7 facts you probably didn’t know about birthday man Taribo West

Today, March 26th 2019, former Nigeria International, Taribo West clocks 45 years of age, and Ripples Nigeria’s Ben Ugbana outlines ten facts that football fans in Nigeria probably didn’t know about the iconic defender.

1. West was born in Port Harcourt

Taribo West was born in the Port Harcourt city of Rivers State, Nigeria on March 26th, 1974.

2. He played professionally for 20 years

West started playing professionally with Obanta United in 1989. He played for Sharks, for Enugu Rangers and for Julius Berger in the beginning days. He also featured for Auxerre, Inter Milan, AC Milan Plymouth et al. And in 2008, he hung his boots after a one-year spell with Paykan in Tehran, Iran.

3. He is an Olympic Gold winner

After joining the Flying Eagles at the 1993 African Youth Championship, Taribo West was a member of the Dream Team that won the 1996 Summer Olympics Gold, alongside other Nigerian legends Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha et al. He played every single minute of the tournament.

4. He won the Europa League

Taribo is one of the few Nigerian footballers who have won European titles. He won the Europe League (then UEFA Cup) with Italian Serie A side, Internazionale during the 1997-98 season.

5. West used ‘juju’ before games during his career

The defender admittedly used charms before games during his professional career as a footballer. In an interview with Punch sometime in 2015, West said: “In my playing days, when I was ignorant (not a good Christian), I used to get some mallams and babalawos (traditional doctors) to make charms for us, which we took to (national) camp. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.”

6. West is a Pastor and Founder of a Church

After his playing career, West went on to found a church called “Shelter in the Storm Miracle Ministries of All Nation” in Lagos.

7. A retired Basketballer once accused West of falsifying his age

This was in 2013. Žarko Zečević, a retired Basketballer and a former general secretary of Partizan – a Serbian club where West played between 2002 and 2004 – said that West is 12 years older than his claimed age.

However, West denied the accusation, saying: “I don’t really know what they are talking about and that’s why I don’t really have anything much to say.

“But it is curious that they are raising such matters about 10 years after I left the place. Why was the matter not raised while I was there? Why talk about it long after I retired from the game,” he said druing an interview in 2013.

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