Chris Kamara

Chris Kamara
Personnel
Surname	Christopher Kamara
birthday	December 25, 1957
place of birth	Middlesbrough ,  England
size	185 cm
position	midfield player
Juniors
Years	station
	Royal Navy
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1975-1977	Portsmouth FC	63 0(7)
1977-1981	Swindon Town	147 (21)
1981	Portsmouth FC	11 0(0)
1981-1985	Brentford FC	152 (28)
1985-1988	Swindon Town	87 0(6)
1988-1990	Stoke City	60 0(5)
1990-1991	Leeds United	20 0(1)
1991-1993	Luton Town	49 0(0)
1992-1993	→  Sheffield United  (loan)	8 0(0)
1993	→  Middlesbrough FC  (loan)	5 0(0)
1993-1994	Sheffield United	16 0(0)
1994-1995	Bradford City	23 0(3)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1995-1998	Bradford City
1998	Stoke City
1 Only league games are given.

Christopher "Chris" Kamara (born December 25, 1957 in Middlesbrough ) is a former English football player and coach. The midfielder initially worked for lower-class professional clubs before playing for the first time in the first division with Leeds United at the late age of 32 . He was considered one of the most colorful figures in English football from the late 1970s to early 1990s and was often exposed to racist resentment because of his dark skin. After only briefly switching to coaching after his active career, he decided to pursue a journalistic career as an expert and reporter, where he mostly works for the television broadcaster Sky Sports .

Professional career

First stations (until 1977)

A career as a professional footballer at the Kamara family initially stood in the way of a father's decision, which provided that his son Chris should also serve in the Royal Navy . He even gave up a possible inclusion in the youth team of the home club Middlesbrough FC and so he left the city to work as a "stoker" in the engine room of the Navy. There, of course, he continued to pursue his passion, played numerous football games within the armed forces and, as a 15-year-old, was positively noticed among seasoned men. When his selection went to a friendly against the youth team of Portsmouth FC and Kamara scored a number of goals, this aroused desires in the opponent, which ultimately led to his commitment.

To his first appearances at the then second division came Kamara in the 1975/76 season and after he had scored numerous goals in the youth team, coach Ian St. John also put him in the front line at the side of George Graham . When Kamara scored his first goal in his second game against Bolton Wanderers , the club was initially convinced of Kamara's quality in this position and did not increase the thin staffing in the attack area. The fact that Kamara should feel more at home in midfield was shown by the statistics after two years and only seven league goals in 63 games. There were also early setbacks such as relegation to the third division in 1976 and the following year he was drawn to third division rivals Swindon Town in August 1977 .

Even at a young age, the dark-skinned Kamara - similar to players from Brendan Batson to Laurie Cunningham - saw himself confronted with racism, which, in addition to frequent abuse from the audience, death threats and even harassment by his own teammates, also resulted in massive pressure from the right-wing extremist National Front voiced. The problems continued well into the 1980s.

Swindon to Brentford and Back (1977–1988)

In the team supervised by Danny Williams , Kamara occupied the position in right midfield in Swindon and in the first league appearance against Sheffield Wednesday (1: 1) he shot his first of ten league goals in the 1977/78 season on August 17, 1977. When Bobby Smith succeeded Williams in the following season , he suddenly lost his regular place and found himself on the transfer list. It was not until November 1979 that he fought his way back into the team permanently and helped his team move into the league cup semi-finals, which were ultimately lost to the Wolverhampton Wanderers . A good year later Kamara came to no agreement with Swindon Town on the sporting perspective and so the club let him return to Portsmouth FC in May 1981 for a transfer fee of £ 50,000. However, he stayed there for just five months before moving to West London for Brentford FC . The transfer decision was combined with the move from Brentford striker David Crown to Portsmouth FC . For the "Bees" Kamara completed 152 league games in four years and scored 28 goals.

At the beginning of the 1985/86 season Lou Macari brought back "Kammy" as coach of Swindon Town, but regardless of the fact that Swindon only played fourth class, he was behind competitors like Leigh Barnard , Peter , although he had matured into a strong central midfielder Coyne and Charlie Henry in the back. He therefore only contributed a comparatively few 19 league games to the fourth division championship. In the following third division season 1986/87 the signs changed fundamentally and in the second promotion in a row Kamara missed only four league games. Then he was first used in all play-off games before he was replaced by Charlie Henry in the final second leg. Another 25 missions followed in the second division before an incident on February 20, 1988 led to the end of his time in Swindon. Following the final whistle of the game against Shrewsbury Town , Kamara attacked Jim Melrose , who had allegedly subjected him to racially motivated abuse, and broke his jaw. In addition to a conviction for assault, his club suspended him for the remaining games of the 1987/88 season. Then Swindon Town then offered him a new contract on better terms, but Kamara instead moved to league rivals Stoke City in June 1988 .

Career autumn in the top divisions (1988–1995)

In Stoke-on-Trent, Kamara was established as a versatile midfielder in the advanced football age. This also included his emphatically physical style of play, which occasionally gave rise to criticism. His foul in August 1989 against Frank McAvennie from West Ham United attracted particular attention , which caused McAvennie a serious injury and a long break - although the nearby referee did not recognize an irregularity and Kamara repeatedly pointed out the unintentionality. After a year and a half, Kamara joined the ambitious second division team Leeds United in January 1990 .

In addition to tripling his salary, Kamara found a promotion aspirant in Leeds United, who won the second division championship later in the 1989/90 season. In the eleven games, the newcomer contributed significantly to the success, but when he first arrived in the top English league, Kamara only served as a supplementary player, who also suffered from injuries. At the beginning of the 1991/92 championship season he ran again in two league games before coach Howard Wilkinson let him move to Luton Town . With the "hat makers", who at that time also played in the first division, he was used regularly again, but at the end of the season had to go back to the second division due to a defeat on the last match day.

During the following season 1992/93 Luton Town loaned him on two occasions in the now called Premier League English top division. He ran in eight league games for Sheffield United , followed by five championship games for the club from his hometown ( Middlesbrough FC ) - as in Luton, the season for "Boro" ended with relegation . In June 1993 he moved to Sheffield United on a permanent basis, but where he remained unlucky, as he was relegated for the third time in a row in the 1993/94 season.

Kamaras spent his last active professional season in 1994/95 with the third division club Bradford City . Although he was out of action there for three months because of a broken toe, the now 37-year-old was able to convince with leadership qualities, which he demonstrated more often in central defense than in midfield as he grew older.

Trainer activities (1995–1998)

Kamara swapped his role as a player in Bradford for that of the head coach, whereby the then coach Lennie Lawrence initially wanted to employ him as a player and at the same time as his assistant. However, the promotion came promptly when Lawrence was fired and President Geoffrey Richmond designated him to succeed him. The first successes were not long in coming, because Kamara immediately led the team in 1996 through the play-offs in the second division. The following year he managed to stay up, but the discord between Kamara and Richmond increased, which then led to the dismissal of the sporting director in January 1998. Kamara himself stated that the main reason was that the president often “talked into” the team line-up and made player commitments on his own initiative. In the 1998/99 season Bradford City should finally - mainly with Kamara trained players - with successor Paul Jewell in the Premier League. Kamara tried himself only a few days after his release at Stoke City , but failed there after 14 league games with a poor record of 1-5-8.

Reporter, presenter and singer

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Here's to Christmas   UK 8th 11/28/2019 (6 weeks)

Kamara has appeared on camera on English television since he coached Bradford City. He is a presenter for Sky Sports and presents the Sunday program Goals on Sunday . In addition, he is occasionally co-commentator on broadcasts. On Saturdays he is active as part of the Soccer Saturday program and reports the latest events about a game he has attended. His excited-looking presentation has a high recognition value, which also often offers comic elements. Above all, Kamara is associated with the phrase “Unbelievable Jeff!”, With which he often introduces questions from the moderator Jeff Stelling - significantly, his autobiography is entitled “Mr. Unbelievable ”. Other media activities include his appearances for Soccer AM , where he reports from a stadium hours before a game on Saturdays. “Kammy do it” also became a popular series for Soccer AM, in which Kamara challenges celebrities to duels in sometimes curious competitions such as milk drinking or sporting disciplines such as clay pigeon shooting.

In 2012 Kamara recorded a benefit single called Sing 4 England before the European Championships . Four years later he appeared on a celebrity special on the vocal show All Together Now for Christmas and decided to record an album the following year. The swing album Here's to Christmas was released at the end of 2019 and reached number 8 in the UK charts .

social commitment

Kamara is an ambassador for Show Racism the Red Card .

literature

• Chris Kamara: Mr Unbelievable . Harpercollins UK, 2010, ISBN 978-0-00-736058-1 .

Web links

• Chris Kamara in the soccerbase.com database
• Coach statistics in the Soccerbase
• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Database
• Interview with Chris Kamara (FourFourTwo)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Chris Kamara" (swindon-town-fc.co.uk)
2. ↑ "Leeds United Player Profiles: Chris Kamara" (Leeds United History)
3. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1995-96 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1995, ISBN 0-09-180854-5 , pp. 59 .
4. ↑ Chart sources: UK
5. ↑ Came Fly with Me , Lucy Jones, The Sun, March 14, 2019
6. ↑ Show Racism the Red Card-Hall of fame ( Memento of the original from December 2, 2013 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.