Femi Opabunmi

Femi Opabunmi

Personal information
Full name	Femi Opabunmi
Date of birth	(1985-03-03) 3 March 1985 (age 39)
Place of birth	Lagos, Nigeria
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Left-winger
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2001	Shooting Stars
2001–2004	Grasshopper	14	(0)
2004	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	11	(1)
2004–2006	Niort	7	(0)
2006	Shooting Stars
International career
2001	Nigeria U17	6	(6)
2001–2002	Nigeria	3	(1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Femi Opabunmi (born 3 March 1985) is a Nigerian former footballer.

Career

He played for a few clubs, including Shooting Stars FC, Grasshoppers Zürich (Switzerland), Hapoel Be'er Sheva in Israel, and Chamois Niortais in France.^[1] He studied at Methodist High School Ibadan and played for the Methodist High School Ibadan Old Boys.^[2]

He retired from football in 2006 due to serious glaucoma.^[3] He is now totally blind in the right eye.

Femi Opabunmi is now the Head Coach of a Football academy in Iwo, Osun State, Alamu Football Academy, the first free football academy which is set to participate in the Nigerian Premier league.

International career

Opabunmi scored a goal to help Nigeria win the African U-17 Championships in 2001. With Collins Osunwa out with injury he became Nigeria's key player at 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championship where he scored a hat-trick against Australia and won him the Silver Shoe as second highest goalscorer and also the Bronze Ball as third best player in the tournament, helping Nigeria to reach the final where they lost to France. He attracted attention from clubs such as Manchester United, Lyon and Celta Vigo.

He played for Nigeria^[4] and made his debut in 2002 against Kenya scoring the second goal in a 3-0 win.^[5] He was a participant at the 2002 FIFA World Cup playing against England in the last group stage match becoming the 3rd youngest player to ever play in the World Cup finals after Norman Whiteside and Samuel Eto'o.^[6] Thereafter, he has not been called again for the national team.

References

1. "Stats Centre: Femi Opabunmi Facts". Guardian.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
2. Methodist High School Ibadan Old Boys Association Archived 7 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
3. "Femi Opabunmi: World Cup record-breaker hoping others can learn from end to his football dream". BBC Sport. 23 March 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
4. "Opabumi Femi". National-Football-Teams.com. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
5. "Femi Opabunmi". BBC News. 21 May 2002.
6. ":: Xinhuanet - 2002 World Cup ::". news.xinhuanet.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2002.