Gabriel Chukwuwunzo Melkam (born 13 March 1980) 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 lea ...

who played as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

In April 2007, Melkam was banned three matches and fined 5000 RMB for misconduct for showing "All Referee of Chinese Super League were cheat." on his T-shirt after the match against Henan Jianye, to revenge the serious mistake of referee on the match Xiamen Lanshi against

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

. Melkam transferred to Guangzhou Evergrande in 2010. He made his

China League One The Chinese Football League 1 (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (), is the second level of professional football in China, under the Chinese Super League. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association ...

debut for Guangzhou against Beijing BIT on 3 April.

International career

Melkam finished runner-up at the 1999 African Youth Championship and quarter-finalist at

1999 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Nigeria between 3 and 24 April 1999. This was the 12th edition of the tournament. Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. :1.Teams tha ...

. Melkam was included in the Nigerian squad for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

qualifier in Zimbabwe on 5 September. The tie marked the debut of the then- Hansa Rostock defender Melkam, who narrowly missed out on a place in Nigeria's 2004 Cup of Nations squad.

Personal life

Melkam's younger brother Innocent Melkam played football in the German lower leagues.

Honours

Guangzhou Evergrande *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

References

External links

* 1980 births Living people Nigerian men's footballers Nigeria men's under-20 international footballers Stationery Stores F.C. players Kwara United F.C. players SG Wattenscheid 09 players Karlsruher SC players FC Hansa Rostock players Sportfreunde Siegen players Men's association football fullbacks Xiamen Blue Lions F.C. players Changchun Yatai F.C. players Guangzhou F.C. players Qingdao Hainiu F.C. players Chinese Super League players China League One players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate men's footballers in China 21st-century Nigerian sportsmen {{Nigeria-footy-defender-stub