Iffy Onuora

Ifem ('Iffy') Onuora (born 28 July, 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a coach and ex-professional footballer born in Scotland of Nigerian descent. Onuora was a journeyman striker who played for eight lower league clubs, including two spells at both Huddersfield Town and Gillingham. He scored 133 goals in nearly 500 professional matches.

Upon retiring in 2004, Onuora become Paul Merson's assistant manager at Walsall. However, he was sacked by Merson and Walsall owner, Jeff Bonser, in October 2004, reportedly for lacking the respect of the players, and not holding the necessary coaching credentials.

Later in the 2004-05 season, Onuora became a coach and youth development officer at Swindon Town. When Andy King was sacked after a poor start to season 2005/06, Onuora was appointed as Swindon's caretaker manager. In December 2005, Ron Atkinson, who had previously been fired from TV jobs for making racist remarks, was reportedly appointed to work alongside Onuora - one of the league's few black managers. Onuora later denied that this was the case, claiming that Atkinson was at the club to film a fly-on-the-wall documentary called Big Ron Manager.

Dennis Wise later became the new Swindon manager and Onoura was offered the chance to stay in a reduced capacity but he turned down that offer and left the club. He later commentated on Gillingham matches on BBC Radio Kent.

He returned to Gillingham in June 2007 as a first team coach.

External links

• Iffy Onuora at Soccerbase
• BBC Article on Onuora & Atkinson