Onigbinde, Ladipo praise Teslim Balogun’s wife as secret of Thunder Balogun’s successes
Former Super Eagles World Cup Coach, Adegboye Onigbinde and the President General of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club, Dr Rafiu Ladipo, have jointly said that the legendary Nigerian footballer earned his success in the game solely to the contribution and support of his wife the late Alhaja MuIikat Teslim Balogun.
He said, the legendary soccer star may not have gone the distance he went in terms of soccer stardom if he had married another wife different from Alhaja Mulikat, who the family gathered today in their home at the Ikorodu area of Lagos to celebrate her 24th year memorial anniversary.
She consistently attended all the football games played by her husband and was also very loud wherever she was seated such that her husband continuously focused his attention there. The former NFF Technical Director noted that far back as 1958, it was Alhaja Mulikat who then Premier of the Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, sought an audience to convince her husband to dump his British club, Queens Park Rangers, to return to Nigeria to assist the West Rovers to win the Challenge Cup. Alhaja Mulikat convinced her husband and he returned to help the club win the title.
”For Dr. Rafiu Ladipo, Alhaja Mulikat was indirectly responsible for the great contributions and indelible mark her husband made to the development of football in Nigeria.“
If there were top decisions made by Teslim Balogun that lifted him to become one of Nigeria’s greatest football players of all time, they were due to the influence of his wife who stood firmly by him with humour, humility and discipline.
She accompanied her husband to all the training sessions he was involved in when he finally returned to Nigeria.
She was always there to quietly point out areas where her husband didn’t do well in training and this helped tremendously during competitive games.
