5 Things You Didn’t Know About Birthday Boy, Celestine Babayaro

Former Super Eagles defender, Celestine Babayar today celebrated his 36 year-old birthday and today we remember the former Chelsea warrior.

Today we give you five facts you may not know about the ex prof baller.

Babayaro

1. He broke records.

Babayaro was born in Kaduna but started his career at Plateau FC at a very young age.

He moved from Plateaua Fc to Anderletch at a very young age, he was the youngest player to an appearance and to receive a red card in the UEFA Champions League. He was sent off in a match between Steaua Bucuresti and his club Anderlecht (1–1), aged 16 years and 86 days.

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2. Chelsea Debut.

He made his debut for Chelsea in the  UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup against Slovan Bratislava, Chelsea won the game 2-o.

3. Leaving Paradise

He left Chelsea to Newcastle after losing his place to Wayne Bridge but never settled at Newcastle due to the amount of lingering injuries he had.

He was labeled a disgrace by former Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd.

4. The Bankruptcy Conundrum.

It was alleged that the former FC Galaxy man declared bankruptcy but 3 months later in an interview with local papers, he denied actually being bankrupt.

5. Work.

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In a nine year playing career, he featured only 27 times for the Super Eagles while playing 75 games for Anderletch, 123 games for Chelsea and 47 times for Newcastle United.

SUPER EAGLES 

He debuted for the Eagles at the Afro Asian Championship in Uzbekistan and also helped Nigeria win the 1996 Olympic Gold in Atlanta.

He made the Tourney’s top eleven team and scored in the final game against Argentina.

He was Nigeria’s captain at the next Olympics in Sydney and also participated in 2 FIFA World Cups.

He was part of the controversial trio that were sent home for indiscipline days before the 2004 African Nations Cup in Tunisia, since then he has not played for the Eagles anymore. The other guys were Victor Agali and Yakubu Aiyegbeni.

On 8 July 2010, Babayaro officially announced his retirement from football. He was declared bankrupt on 9 February 2011.

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