Bala Ali (born 16 August 1968) was a

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a winger for clubs in Nigeria and Greece.

Club career

In 1991, Ali joined

Greek Superleague The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

side

Panachaiki F.C. Panachaiki F.C. (Greek: Παναχαϊκή ΓΕ ΠΑΕ ) is a Greek professional football club based in Patras, Greece, that competes in Super League Greece 2, the second tier of Greek football. Founded in 14 June 1891, they have reached the Greek ...

for one season appearing in 16 league matches for the club.

International career

Ali made several appearances for the

Nigeria national football team The Nigeria national football team represents Nigeria in Men's international Association football, football. Governed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), they are three-time Africa Cup of Nations (Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON) winners, w ...

. He scored on his debut, a friendly against Upper Volta in 1981. He also played for Nigeria at the

1984 African Cup of Nations The 1984 African Cup of Nations was the 14th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by Ivory Coast. Just like in 1982, the field of eight teams was split into two groups of four. Cameroon w ...

finals, helping the squad to a runners-up finish. He played in a

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

qualifying match against Angola. His teammate, Samuel Okwaraji died during the match.

References

External links

* * 1968 births Nigerian men's footballers Nigeria men's international footballers 1984 African Cup of Nations players Panachaiki F.C. players Year of death missing Men's association football wingers 20th-century Nigerian sportsmen {{Nigeria-footy-midfielder-stub