Former Nigeria international Ajibade Babalade passed away in Ibadan, Oyo State on Friday aged 48 as a result of cardiac arrest, Completesports.com reports.
The Nigeria Football Federation confirmed Babalade’s death on their verified Twitter handle.
“We are sad to announce the shock demise of former Super Eagles defender Ajibade Babalade.
“Babalade died of cardiac arrest today in Ibadan. May his gentle soul Rest In Peace. Our prayers are with his family,” the NFF wrote.
Babalade made his Super Eagles debut in 1990 had 13 appearances before retiring from international football in 1998.
He was a member of the Eagles squad that finished third at the 1992 AFCON in Senegal.
In 1996 he captained Shooting Stars to the final of the CAF Champions League where they lost to Zamalek on penalties.
Other clubs he played for include Iwuanyanwu Nationale (Heartland), Stationary Stores, and Sturm Graz of Switzerland.
By James Agberebi
15 Comments
Oh Aji (as he was fondly called among the shooting stars fans then) is gone.
One of the stand out performer at Senegal ’92, he marshaled the defense like a rock then along side keshi and Reuben Agboola (the first Oyinbo to play for us).
He gave his all in that famous champions league final against Zamalek in Egypt, only for Abiodun Baruwa (omo Alhaja) to bundle our chances and allowed the Egyptians back into the game.
Ajibade Babalade, you gave your all to your father land. May your soul rest in peace. So so sad..
Oh my…! From dust we come to dust we shall return. What a solid rock you were back in the days in the heart of 3sc’ defence…Rest in peace Ajibade.
@Ola, you just brought back painful memories of 3SC’s amazing run in what was then called the Sekou Toure cup. Those who complain about Akpeyi today should have seen Baruwa in those days….LMAO. But that team was a real crack squad anyways….with the likes of Edith Agoye, Duke Udi, Patrick Paschal, Patrick Mancha, Sani Abacha, Ajibade, Okunowo and many other greats…and coached by the Late Amodu Shuaibu.
May God grant Ajibade’s family the fortitude to bear this loss. 48 is quite a young age for an ex-footballer/sportsman to leave this world
Dre, you are very right, I think that crack team put together by one of our greatest local coach, Amodu Shaibu was the best local club side then. (my own opinion though).
You need to see how jam packed Adamasingba was usually is on every match day. Both old and young, supporting with passion, oh God, what happened to our league?
65% of 92 Afcon squad were home-based, nowadays hardly can you identify a single talents in our league.
Those condemning Akpeyi are either too young or they are just being sentimental, if they knows the kind of blunder committed By agbonivbare and Baruwa, they will realize how good Akpeyi is in comparison. Imagine a goalkeeper running as far as corner flanks to mark a stricker, leaving his goalposts wide open. Same error he committed in a friendly against Yugoslavia in 1997 enroute to 1998 world cup then, we will are desperately looking for a goalkeeper due to injury to Ike Shoromun.
3SC has about 7 players in the then SE that went to Saudi Arabia in 1995 for the premier kings Cup, now known as confederation cup. Those are the golden Era of Nigerian league.
3SC, stationary stores, Julius Berger and Abiola Babes in south west, Enugun Rangers, Iwanyawu Nationale, Jasper United in South East, BBC lions of gboko, in Central, Bendel Insurance, Eagle cement, Sharks FC, in South South, Ranchers bee, El kanemi warriors, Kano pillars, Niger Tornadoes in the North. Such was the exciting period of our league then, every where you turned to are bundles of talent and competition.
My brother…..you are killing me with memories here…LMAO. Baruwa was such an eccentric fellow…but he could also be outstanding on his day….but hey, what shall a man do…soldier go, soldier come, barrack remain. Only say this barrack called the Nigerian league is not a completely dilapidated one. Those days only 30,000 fans will be packed in Adamasingba to watch 3Sc. People will climb on top of the roofs of their high-rise houses in Sabo and Mokola areas then just to be able to catch a glimpse of what was going on in the stadium. Only AlAhly and Zamalek could stand toe to toe with our clubs on the continent. Be it Tessema cup or Abiola cup or Sekou Toure cup, you will expect Nigerian clubs to at least reach the semi finals.
Even up to the early 2000s, we were still doing quite well….reaching the group stages of CAF CL was never a problem. I remembered we almost had 3 clubs in the finals of CAF competitions in 2003 or so…Enyimba was in CCL final and won it. Julius Berger was in cup winners cup finals but lost 3-2 on aggregate to Etoile du Sahel parading 3 Nigerians: Austin Ejide, Ugochukuwu Obiakor, Emeka Okpara. Rangers also lost out of reaching the finals to Asante Kotoko on away goals rule. Today we struggle with fasting and prayer on the mountain before our clubs can go past 1st and 2nd round to qualify for group stages. Wikki Tourists was even knocked out of the confederations cup in the 1st round by a 2nd division team from Serria Leone 2 or 3 years ago sef…..its such a shame…!
And some wicked fellows will want Rohr to reserve a quota in the SE for home based players…LMAO
Thanks Drey, may God bring back those lovely memories to our league. Nigeria supposed to be warlord of soccer in club football in Africa. Enjoy your weekend bro…
Great defender
Master freekick specialist
May his soul rest in peace
Mr poster sturm graz is in Austria not Switzerland. RIP AJIBO
@Dr. Drey , what a memory shared .
Rest In Peace Aji
i am begining to suspect this cadiac arest thing oh. its no longer normal to me as we have lost heroes and begining to lose heroes to this so called cadiac arrest. i will advise nigeria or africa medical institution to go and study this invisable murderer that called himself cadiac arrest. our men are dying young, 80 percent dying at under 70 and all we got to here is cadiac arrest(becoming an easy escuses for death) something could be wrong somewhere oh. amudu,keshi,oliha, late former lobi star coach(i forgot his name),now aji. tioti, defoe, okwaraji, even one of my football coleague called daniel died in the pitch just preparing for a match (light jugging) before he slumbed to death, also tinubu younger brother or family member died last year of thesame cadiac arrest, aboderin, stella damascus late ex died while playing basketball for fun, same cardiac arrest. many names i couldnt mention, though i am not a doctor oooh, but this is nolonger normal to me! or is cadiac arrest now the maleria? i think something must be wrong with either our nutrition, or some unknown vaccine, or maybe some of our common drugs like paracetamol etc should be crossed checked oh. i kno wat i am saying becos God did not creat man to be dieing like chikens in the name of cardiac arrest oh. europeans are not dying like dat oh. Rest in peace Aji. God save Nigerians.
@Collins, lolz cardiac arrest is not a disease, it’s a sudden unexpected loss of heart function, which seizes the flow of blood to the heart and loss of oxygen to the heart to pump the body systems,which in most cases resulted into death. It’s an occurrence that has no known cure neither any drugs.
@ Collins. Health is not just an absence of illness. A lot of things we do, go through or experience are triggers of health conditions in our bodies, but most of us only go to see a doctor when we are down, which is not supposed to be so. As an African, due to our food types (mostly sugars, fatty foods and oils), lifestyle and all that, once you are 30 yrs and above, endeavor to go for routine medical check ups. It helps a lot when a condition is detected early. I had my first heart condition in my mid twenties, just after training. I was lucky to survive it because I was still very young. It was later discovered that an earlier bout which i had with chicken pox had caused what they call a Right Bundle Branch block. Once again Health is not just an absence of illness, let us endeavor to pay a friendly visit to our physicians as often as we can.
@Collins, the answer to your question is simple……Govt need to improve health delivery service in Nigeria, cardiac arrest is very common all over the world but developed countries have adequate infrastructure to manage it effectively. The most important management is the immediate acute care given by the Ambulance paramedics that will come promptly when called, they will quickly stabilise the patient’s condition immediately from home before transfer to hospital for further care or surgery as required. However in Nigeria, this basic response is non-existent and often the patient is usually dead before arrival in hospital
So sad. Gone too soon.
Rest in peace Ajibade.
I still remember that semi-final match between Nigeria and Ghana,Abedi pélé and Ghanaians in general didn’t find it funny at all.A Ghanian friend of mine kept asking me for the name of that defender that was frustrating the Ghanian attackers.H e referred to Ajibade Babalade as a no nonsense defender.
@ ola, drey and banks, thanks for your response. i agree with all of you. is just dat wen the suddenly becomes the regular, one begins to suspect every thing around him. i was wondering if our heart is now begining to malfunction due to our ignorance or our daily activities, like nutrition stress, hussle and anciety or maybe fake drugs. i kno cardiac arrest to be an occurance withen athlects, not advanced men that are surpposed to
begin to enjoy their pention or fruits of labor. nevertheless man needs regular check up these days as recomended by Dr drey. becos our grand fathers didnt suffer this kind of attacks. may God grant us all long and prosperous life