Celestine Babayaro

Celestine Babayaro (born August 29, 1978 in Kaduna, Nigeria) is a football (soccer) who plays left-back and is currently contracted to Newcastle United F.C. of the FA Premier League.

Babayaro began his playing career at Nigerian side, Plateau United before moving to Belgium and Brussels outfit, R.S.C. Anderlecht in 1994 and made a name for himself through his performances for Nigeria national football team in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, where the African nation won the golden medal.

He was purchased by Chelsea F.C. in April 1997 for £2.25m million - a club record paid for a teenager at the time. During his time there, the team won the FA Cup and Charity Shield in 2000, and reached the FA Cup finals in 2002. He faced competition from Graeme Le Saux during his seven-year spell, but played over 200 games for Chelsea. His acrobatic celebrations were a highlight and loved by the Stamford Bridge faithful. He scored some pretty good goals for Chelsea, his last coming away to Leicester in the 2003-04 in English football season. The signing of Wayne Bridge saw Celestine start only four Premier League games for Chelsea in 2004-05 in English football - their Premiership winning year.

He played briefly for Nigeria in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, before quitting international football aged 23. He also made a brief comeback appearance for his country in the 2004 African Nations Cup in Tunisia, but was sent home along with Everton F.C. striker, Aiyegbeni Yakubu for "indiscipline".

In January 2005, Babayaro left Stamford Bridge (stadium) to join Newcastle United F.C. where he has established himself as first choice left back.

In September 2006, Babayaro was given a three match ban by the Football Association for slapping Liverpool F.C. striker Dirk Kuyt in the face while Liverpool took a corner. The slap wasn't seen by the referee but later videos showed Celestine Babayaro punch the Dutchman in the face. Babayaro accepted the allegations and apologised to Dirk Kuyt.

Due to a number of hamstring injuries and suspensions, the tabloids have linked Newcastle with a whole host of new left backs under the claims that former manager Glenn Roeder was unhappy with Babayaro's inconsistency. These targets include West Brom's Paul Robinson, former Southampton player Gareth Bale and Chelsea's Wayne Bridge.

On February 10 2007, after the 2-1 win over Liverpool F.C], former Newcastle United manager Glenn Roeder revealed that just 12 hours before kick off, Babayaro had called Roeder saying his younger brother, David Babayaro, had died from tuberculosis. Despite this, Babayaro insisted he would still play and put in a solid performance which earned him praise from Newcastle fans and particularly by Roeder. This fine form continued into United's 4-2 victory against S.V. Zulte Waregem.

Trivia

- One of Babayaro's brothers was also a professional footballer. Emmanuel Babayaro, a goalkeeper who was also in Nigeria national football team's Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics Gold Medal winning team.
- Babayaro is well known for the unique backflips he performs after each goal he scores.