Mudashiru Babatunde "Muda" Lawal (8 June 1954 – 6 July 1991) was a Nigerian

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 played as a

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 ...

for both club and country.

Club career

He worked as an automobile mechanic before his football talents were discovered, and made his national team debut in 1975. The same year, he joined Shooting Stars F.C. of

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...

, where he would play for many years. In 1976, he helped the club to their first continental title, winning the

African Cup Winners Cup The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and wa ...

– the first Nigerian team to do so. In 1985 the club side was disbanded by a military governor. Muda returned to the side four seasons latter as an assistant coach/player.

International career

Muda made his international debut in 1975, and won 86 caps and scored 12 goals for his country; he holds the record of being the only player on the continent to have appeared at five consecutive Nations' Cup finals (1976–1984). Lawal guided Nigeria to its first African Nations Cup title, at the

1980 African Nations Cup The 1980 African Cup of Nations was the 12th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by Nigeria. Just like in 1978, the field of eight teams was split into two groups of four. Nigeria won its ...

. The team also competed at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

the same year. Lawal played his last international match on 18 August 1985, when Nigeria lost to

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

in the 1986 African Cup of Nations qualifier.

Death

Lawal died in his home in 1991. The Ashero Stadium in his hometown Abeokuta was named after him upon his death.

References

External links

* * 1954 births 1991 deaths Africa Cup of Nations-winning players Nigerian footballers Nigerian expatriate footballers Olympic footballers of Nigeria Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Nigeria international footballers 1976 African Cup of Nations players 1978 African Cup of Nations players 1980 African Cup of Nations players 1982 African Cup of Nations players 1984 African Cup of Nations players Shooting Stars S.C. players Sportspeople from Abeokuta Yoruba sportspeople Association football midfielders Abiola Babes F.C. players African Games silver medalists for Nigeria African Games medalists in football Competitors at the 1978 All-Africa Games 20th-century Nigerian people {{Nigeria-footy-midfielder-stub