…..From the facebook timeline of Murtala Sule
Today is the anniversary of the passing of my friend and big brother, MUDASHIRU LAWAL, a great Green Eagles/Super Eagles star and Nigeria’s Soccer Ambassador.
He was, besides being a great footballer, a great human being, a hardworking family man, a funny man and a practical joker, with that radiant smile of his.
Muda loved football so much as a child he practised alone learning accurate shooting by hitting a ball consistently at a particular spot on the walls of his Muslim Mission School, Ojuwoye, Mushin, Lagos in the 60s.
He admired the skills of Sam Garba Okoye and Kenneth Olayombo and washed the kits of the latter to whom he attached himself when he was first invited to the National Camp. He was, in turn, admired by Henry Nwosu, another Nigerian football midfield legend, who says watching him play was an inspiration.
One of the stories I read in the newspapers when Muda’s death was announced on July 6th, 1991 about the manner of his passing was that when he was choking during the incident that took his life, his wife thought he was merely up to one of his pranks, which he had pulled off several times previously.
He was a serious boy who gave due attention to his welding apprenticeship. I often crossed paths with him along Agege Motor Road, Mushin, early mornings on his way to his workshop while I headed for my school – Nigeria Premier College – at Yaba.
‘Muudede’ – as we, his fellow Felele football players then fondly called him – gave me the photograph below in 1974. He was then playing for Housing Corporation of Ibadan to where he moved after leaving his first ever club, Nigerian Breweries of Lagos. I had gone to stay with him briefly then when I gained an admission into The Polytechnic in the same city for a Building Technician Course.
May The Almighty Allah grant the Soul of Alhaji Mudashiru Babatunde Lawal Al-Jannah Firdaus. Ameen.
Henry Ogunkolade, please, share private experience with Muda with us while you two played for Oduduwa Football Club of Idi-Oro.
