Former Nigeria and Barcelona winger, Haruna Babangida has been hailed by Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta but the Arsenal boss regrets he never made a major impact. many players around the world had prospect and are very promising but along the line, luck could not just push them to where they deserve.
Babangida signed for Barcelona youth academy from Ajax in 1998 at the age of 15 and was termed as the next big player in European football. Babangida featured for Barcelona’s LA Mesia with the likes of Arteta, Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol, and Pepe Reina.
The former Nigerian international scored 44 goals in 110 appearances but never managed to play for the first team. Sports247 gathered.
According to goal.com Arteta vividly recalls how phenomenal the player was in the then Barcelona “In our dorms at Barcelona, we had Pepe Reina, Victor Valdes, Andres Iniesta, and Carles Puyol. But I remember there was this boy called Haruna Babangida,” he told TheAthletic.com. Wow! at 15, he was the best player in the world,” he added.
The 37-year-old only capped for the Super Eagles in 2003 in the 3-0 defeat to Japan. Babangida is the eighth of ten brothers; he is the younger brother of former Nigerian and Ajax winger, Tijani Babangida and Ibrahim Babangida.
