Umar Sadiq Biography
Umar Sadiq Mesbah is a professional football player from Nigeria who was born on February 2, 1997. He plays as a striker for Real Sociedad in La Liga and for the Nigeria national team.
In the past, Sadiq played for the Nigerian national under-23 team and was an important part of the team that won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Early Life
Sadiq was born in Kaduna and learned to play football on the streets of his hometown when he was very young. After that, he played for the Kusa Boys neighborhood team before going to the Future of Africa Football Academy and then the Football College Abuja.
Sadiq went to Croatia with FCA in June 2013 to play in the Kvarnerska Rivijera youth event. Ultimately, he scored the most points in the competition and led his team to victory. An Italian team, Spezia, bought Sadiq after seeing how well he played in Croatia.
He never played for the first team, but he did play a lot for the young team. Sadiq scored 26 goals in 24 games during the 2014–15 season, which made him the Campionato Primavera’s top scorer.
Club Career
Sadiq was moved to Serie D team Lavagnese soon after joining Spezia. He made his senior debut in the last round of the 2013–14 season. Sadiq moved to Roma on loan for a year in July 2015.
He and his teammate, Nura Abdullahi, were both moved for €250,000 each, with a €1,250 million buyout option for each player. Sadiq scored eight goals in his first three Primavera games for Roma.
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On November 21, he made his Serie A debut by coming on for Juan Iturbe in the 88th minute of an away draw against Bologna that ended in a 2–2 draw. He got his first goal on December 20, just seven minutes after replacing Mohamed Salah in the 82nd minute.
It helped his team beat Genoa 2-0 at home. Sadiq scored his second goal in his first game for Roma on January 6, 2016, getting the first goal in the seventh minute of a 3–3 away draw against Chievo. He scored two goals in six Serie A games by the end of the season.
Sadiq joined Real Sociedad on September 1, 2022, and signed a deal that would last until the end of the 2027–28 season.
After just two days, Sadiq got his first goal in his first game, a 1–1 home draw with Atlético Madrid. Sadiq played for 46 minutes in a 0–1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford on September 8.
Sadiq hurt his anterior cruciate ligament three days later during Real Sociedad’s La Liga game against Getafe. He had surgery and was later ruled out for the season.
Sadiq came back to the field at the start of the 2023–24 La Liga season, when Real Sociedad tied Girona 1–1. As a replacement for Mikel Oyarzabal in the 74th minute, the Nigerian player came on.
In the 72nd minute, Sadiq came off the bench to replace Mikel Oyarzabal against Inter Milan. It was his first game in the UEFA Champions League. Sadiq got his first goal of the season in a 2–1 win over Sevilla on November 26, 2023. In the 22nd minute, Hamari Traoré passed the ball to the Nigerian player in the middle of the field.
The Nigerian then went past two Sevilla players and fired an impossible shot into the top corner from outside the box.It had been 449 days since Umar Sadiq scored a goal, but on Saturday night, he scored another amazing goal for Real Sociedad in their La Liga match against CA Osasuna at the Estadio El Sadar (Pamplona). This made news again.
International Career
Sadiq was added to Nigeria’s final 18-person Olympic team in July 2016. He played in all six of his team’s games and scored four goals, two of which came in the third-place win over Honduras. After two good seasons with Partizan and a move to the rising Almería, Sadiq was called up to the Nigerian national team for games against Benin on March 27 and Lesotho on March 30, 2021. These games were to qualify Nigeria for the 2021 African Cup of Nations. Sadiq was picked to play for Nigeria in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast on December 29, 2023. He did get hurt, though, in early January 2024, and Paul Onuachu took his place.