Ramon Olamilekan Azeez (born 12 December 1992) is a Nigerian

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

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Novelda Novelda (, ; ) is a town located in the province of Alicante, Spain. , it has a total population of 27,135 inhabitants. Novelda has important quarries and mines of marble, limestone, silica, clay and gypsum. It is a major centre of the marble in ...

. He spent the vast majority of his professional career in Spain, starting at Almería B. In

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

, he appeared for the first team of that club and

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

. An international since 2014, Azeez represented

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

at the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Club career

Almería

Born in

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

, Azeez began playing football in the Future Pro Academy. In 2010 he agreed a move to

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001 ...

in Spain, but had to wait until July 2011 to complete the transfer.Ramon Azeez sigue mostrando un excelente nivel en el Mundial sub-20 con Nigeria (Ramon Azeez keeps showing excellent level at the under-20 World Cup with Nigeria)

Ideal Ideal may refer to: Philosophy * Ideal (ethics), values that one actively pursues as goals * Platonic ideal, a philosophical idea of trueness of form, associated with Plato Mathematics * Ideal (ring theory), special subsets of a ring considered ...

, 12 August 2011 (in Spanish) On 17 August 2012, after one full season with the reserves in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

, Azeez made his debut with the first team: he came on as a substitute for Javier Casquero in the 55th minute of an away fixture against

FC Barcelona Atlètic Futbol Club Barcelona Atlètic, commonly referred to as Barça Atlètic or Barça B, is a football team based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that will compete in Segunda Federación, the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system onward ...

in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

(5–4 win), but was himself replaced after just ten minutes after being booked and, according to manager

Javi Gracia Javier "Javi" Gracia Carlos (; born 1 May 1970) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He totalled 430 matches across both major levels of Spanish football, in a 15-year professional career. Afte ...

, risking a subsequent

sending off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

. Azeez was definitely promoted to the

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

ns' main squad on 28 June 2013, with the club having just promoted to

. He made his debut in the competition on 30 August, playing 23 minutes of the 2–2 home draw with

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community, Spain. Founded in 1923, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025–26 season, holding home matches at ...

. On 21 December 2013, Azeez scored his first professional goal, the game's only in a win at

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

. He repeated the feat in the second meeting between the two sides, scoring in the 94th minute for a 3–2 victory at the

Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos es:Estadio is the spanish language word for Stadium. The term may be applied to the following: * Estadio (magazine) ''Estadio'' was a sports magazine from Chile, that specialized in Chilean football and other sports. It was regarded as the "pr ...

. Azeez featured sparingly during the 2014–15 campaign, as Almería suffered relegation. In June 2015 he requested a transfer, and after failing to sign a professional contract he was demoted back to the reserves in August. On 26 January 2016, Azeez returned to the main squad, seriously threatened with relegation, after agreeing to a professional deal.

Lugo and Granada

On 13 July 2017,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Azeez signed with

CD Lugo Club Deportivo Lugo is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. Founded on 8 July 1953, it plays in Primera Federación, holding home games at ''Estadio Anxo ...

also of the Spanish second tier. On 1 February 2019, he joined

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol (), known simply as Granada or ''"Graná"'', is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that currently plays in Segunda ...

of the same league on a three-and-a-half-year contract. On 21 September 2019, Azeez headed home from close range following an

Antonio Puertas Antonio José Rodríguez Díaz (born 21 February 1992), known as Antonio Puertas, is a Spanish footballer who plays as a forward for Albacete Balompié. Club career Early career Born in Benahadux, Almería, Andalusia, Puertas finished his form ...

cross, in the first minute of a 2–0 home win over defending champions

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

. In February 2021, he was loaned to

FC Cartagena Fútbol Club Cartagena, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Cartagena, in the Region of Murcia, Spain. Founded in 1995 it currently plays in Segunda División, holding home games at '' Estadio Cartagonova'', with a capacity of 15,105 sp ...

until the end of the second-division season.

International career

Azeez appeared with the Nigeria under-17's at the 2009 FIFA World Cup, and was a regular in a team that finished runners-up. Two years later, also as a starter, he participated in the

U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

. On 3 February 2014, Azeez was called up to the full side for a friendly with

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. He made his debut on 5 March, playing the second half of the 0–0 draw at

Georgia Dome The Georgia Dome was a Stadium#Types, domed stadium in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta between downtown Atlanta, downtown to the east and Vine City to the west, it was owned and operated by the State of Georgia as part of th ...

. Azeez was named in the provisional 30-man squad ahead of the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

on 6 May. He was included in

Stephen Keshi Stephen Okechukwu Keshi (23 January 1962 – 7 June 2016) was a Nigerian association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. During his playing career, Keshi played as a defender (association football), defender ...

's final list for the tournament, and made his debut on 16 June by starting in a 0–0 draw against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. In September 2019, Azeez was recalled to the national team after five years.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Nigeria U20 *

U-20 Africa Cup of Nations The U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, known for short as the U-20 AFCON and for sponsorship purposes as TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, previously known as the African Youth Championship and the African U-20 Championship, is the biennial int ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Nigeria U17 *

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the annual world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fé ...

runner-up:

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Individual *

Bronze Ball:

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Azeez, Ramon 1992 births Living people Footballers from Abuja Yoruba sportspeople Nigerian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players UD Almería B players UD Almería players CD Lugo players Granada CF footballers FC Cartagena footballers Nigeria men's under-20 international footballers Nigeria men's international footballers 2014 FIFA World Cup players Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Spain 21st-century Nigerian sportsmen