MY WALL OF FAME: MUDA LAWAL

Mudashiru Babatunde "Muda" Lawal was a Nigerian footballer who played as a midfielder for both club and country.

Mudashiru Babatunde Tiamiyu Lawal, was born on 8 June 1954 .

‘Haji Shiru’ as most of his fans all over Nigeria called him, was the only African at the time to have participated in 5 African Cup of Nations Championships (he was decorated by the Confederation of African Football, CAF, for that feat), the first footballer to be appointed Nigeria’s Football Ambassador (with an office space within the premises of the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports in Lagos),  the longest serving player in the national team of Nigeria; the first and only football player to be adorned with two National Honours, MON and MFR.

He was a one time skipper of Nigeria’s national team.

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, 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 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.

His national team career spanned from 22 January 1975 in a 1-0 defeat of Cameroon in Lagos to 18 August 1985 when Zambia beat Nigeria 1-0 in Lusaka to terminate Nigeria’s hopes of qualification for the 1986 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

Lawal played his last international match on 18 August 1985, when Nigeria lost to Zambia in the 1986 African Cup of Nations qualifier.

As at Muda’s last game, he had 86 appearances and also the longest on the field as he was only substituted five times in the 86 matches he played for Nigeria.

Since his debut, the first time he was not on the starting line-up was the 30 October 1976 World Cup qualifiers with Sierra Leone when Enugu Rangers’ Christian Madu was chosen ahead of him, making

This was the match in which the prolific Segun Odegbami scored the first of his 21 goals for Nigeria.

The other four times Muda was either substituted or came in for other players were in the 10 March 1978 Africa Cup of Nations goalless encounter with Zambia in Accra; the 1-0 defeat of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) in a friendly match on 18 July 18, 1981, a game that was almost disrupted by protesting athletes over the police killing of Dele Udoh, the 26 September  1981 friendly game with Uganda which Nigeria lost by a lone goal and the 11 February 1984 Olympic Games qualifying match with Morocco in Benin City.

Until 14 November 2011 when Joseph Yobo featured in a 2-0 defeat of Zambia in Kaduna, Muda for decades remained the most capped national team player in Nigeria.

For years since 1976, Muda Lawal was a recurring name in the final competitions of the Africa Cup of Nations till that of Egypt 1986 which Nigeria missed following a last minute goal with which Zambia eliminated Nigeria in Lusaka the previous year. It was his final international match.

For that accomplishment of playing five consecutive Africa Cup of Nations finals and featuring without ever being substituted in 24 straight games, Muda Lawal was in 2004 posthumously awarded the CAF Order of Merit in Silver.

That added to the two Nigerian national awards that he got in his lifetime. Along with the other members of the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations winning squad, Muda was bestowed with the national award of Member of Order of the Niger (MON).

At the instance of Africa’s First Pillar of Sports, Bashorun MKO Abiola, Muda Lawal on 14 March  1991 became the first Nigerian footballer to be officially designated as Nigeria’s Soccer Ambassador.

He remained the only one that was so ceremonially installed by a President in Office. The honour went with the national award of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON).

That also made him the first Nigerian athlete to obtain two national awards. Sadly, he died barely three months after the award. But he is better remembered for his contributions to football in Nigeria.

With a youthful face always adorned with an appealing smile, Muda was a talented player that switched from striking position to the midfield.

He could also play in the defence as he was made to do in the 27 September 1977 World Cup duel with Tunisia in Tunis.

At the match, Coach Jelisavick Tihomer-Tiko (Father Tiko) instructed Muda to be the ‘policeman’ for rampaging Tunisian striker, Dhiab Tarek.

This he did perfectly that the hitherto rampaging Tarek was a shadow of himself in the encounter that ended goalless.

When in 1979 he switched to the striking position in the then IICC, he scored 17 goals in the Nigerian National League to be the season’s lead scorer.

It was that feat that prompted the national coach, Otto Gloria to ask Muda to play a striker role in the final match against Algeria at the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations in Lagos. He scored the final goal in Nigeria’s 3-0 triumph.

Nigeria's triumph at the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations was like winning the Fifa World Cup, ex-international Henry Nwosu said while recalling the historic feat.

“Segun Odegbami's first-half brace and Mudashiru Lawal's effort in the second-half powered Nigeria to a 3-0 victory past Algeria as they grabbed their first AFCON trophy 44 years ago.”

The mercurial Muda Lawal slumped and died at his Ibadan home on Saturday 6 July 1991.

Mudashiru Babatunde Tiamiyu Lawal would have been 70 on 8 June 2024 .