Haruna Babangida: Arsenal boss Arteta reveals Nigerian star was a world-class material
- Haruna Babangida was a world-class player lamented Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta
- The Spanish born played alongside the Nigerian star during their time at the La Masia academy
- The 37-year-old won Greek Super League twice during his reign at Olympiacos
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has recounted sharing the same dormitory with certain Nigerian youngster at Barcelona academy years back.
The Spanish-born tactician labeled his former La Masia teammate the best in the world but the winger failed to reach the summit of his career.
Babangida got his youth career started at Shooting Stars in Ibadan shortly after he journey into Europe 1995 and represented Ajax for two seasons.
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He moved to Spain in 1997 where he played alongside Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Victor Valdes and to mention but a few.
However, his career did not blossom as it should be after showing so much promises at the youth level.
“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.
"Wow! at 15, he was the best player in the world,” Arteta told TheAthletic.com in an exclusive interview.
Haruna scored over 40 goals in 110 appearances for the Catalans' team B but never made it through to their first team.
Same as the former Manchester City boss who later retired at the Emirates Stadium about four years ago.
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The 37-year-old played for a number of clubs during his career but became more successful at Olympiacos winning back-to-back league titles in the process.
Babangida only managed to feature for the Super Eagles once in their 3-0 defeat Japan in an international friendly on August 20, 2003.
Legit.ng earlier reported that Mikel Arteta has recovered from the deadly coronavirus after testing positive a few days back, Mirror reports.
The Spanish boss who was the first high-profile name in the Premier League to test positive to COVID-19 has now recovered.
But the north London club have told their players to stay at home after insisting it would be "inappropriate" to return to training.
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Source: Legit.ng