Michael Babatunde
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 05/2016
Personal information
Date of birth
24 December 1992
Place of birth
Lagos, Nigeria
Height
1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in)
Playing position
Left Winger
Club information
Current team
Qatar
Number
--
Qatar SC 2016 -
Youth career
Water FC
Senior career*
Heartland
2010
FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
2011-2013
44x apps / 2x goals
FC Volyn Lutsk
2013-2015
36x apps / 4x goals
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
2015
2x apps / 0x goal
Raja Casablanca
2016
9x apps / 2x goals
Qatar
2016-
National team‡
Nigeria
2013-
9x apps / 0x goal
(* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14 December 2015. - ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 14 August 2015)
Michael Babatunde (born 24 December 1992) is a Nigerian football midfielder, who plays for Qatar sc in the in Qatar second division.
Nigerian native Michael Babatunde has established records for goals scored and great performances en route to worldwide recognition as Midfielder, Forward.
Biography
Born on December 24, 1992, in Lagos, Nigeria, soccer player Michael Babatunde moved to Ukraine at the age of 19, signed by FC Kryvbas of Ukraine from Heartland FC of Nigeria.
Michael Babatunde became a star in Ukraine after Scoring his first goal against FC Chornomorets Odesa, scoring 2 goals at will with the team which lead his club to stay at the Ukrainian Premier League from 2010 to 2013 before the club went bankrupt.
In 2012-2013 he set a record for most goals assist in a calendar year and has scored 6 goals in total at the Ukrainian Premier League from 2010-2015.
He later went on a free transfer to FC Volyn, he was invited a couple of times to the Nigeria National Team, and later played in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Early years
Michael Babatunde was born on December 24, 1992, in Lagos, Nigeria.
As a young boy, he tagged along when he turns 5 years, played soccer with friends, un-intimidated by the bigger boys.
At the age of 8, he was recruited to join the youth academy club in Lagos.
Recognizably smaller than most of the kids in his age group, Michael eventually got recognized by a bigger academy FC Watermark Academy where he was groomed as a professional, later linked with FC Heartland, played several games for U-17, U-20 and Super Eagle the National Team of Nigeria.
Michael has played a total of 4649 minutes, 81 Appearances, 44 Lineups, 37 Substitutes, 21 Substitute out, 47 Substitute on bench, 6 Goals, 13 Yellow Cards, 0 Red Cards.
He has been in Ukraine from 2010 to 2015.
He currently plays for Raja Casablanca of Morocco.
Nosa Igiebor is one of the seven players to be dropped from Nigeria's final 23-man squad for the World Cup. The Real Betis midfielder and Parma's Joel Obi, who both faced Scotland in last week's 2:2 draw, have been plagued by injury this season. The other players to miss out are goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi, midfielders Ejike Uzoenyi and Nnamdi Oduamadi.
Substitute Uche Nwofor's late strike denied Scotland victory against Nigeria at Craven Cottage.
Okocha was born in Enugu, Enugu State. He began playing football on the street just like many other football stars, usually with a makeshift ball.
African teams participating in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil
Nigerian keeper Vincent Enyeama thrilled by award - He said: "It's amazing, a great honour and I deeply appreciate it. I must first give glory to God, my team-mates, family and our beautiful fans for their remarkable support. "It's a reward for team effort and having great people in front of me. Together we've endured a tough but interesting season."
The Villarreal striker was not picked by Keshi, despite scoring 12 goals in the Spanish top flight this season. Uche has not played for his country since they won the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa last year. The 30-year-old insists, however, that he holds no grudges against Keshi. "Of course as a professional footballer you'd love to represent your country, but I have never had bad words towards the national coach," Uche is widely regarded as one of Nigeria's most reliable strikers at international level and is one of his nation's all-time top scorers, with 18 goals in 45 appearances, behind Rashidi Yekini, Segun Odegbami and Yakubu Aiyegbeni.
Stoke striker Peter Odemwingie and Newcastle forward Shola Ameobi are in Nigeria's provisional 30-man World Cup squad for Brazil 2014.
Fixtures and results for the 2014 Confed Cup.
2013 champions: CS Sfaxien (Tunisia)
Winners advance to group stage
African Players on the FIFA 100 list:
• Abédi Pelé (Ghana)
• El Hadji Diouf (Senegal)
• George Weah (Liberia)
• Jay Jay Okocha (Nigeria)
• Roger Milla (Cameroon)
Dynamo Kiev midfielder Lukman Haruna hopes he can still make Nigeria's World Cup squad. The 23-year old has not played for the Super Eagles since the last World Cup in South Africa.
