Shehu Usman Abdullahi (born 12 March 1993) is a Nigerian professional

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 plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

and defender for

Nigeria Premier Football League The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) (formerly the Nigeria Professional Football League) is the highest level of club football in Nigerian football league system. The Nigerian Premier League has suffered like many others, from the financ ...

team

Kano Pillars Kano Pillars Football Club is a Nigerian professional football (soccer), football club based in Kano (city), Kano, northwestern Nigeria. They play in the Nigeria Professional Football League, the first-tier division in Nigerian football. They pl ...

Club career

Qadsia SC

In July 2014, Abdullahi moved from

to Kuwait Premier League side

Qadsia SC Al Qadsia Sporting Club () is a professional football club based in Kuwait City. Al Qadsia was founded in 1953 as ''Al-Jazira'', before being renamed to ''Al Qadsia SC'' on 20 October 1960. Qadsia currently plays in the Kuwait Premier League ...

in a deal worth $480,000, of which Abdullahi received $330,000 and Kano Pillars $150,000.

União da Madeira

On 6 June 2015, Shehu joined newly promoted

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

side

C.F. União Clube de Futebol União, commonly known as União da Madeira, was a Portuguese association football, football club based in Funchal, Madeira, notable for its six season in the Portuguese top-flight Primeira Liga, between the 1989–90 Primeira D ...

on a two-year deal.

Anorthosis Famagusta

On 2 September 2016, Shehu joined Cypriot side

Anorthosis Famagusta Anorthosis Famagusta (), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Famagusta multi-sport club founded in 1911 in Varosha, Famagusta.

on a two-year deal worth for the 20% of the player re-sale fee in other European club.

Bursaspor

On 24 January 2018, Shehu signed for two and a half years Turkish side

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği, commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkey, Turkish professional sports club based in the city of Bursa. Founded in 1963, the club is best known for its football team, which has a rich history in Football in Turkey, Turk ...

for an undisclosed fee.

Omonia

On 19 September 2020, Shehu signed for the Cyprus First Division side Omonia.

Levski Sofia

On 16 September 2022, Shehu signed with

Bulgarian First League The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

club

Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 by a group of high sc ...

until the end of the 2022–23 season.

International career

In January 2014, coach

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 ...

, invited him to be included in the Nigeria 23-man team for the

2014 African Nations Championship The 2014 African Nations Championship, known as the 2014 CHAN for short and as the Orange S.A., Orange African Nations Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 3rd edition of the biennial association football tournament organized by Confed ...

. Shehu earned his first cap on 11 January 2014, in the 1:2 loss against

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, appearing as a substitute. He helped Nigeria defeat

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

for a third-place finish by a goal to nil. He was included in the Nigeria 35-man provisional team for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. In May 2018 he was named in the Nigeria preliminary 30-man team for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

, in Russia.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

Qadsia *

Kuwait Emir Cup The Kuwait Amir/Emir Cup () is a Kuwaiti football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ...

: 2014–15 *

Kuwait Super Cup The Kuwait Super Cup () is football competition in Kuwait organised by the Kuwait Football Association (KFA) since 2008. Until the 2022–23 season, the competition served as the opening match of the season and was played between the champions of ...

: 2014 *

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Omonia *

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

: 2020–21 *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

: 2021–22 *

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

International

Nigeria U23 *

African Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the ...

bronze medal:

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Nigeria Olympic team *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

bronze medal:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdullahi, Shehu 1993 births Living people Footballers from Kano People from Sokoto Nigerian men's footballers Nigeria men's international footballers 2014 African Nations Championship players C.F. União players Primeira Liga players Men's association football midfielders Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Nigeria Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Nigeria Olympic medalists in football Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Kuwait Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Qadsia SC players Kano Pillars F.C. players Anorthosis Famagusta FC players Cypriot First Division players 2018 FIFA World Cup players Bursaspor footballers Süper Lig players Nigeria Professional Football League players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Kuwait Premier League players Nigeria men's under-20 international footballers AC Omonia players Nigeria men's A' international footballers First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC Levski Sofia players 21st-century Nigerian sportsmen