Olympic gold medallist and former Super Eagles midfielder, Garba Lawal has said his career in football started while playing along the streets with his peers.
The former Kaduna United general manager who played for over two decades before retirement further challenged young footballers to take playing football with seriousness, if they want to excel in the profession.
The former Super Eagle player, who disclosed this in an interview with our reporter in Gombe, lauded Gombe State F.A for organising training and re-training of coaches, noting that such training would serve an avenue for coaches to catch them young.
“If they play well they will go higher and do better than ex-Nigerian players. Even though l learnt football on the streets and because of my passion for football, I have at heart, I was selected to play for the Super Eagle in those days.
“The upcoming younger ones that chose football as a career and as a passion, that passion will give them an opportunity to play globally not only in Nigerian leagues.” Lawal said.
He had started his football career with a youth team, the Shooting Stars of Ade before joining Nigeria Universal Bank (NUB) Football Club.
Lawal has had his most successful time at Roda JC in the Dutch Eredivisie between 1996 and 2002. He also played for Chinese side Changsha Ginde in 2007.
He is regarded as one of the most versatile players in the Nigerian national football team of the 1990s and early 2000s often being used for any position ranging from defence to attack on the left wing.
He took part at the FIFA World Cups in 1998, where he played a key role in the 3-2 win over Spain in Nigeria’s first match of the tournament, and in 2002. He won the Olympic gold medal in 1996. He represented Nigeria at four editions of African Cup of Nations: 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006, scoring in all but the first.
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