Chukwudi Odiah (born 17 December 1983), commonly known as Chidi Odiah, is a Nigerian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Chidi Odiah has represented his country at international level. He has shown himself to be a skillful, attack minded fullback with a high work-rate.

Club career

Eagle Cement and Julius Berger

Odiah began his career with

Eagle Cement Dolphin Football Club was a Nigerian football team based in Port Harcourt. History The club was known until 2001 as Eagle Cement FC. In 2004–05 the team placed 6th in the Nigerian Premier League. Representing their country in the 2005 CAF Co ...

in the Nigeria Premier League, before moving to

Julius Berger F.C. Bridge Football Club is a Nigerian football club based in Lagos that was founded in the mid-1970s. As a result of an association with the Julius Berger construction company, the club was known as Julius Berger Football Club until 2010. The cl ...

in 2000 for which he has played 10 games. In this year

won the

Nigeria Premier League The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) is the highest level of the Nigerian football league system, for the Nigerian club-football championships. The Nigerian league has suffered, like many others, from the financial impact and dwindl ...

Sheriff Tiraspol

In late 2000 he moved to

Sheriff Tiraspol Fotbal Club Sheriff (russian: ФК Шериф Тирасполь), commonly known as Sheriff Tiraspol or simply Sheriff, is a Moldovan professional football club based in Tiraspol, a city located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnis ...

. For the time spent in Tiraspol, Odiah appeared in 58 games adding five goals, becoming one of the major players in the team. Sheriff dominated Moldovan football and Chidi won many honors:

Moldovan National Division The Moldovan Super Liga is an association football league that is currently the top division of Moldovan football league system. The competition was established in 1992, when the country became independent from the Soviet Union. It was formed in ...

– 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04;

Moldovan Cup The Moldovan Cup ( ro, Cupa Moldovei) is a football competition, held annually in Moldova. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round. Finals The finals were: Goalscorers Soviet time winners * 194 ...

– 2000/01, 2001/02;

Moldovan Super Cup Moldovan Super Cup ( ro, Supercupa Moldovei) is the national football super cup competition in Moldova, officially having the winners of the previous season's Moldovan National Division and Moldovan Cup face-off against each other. In case when th ...

– 2003 and

CIS Cup The Commonwealth of Independent States Cup (russian: Кубок чемпионов Содружества, Кубок Содружества, Кубок чемпионов содружества стран СНГ и Балтии) is a defunct ann ...

– 2003. He also gained experience in the UEFA Champions League qualifying phase.

CSKA Moscow

, he drew the attention of scouts CSKA and in 2004, Odiah joined

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

on a four-year contract. Chidi was given the number 15 shirt. He made his debut for CSKA in the Russian Premier League against

Rostov Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population: While ...

. He quickly took up position right back. Season 2005 was the best in his career, to date, Chukwudi won:

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 200 ...

–

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

, Russian Cup – 2005,

2004–05 UEFA Cup The 2004–05 UEFA Cup was the 34th edition of the UEFA Cup. The format of the competition had changed from previous seasons, replacing that from the previous one after the abolition of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1999; an extra qualifying round was ...

(by beating

Sporting Lisbon Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional fo ...

3–1 in the Final on

Estádio José Alvalade Estádio José Alvalade is a football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the older stadium. The stadium is named after José Alvalade (1885–1918), the founder and first club m ...

) and participated in the

2005 UEFA Super Cup The 2005 UEFA Super Cup was an association football match between Liverpool of England and CSKA Moscow of Russia on 26 August 2005 at Stade Louis II, Monaco, the annual UEFA Super Cup contested between the winners of the UEFA Champions Leagu ...

. At quarter-finals

he scored the first goal in the 4–0 win over

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are re ...

. Last success in CSKA: quarter-finals

2009–10 UEFA Champions League The 2009–10 UEFA Champions League was the 55th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 18th under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played on 22 May 2010, at the Santiago Bernabéu S ...

and

2010–11 Russian Cup The 2010–11 Russian Cup was the nineteenth season of the Russian football knockout tournament since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The competition started on 14 April 2010, and ended with the Final on 22 May 2011 at Shinnik Stadium in ...

. Odiah left CSKA Moscow by mutual consent on 16 February 2012.

International

Chidi has represented his nation at various youth levels. He played for Nigeria U-17 national team to African U-17 Championship – winner of the tournament. On the next event, Meridian Cup, he was team captain. His premier match in the senior team took place in September 2004, in a match against Zimbabwe. Chidi also twice won the bronze medal with Nigeria senior team at the

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internat ...

– 2006,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. Odiah was chosen for the team of Nigeria to

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

and in the first match against Argentina came into the starting lineup, as well in the match with South Korea, he made goal assist.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Score and result list Nigeria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after Odiah goal''.

Honours

Clubs

Julius Berger *

: 2000 Sheriff Tiraspol *

: 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04 *

: 2001, 2002 *

: 2003 *

: 2003 CSKA Moscow *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

, 2006 * Russian Cup: 2005, 2006,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, 2011 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premi ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, 2006,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

International

Nigeria *

Bronze medalist: 2006,

Nigeria under-17 team *

African U-17 Championship The U-17 Africa Cup of Nations also called TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsoring reason (previously known as the African U-17 Championship) is a bi-annual football competition organised by the sport's African governing body, C ...

: 2001

Individual

*In the list of 33 best football players of the championship of Russia: position right half-backs № 1 (2005) *In the list of 33 best football players of the championship of Russia: position right full-backs № 2 (2004)

References

External links

*
Odiah Profile at UEFA.com (2006/07)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odiah, Chidi 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Port Harcourt Association football fullbacks Nigerian footballers Nigeria international footballers 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2010 Africa Cup of Nations players Nigerian expatriate footballers FC Sheriff Tiraspol players PFC CSKA Moscow players UEFA Cup winning players Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Moldova Russian Premier League players Expatriate footballers in Russia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Moldova Dolphin F.C. (Nigeria) players 2010 FIFA World Cup players