John Utaka

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John Utaka
John Utaka'13.JPG
John Utaka (2013)
Personnel
Surname John Chukwudi Utaka
birthday January 8, 1982
place of birth Enugu ,  Nigeria
size 179 cm
position Storm
Juniors
Years station
0000-1997 Enugu Rangers
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1996-1997 Enugu Rangers ? 0(?)
1997-1999 Arab Contractors 45 (11)
1999-2001 Ismaily SC 47 (24)
2001-2002 Al-Sadd 27 (14)
2002-2005 RC Lens 102 (24)
2005-2007 Rennes stadium 63 (22)
2007-2011 Portsmouth FC 84 0(8)
2011-2013 HSC Montpellier 74 (13)
2013-2015 Sivasspor 47 (12)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
2002–2012 Nigeria 47 0(6)
1 Only league games are given.
Status: end of season 2014/15

John Chukwudi Utaka (born January 8, 1982 in Enugu ) is a Nigerian football player .

Career

society

Utaka began his professional career in 1996 in Nigeria with the Enugu Rangers . He only stayed there for a year before the Egyptian club Arab Contractors secured the services of the striker. With the contractors he became a regular player and scored goals regularly. For the 2000/01 season lured him the league competitor Ismaily SC . In this, the attacker scored 17 hits in 21 games. After two years he signed with Al-Sadd in Qatar before moving to France for the 2002/03 season. At RC Lens , Utaka secured a regular place straight away. Together with Antoine Sibierski and Daniel Moreira , he formed one of the most dangerous attack lines in Ligue 1 . The trio scored 29 goals in 38 games. With eight goals Utaka was the third best scorer of his team. In the following year he was unable to build on his previous season's performance. Only in the 2004/05 season did Utaka convince with goals again and became the best scorer of his team. Since the RC Lens had to give up its top performers again and again, Utaka decided in summer 2005 to switch to league rivals Stade Rennes . There he was initially in the shadow of Alexander Frei . Only after his injury did the attacker move into the starting line-up under coach László Bölöni . He scored hat tricks on matchday 28 in a 4-1 win against his former club RC Lens and on the following matchday in the away game against Olympique Lyon (4-1). After these six goals within a week, he was named Player of the Month by sports magazine L'Équipe .

In July 2007 Utaka signed the English first division club Portsmouth FC . He signed a four-year contract. On his debut in the Premier League on August 11, 2007, he scored his first goal for his new team in the game against Derby County (2-2). At the end of the 2008 game year, Utaka won the FA Cup with Portsmouth . In 2010 he was relegated with the club from the Premier League. In the same year he was again in the FA Cup final; they lost to Chelsea with 0: 1.

After more than three years in the Premier League and half a year in the second division, he moved back to France in January 2011; Utaka signed with HSC Montpellier . The contract ran until 2013 and was not renewed. He then moved to Turkey for Sivasspor on a free transfer . In summer 2015 he left Sivasspor again.

National team

Utaka was part of the Nigerian national team for the 2004 , 2006 and 2008 African Cup of Nations . At the 2004 championship, he never missed a game and reached third place with his team. In 2006, when he won the second bronze medal, he was used in five out of six games. In 2008 he completed three of the four possible games.

In 2002 he was nominated for the squad for the World Cup . There the team disappointed and only got one point in the three preliminary round matches. Utaka was only used in the second game against Sweden by the then coach Adegboye Onigbinde . It was Utaka's only appearance so far at a World Cup finals. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa , he was no longer in the squad.

successes

society

National team

  • 3rd place at the African Championship: 2004 , 2006

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Match statistics Stade Rennes - RC Lens 4: 1 (2: 0) from February 18, 2006 on fussballdaten.de
  2. ↑ Match statistics Olympique Lyon - Stade Rennes 1: 4 (1: 2) from February 25, 2006 on fussballdaten.de
  3. ↑ Match statistics Derby County - Portsmouth FC 2: 2 (1: 1) from August 11, 2007 on fussballdaten.de
  4. ↑ John Utaka Sivasspor'da ( Memento of the original from August 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , sivasspor.org.tr, accessed July 31, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sivasspor.org.tr
  5. ↑ Match statistics Sweden - Nigeria 2: 1 (1: 1) from June 7, 2002 on weltfussball.de
personal data
SURNAME Utaka, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Utaka, John Chukwudi (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1982
PLACE OF BIRTH Enugu , Nigeria