Chris Iwelumo

Chris Iwelumo
Personnel
Surname	Christopher Robert Iwelumo
birthday	August 1, 1978
place of birth	Coatbridge ,  Scotland
position	Center Forward
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1996-1998	FC St. Mirren	13 0(0)
1998-2000	Aarhus Fremad	27 0(4)
2000-2004	Stoke City	84 (15)
2000-2001	→  York City  (loan)	12 0(2)
2001	→  Cheltenham Town  (loan)	4 0(1)
2004	→  Brighton & Hove Albion  (loan)	10 0(4)
2005	Alemannia Aachen	9 0(0)
2005-2007	Colchester United	92 (35)
2007-2008	Charlton Athletic	46 (10)
2008-2010	Wolverhampton Wanderers	46 (14)
2010	→  Bristol City  (loan)	7 0(2)
2010-2011	Burnley FC	45 (11)
2011–	Watford FC	39 0(4)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2007	Scotland B	1 0(0)
2008-2010	Scotland	4 0(0)
1 Only league games are given. As of July 31, 2012

Christopher Robert "Chris" Iwelumo (born August 1, 1978 in Coatbridge ) is a Scottish football player . The very physically oriented center forward , who has Nigerian roots through his father , is under contract with Watford FC . The "Horns" are already his thirteenth professional station in his career, during which he was also active in Denmark and Germany.

Athletic career

Born near Glasgow in Coatbridge, Iwelumo began his professional career in August 1996 as a "soccer apprentice" at FC St. Mirren . He scored on the occasion of his Scottish League Cup debut on August 13, 1996 against Berwick Rangers a goal to win 4-0. However, he waited in vain for the sporting breakthrough at the then second division and did not succeed in his rare league appearances until the end of the 1997/98 season.

Even at a young age, Iwelumo showed a certain willingness to travel and the center forward, who had just turned 20, accepted an offer from the Danish club Aarhus Fremad , which was active in the national top division at the time . Already in his first year in Denmark Iwelumo had to accept relegation and in February 2000 the club management gave him the clearance for a change again. With a total of four goals in 27 championship games, the number of strikers was also meager at his second station. This was followed by a short trial period at Preston North End , which led to no result. Instead, Iwelumo signed a new contract with English third division side Stoke City - the transfer fee to Aarhus Fremad was £ 25,000.

On March 18, 2000 he came against Wycombe Wanderers for the first time in the English professional league and after a total of four competitive appearances in the end of the 1999/2000 season, he met once in the league cup against the fourth division York City at the beginning of the 2000/01 season . Exactly to this opponent Iwelumo moved in November 2000 on loan, because the regular missions also with the "Potters" did not take place at first. Almost seamlessly after the end of the deadline in February 2001, another 1-month loan with fourth division competitor Cheltenham Town followed, for which he was on the field just three days after his last game for York City. In the 2001/02 season Iwelumo finally played better and better in the Stoke City team, which was supervised by Guðjón Þórðarson . He scored the equalizer in the derby against Port Vale on October 21, 2001 , scored six goals in seven competitive games within a month and was partly responsible for Stoke City's promotion to the second-rate Football League Championship . In view of the progress in the association as positive, the Iwelumo received a contract extension for a further two years in March 2002. Until the end of 2003 he was also in the second division permanently before he was suddenly put on the transfer list in January 2004. The Barnsley FC showed fundamentally interested; Instead, they only came to an agreement in March 2004 with the third division side Brighton & Hove Albion , whom Iwelumo reinforced in the final games on loan in the ultimately successful promotion battle.

Iwelumo turned down a new two-year contract in Brighton and instead moved to Germany for free in the 2nd Bundesliga at Alemannia Aachen , where he was also offered international perspectives in the UEFA Cup due to his recent participation in the DFB Cup final . Under coach Dieter Hecking , however, he did not get beyond the status of a supplementary player in Aachen and he only played all competitive games on substitutions. The “Adventure Germany” ended after just one year and when he returned to England in July 2005 he joined the third division Colchester United . At his new station he was already the third promotion within four years and on November 28, 2006 he aroused greater media interest with his four goals for a 5-1 win over Hull City . At the end of the 2006/07 season there was a respectable tenth place for the newcomer.

Iwelumo in 2012

Despite these respectable successes, Iwelumo did not see his future in Colchester and so he hired in May 2007 instead on a free transfer from second division rivals Charlton Athletic . He established himself straight away in the regular formation of the "Addicks", was the top scorer of his new club and received the award for best second division player of the month in November 2007 when he had "last minute winning goals" in two consecutive games. As part of a cost-cutting program, Charlton let his new successful player move again after a year and so Iwelumo signed a new contract with Wolverhampton Wanderers , who were aspiring to the second division, in July 2008 .

Iwelumo showed himself at the beginning of the 2008/09 promotion season in good early form, which in November 2008 brought him the award for best league player for a second time. On September 20, 2008, he had previously scored three goals to a 3-1 away win in a game at Preston North End , which nevertheless ended ingloriously with a red card for Iwelumo after a headbutt against Sean St. Ledger and in a three-game Lock had resulted. He ended a subsequent 16-game goal doldrums against his old club from Charlton; A short time later, his season against Birmingham City ended prematurely after a tough foul by Lee Carsley . With a broken metatarsus he was also incapacitated at the beginning of his first Premier League season in the 2009/10 season.

He made his debut in the top division for the Wolves on October 24, 2009 when he ran in the home game against Aston Villa in the 86th minute as a substitute for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake on the field. A week later he sustained a foot injury in an away game at Stoke City that put him out of action for a month. Even after his recovery, things did not go as desired for the attacker and he did not score in ten competitive games for Wolverhampton. On February 13, 2010, his one month loan move to Bristol City was announced. On his third appearance for Bristol on February 21, 2010, he scored his first goal of the season in the home game against West Bromwich Albion . Iwelumo scored the 1-1 equalizer, the game ended with a 2-1 win for Bristol City. In mid-March he returned to the Wolves and subsequently ran regularly as a substitute on the field. Nonetheless, the club gave him in June 2010 to Burnley FC, who had just been relegated to the second division . There Iwelumo signed a two-year contract; The parties involved agreed not to disclose the transfer formalities.

Scottish national team

The first nomination in the squad of the Scottish national team Iwelumo received on the occasion of a tour of South Korea in 2002, which he had to cancel due to the play-off participation of his club at the time, Stoke City. It wasn't until five years later that he came to a selection game in a game between the Scottish B-Elf and their Irish counterpart - it ended in a 1-1 draw.

For his first international match he came on October 11, 2008 in the World Cup qualification against Norway at home in Hampden Park (0-0). Involuntarily, he kept himself in mind with this mission from the 57th minute, when he missed the goal from a very short distance. Due to a controversial statement by the Scottish Association President George Peat, Iwelumo was made primarily responsible for missing the qualification places - Peat later relativized his comment by saying that he only wanted to point out such "millimeter decisions" as the reason for the difference between success and failure. On November 19, 2008, Iwelumo completed his first international match from the start in the friendship encounter with Argentina (0: 1).

Web links

• Chris Iwelumo in the soccerbase.com database
• Profile at Wolverhampton Wanderers
• Chris Iwelumo in the weltfussball.de database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Chris Iwelumo in surprise call-up for Scotland" (Times Online)
2. ↑ "Iwelumo extends contract" (BBC Sport)
3. ↑ "Barnsley eye Iwelumo" (BBC Sport)
4. ^ "Iwelumo moves to Albion" (BBC Sport)
5. ^ "Iwelumo joins Aachen" (BBC Sport)
6. ^ "Colchester complete Iwelumo deal" (BBC Sport)
7. ↑ "Colchester 5-1 Hull" (BBC Sport)
8. ↑ "Iwelumo turns down new contract"
9. ^ "Charlton snap up Varney & Iwelumo" (BBC Sport)
10. ^ "Charlton star takes monthly award" (BBC Sport)
11. ↑ "Iwelumo set for Addicks exit"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (South London Press)  
12. ↑ "Iwelumo is Championship's Top Man" ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Football League) 
13. ^ "FA reject Wolves' Iwelumo appeal" (BBC Sport)
14. ↑ "Birmingham 2-0 Wolves"
15. ↑ Iwelumo suffers injury setback (Sky Sports)
16. ↑ Bristol City sign Wolves striker Chris Iwelumo (BBC Sport)
17. ↑ Bristol City 2-1 West Brom (BBC Sport)
18. ↑ "Burnley snap up Wolves striker Chris Iwelumo" (BBC Sport)
19. ^ "Scotland B 1-1 Rep of Ireland B" (BBC Sport)
20. ^ "First Scotland call for Iwelumo" (BBC Sport)
21. ↑ "Scotland 0-0 Norway" (BBC Sport)
22. ^ "SFA President George Peat apologises for Chris Iwelumo comment" (sport.scotsman.com)
23. ↑ "Scotland 0-1 Argentina" (BBC Sport)