Garba Lawal (born 22 May 1974) is a Nigerian former 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, rugb ...

who played as a

left midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. In 2014 he became general manager at Kaduna United and left his role in 2015. He is with the technical department of the Nigeria Football Federation.

Club career

As a player, Lawal had his most successful time at Roda JC in the

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 ...

. He also played for

Julius Berger F.C. Bridge Football Club is a Nigerian football club based in Lagos that was founded in the mid-1970s. As a result of an association with the Julius Berger (construction company), Julius Berger construction company, the club was known as Julius Be ...

in Nigeria and Chinese side

Changsha Ginde Guangzhou City Football Club (广州城) is a Chinese professional football club that competes in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Guangzhou, Guangdong, and their home venu ...

. In August 2009, he announced his return as a player-coach for

Makurdi Makurdi is the capital of Benue State, located in central Nigeria, and part of the Middle Belt region of central Nigeria. The city is situated on the south bank of the Benue River. In 2016, Makurdi and the surrounding areas had an estimated popul ...

side Lobi Stars, He was named General Manager of Kaduna United in February 2014.

International career

Lawal is regarded as one of the most versatile players in the Nigeria national team of the 1990s and early 2000s often being used for any position ranging from defence to attack on the left wing. Lawal took part at the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

s in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, where he played a key role in the 3–2 win over

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

in Nigeria's first match of the tournament, and in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. He won the Olympic gold medal in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

. He represented Nigeria at four editions of

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internat ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

, scoring in all but the first.

Post-playing career

In August 2009, Lawal was named as the assistant coach of Lobi Stars F.C. In the same year, he was employed as team coordinator for the Nigeria U17 national team. In February 2014 he was appointed general manager at Kaduna United.

Honours

Roda JC *

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 ...

: 1996–97, 1999–2000 Levski Sofia *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tourname ...

: 2002–03

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawal, Garba 1974 births Living people Nigerian footballers Association football midfielders Nigeria international footballers Olympic footballers of Nigeria Olympic gold medalists for Nigeria Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2002 African Cup of Nations players 2004 African Cup of Nations players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players Eredivisie players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Liga Portugal 2 players Allsvenskan players Chinese Super League players Super League Greece players C.D. Santa Clara players Changsha Ginde players Espérance Sportive de Tunis players IF Elfsborg players Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. players Bridge F.C. players Lobi Stars F.C. players PFC Levski Sofia players Roda JC Kerkrade players Nigerian football managers Lobi Stars F.C. managers Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Tunisia Expatriate footballers in Tunisia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Expatriate footballers in Bulgaria Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Sweden Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate footballers in China Sportspeople from Kaduna