Abiola Adedeji Dauda (born on 3 February 1988) is a Nigerian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

club

Mohammedan ''Mohammedan'' (also spelled ''Muhammadan'', ''Mahommedan'', ''Mahomedan'' or ''Mahometan'') is a term for a follower of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. It is used as both a noun and an adjective, meaning belonging or relating to, either Muham ...

Early life

Dauda has vertical scars under each of his eyes which are family markings that were given to him shortly after birth. He has eleven siblings in his family.

Club career

Early career

Dauda was discovered in Nigeria by an

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

Victor Mcdonald at age eighteen. He was playing with Grassroot Highlanders. Mcdonald helped him to get signed with Swedish fourth tier club

Sölvesborgs GoIF Sölvesborgs GoIF is a Swedish football club located in Sölvesborg in Blekinge. Background Sölvesborgs Gymnastik-och Idrottsförening were founded on 13 October 1915. Since their foundation Sölvesborgs GoIF has participated mainly in the mid ...

. His time there was very successful and he was named the best forward of the division in 2007 which made several

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

clubs want to sign him.

Kalmar

In the end he decided to join

Kalmar FF Kalmar Fotbollförening, more commonly known as Kalmar FF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Kalmar. The club is affiliated to Smålands Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Guldfågeln Arena. Formed on 15 June 1910, the clu ...

the following year. During his time there he very rarely got to play the full 90 minutes in games but he still had a prolific 2012 season where he scored a total of 14 goals. After the season had ended he declared that he was leaving the club to look for a new challenge. During his spell with Kalmar, he won the Swedish championship in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and the Swedish Supercup in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, besides having been twice runner-up of the Swedish Cup, in

and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Red Star Belgrade

On 8 February 2013, which was the last day of the transfer market window in

Jelen Super Liga The Serbian Super League ( sr, Супер лига Србије / Super liga Srbije), referred to as the Mozzart Bet Super League ( sr, Моцарт Бет Супер лига / Mozzart Bet Super liga) for sponsorship reasons, is a Serbian profes ...

Dauda signed a contract with

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

. The first occasion on which Dauda scored for Red Star came on 3 April 2013, when he scored two goals and provided an assist for teammate

Darko Lazović Darko Lazović ( sr-Cyrl, Дарко Лазовић, ; born 15 September 1990) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Serie A club Hellas Verona and the Serbia national team. At the age of 21, Lazović was recognized ...

in a 3–0 win at home against

Hajduk Kula FK Hajduk Kula (Serbian Cyrillic: ФК Хајдук Кула) was a Serbian football club based in Kula. The club was named after a Hajduk, a much celebrated hero figure in the Serbian epic poetry. On 30 July 2013, just eleven days before start ...

Vitesse

On 21 July 2014, Red Star Belgrade announced they had agreed a €500,000 fee for the transfer of Dauda to

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

club

Vitesse Arnhem Vitesse may refer to: * Vitesse Models, a diecast model car company * Vitesse (band), Dutch rock band * Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, a car * Rover 216 Vitesse, a car * Rover 3500 Vitesse, a car * Rover 800 Vitesse, a car * Triumph Vites ...

Heart of Midlothian

On 1 February 2016,

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

side Heart of Midlothian signed him on a loan deal for the remainder of the season. He scored his first goals for the club when he scored a brace in the league against Ross County on 10 February 2016.

Atromitos

On 9 January 2017, Dauda signed a one-and-a-half-year contract with

Greek Superleague The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

club

Atromitos Atromitos (Greek: Ατρόμητος, "fearless") may refer to: * Atromitos F.C., a football team based in Peristeri, Athens, Greece * Atromitos Piraeus, a football team based in Piraeus, Athens, Greece * Atromitos Yeroskipou, a football team curr ...

on a free transfer from Vitesse. His five goals in the 2016–17 Greek Cup made him top scorer for the season. Dauda scored as Atromitos beat

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...

1–0 to go top of the table on 23 October 2017. His goal on 28 January 2018 secured a 1–0 home win over AEL, and two goals in the last match of the season took his personal total to nine. The 4–0 home win against

Kerkyra Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

gave Atromitos a fourth-place finish.

Giresunspor

Dauda spent the 2018–19 season with

TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig, officially known as Spor Toto 1. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the second level of the Turkish football league system. The league was founded in 2001 as the ''Turkish Second League Category A'' after the reorganization of the ...

(Turkish second-tier) club

Giresunspor Giresunspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Giresun. It was founded in 1925 and re-formed in 1967 after the merger of Yeşiltepespor, Akıngençlikspor, and Beşiktaşspor. The football club is playing in the Turkish S ...

, for which he scored 12 goals from 28 league appearances.

AEL

Dauda returned to the Greek Superleague with AEL on a three-year contract.

Panetolikos

On 16 January 2020, following his release from AEL, he joined

Panetolikos Panetolikos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Παναιτωλικός), or with its full name Panetolikós Yimnastikós Filekpedeftikós Síllogos ( el, Παναιτωλικός Γυμναστικός Φιλεκπαιδευτικός Σύλλογος'' ...

on a six-month contract. In his debut, two days later, he salvaged a point in a home game against

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

, with a last-minute penalty. On 22 January 2020, Abiola Dauda, who recently moved from Larissa to Panetolikos a few days ago, struck a brace, first in the 28th minute after dribbling past the goalkeeper and slotting the ball into the net, and in the 63rd minute when his left-footed strike gave the visitors a 0–2 lead in a thrilling 2–2 away draw against AEL.

Apollon Smyrnis

On 4 September 2020, he signed with Apollon Smyrnis on a free transfer.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Kalmar FF *

Svenska Supercupen Svenska Supercupen, ''Swedish Super Cup'', was a one-off fixture in Swedish football played between the Allsvenskan champions and the winners of Svenska Cupen. The fixture was played in November, after the Allsvenskan season. In the event of a ...

Red Star *

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League ( sr, Супер лига Србије / Super liga Srbije), referred to as the Mozzart Bet Super League ( sr, Моцарт Бет Супер лига / Mozzart Bet Super liga) for sponsorship reasons, is a Serbian profes ...

: 2013–14 Vitesse Arnhem *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

: 2016–17 Mohammedan Sporting * CFL Premier Division A:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Individual *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most im ...

Top goalscorer: 2016–17

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dauda, Abiola Living people 1988 births Sportspeople from Lagos Association football forwards Nigerian footballers Nigerian expatriate footballers Kalmar FF players Red Star Belgrade footballers SBV Vitesse players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Atromitos F.C. players Giresunspor footballers Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players Panetolikos F.C. players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players Allsvenskan players Serbian SuperLiga players Eredivisie players Scottish Professional Football League players Super League Greece players TFF First League players Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Serbia Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Turkey Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Serbia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Nigerian emigrants to Sweden Naturalized citizens of Sweden Yoruba sportspeople Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) players