeria.