Nwankwo Kanu
Kanu playing for Portsmouth in 2007
|
|||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Nwankwo Kanu | ||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1 August 1976 | ||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Owerri, Imo, Nigeria | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.97 m (6 ft 5 1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Forward | ||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||
| 1992–1993 | Iwuanyanwu Nationale | 25 | (15) | ||||||||||||
| 1993–1996 | Ajax | 54 | (25) | ||||||||||||
| 1996–1999 | Inter Milan | 12 | (1) | ||||||||||||
| 1999–2004 | Arsenal | 119 | (37) | ||||||||||||
| 2004–2006 | West Bromwich Albion | 58 | (9) | ||||||||||||
| 2006–2012 | Portsmouth | 141 | (20) | ||||||||||||
| Total | 404 | (98) | |||||||||||||
| National team | |||||||||||||||
| 1993 | Nigeria U17 | 6 | (5) | ||||||||||||
| 1996 | Nigeria U23 | 6 | (3) | ||||||||||||
| 1994–2011 | Nigeria | 87 | (12) | ||||||||||||
|
Honours
|
|||||||||||||||
|
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
|||||||||||||||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
Nwankwo Kanu, OON (born 1 August 1976), or simply Kanu, is a retired Nigerian footballer who played as a forward. He was a member of and later captained the Nigerian national team for 16 years from 1994 until 2010. Kanu is a member of the Igbo ethnic group; his name, Nwankwo, means Child born on Nkwo market day in the Igbo language.
Kanu has won a UEFA Champions League medal, a UEFA Cup medal, three FA Cup Winners Medals and two African Player of the Year awards amongst others. He is also one of few players to have won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal. He made the third-most substitute appearances in Premier League history, appearing from the bench 118 times.
He is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Born in Owerri, Nigeria, Kanu began his career at Nigerian league club Federation Works, before moving to Iwuanyanwu Nationale. After a notable performance at the U-17 World Championships he was signed by Dutch Eredivisie AFC Ajax in 1993 for €207,047. He made his Ajax debut the following year and went on to score 25 goals in 54 appearances. Kanu also came on as a sub in Ajax's 1995 Champions League final win over AC Milan. In 1996, Ajax sold Kanu to Serie A side Inter Milan for around $4.7 million. That summer he captained the Nigerian team that won gold at the Olympics, and scored two late goals in the semi-finals against powerhouses Brazil to overturn a 2–3 scoreline into a 4–3 win in extra time. Kanu was also named African Footballer of the Year for that year.
...
Wikipedia