Christian Obodo (born 11 May 1984 in

Warri The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri, Udu, Okpe and Uvwie are the commercial ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

) is a Nigerian former

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 lea ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Football career

He was plucked from relative obscurity in the Nigerian league, playing for Plateau United to Italy where he became one of the hottest properties in the Italian Serie A where he had a brilliant season at

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

. He scored his first ever

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

goal in a 2–2 draw against Inter at the end of the season 2003.

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

signed him as a key part of their renovation as the team came back to Serie A in 2004. They only bought half the registration rights and in 2005 ''La Viola'' and Perugia were forced to make a blind auction to decide his future. Perugia won the auction but immediately sold him to Udinese. Obodo played his first

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with ''Le zebrette'' in 2005–06 season, partnered in midfield with

Sulley Muntari Suleyman Ali "Sulley" Muntari (born 27 August 1984) is a Ghanaian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his career in Italy, playing for clubs such as Udinese Calcio, Udinese, Inter Mil ...

, up until Muntari's exit for Portsmouth F.C. in 2007. On 28 January 2014, the Portuguese side

S.C. Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its Association football, football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association Portuguese Di ...

announced they had agreed to a deal with Obodo after playing in a training game against

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (, ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three occasions; the Soviet Cup twice; and the Russian Cup (football), Russian Cup a record ...

International career

In 2001, Obodo played for the Flying Eagles coached by Stephen Keshi at the African Youth Championship in Ethiopia. Though the team crashed out of the tournament with just one point from 3 games, Obodo showed a lot of promise in a team that had other players such as Bartholomew Ogbeche and Christopher Justice. Obodo is regarded by many as one of the most skilful and talented midfielders to play for the Super Eagles since the 1994 era. Little wonder, a sports radio personality and media mogul – noted for nicknaming Nigerian footballers – describes him as ''bundle of skills'', a phrase which later stuck and is now synonymous with Obodo's skilfulness. Obodo exudes a high level of confidence in games. He is never shy of taking on opponents. Renowned for his dribbling, energetic play and surging runs, he is best when he plays through the centre of the pitch where he dribbles and often makes surging runs towards goal. He made his long-awaited debut for the Super Eagles in the LG Cup tournament in 2003 featuring in the games versus

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

and

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

. He also made a substitute appearance in the prestigious Brazil friendly, playing as a striker. He has also appeared in Nigeria's 4–1 win over Malawi in an ANC 2004 qualifier. Obodo scored his first goal in a 5–2 win at

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. He made six appearances out of 10 in the 2006 World Cup qualification series, scoring a goal. At the 2006 African Cup of Nations, he featured in 4 of Nigeria's six games, scoring in the 2–0 win over Zimbabwe. Obodo last played for the Super Eagles in 2008.

Abduction

On the morning of 9 June 2012, Obodo was reportedly kidnapped by gunmen near Warri, Delta State. He was rescued the next day in nearby Isoko by men of the Nigerian police force, no ransom was paid, and suspects were arrested.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Honours

Perugia *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obodo, Christian 1984 births Living people Footballers from Warri Nigerian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Nigeria men's international footballers 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Belarus Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Liga I players Serie A players Serie B players Plateau United F.C. players AC Perugia Calcio players ACF Fiorentina players Udinese Calcio players Torino FC players US Lecce players FC Dinamo Minsk players S.C. Olhanense players Xanthi F.C. players CS Concordia Chiajna players CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players Belarusian Premier League players Primeira Liga players Super League Greece players Football League (Greece) players 21st-century Nigerian sportsmen