Kevin Onyekachi Amuneke (born 10 May 1986) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He spent most of his professional career in Europe, mainly in Portugal and Sweden.

Club career

Amuneke was born in Eziobodo. After starting out at Benfica and

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, representing only the youth teams in the first case and the youths and the reserves in the second, he began his professional career in Sweden with

Landskrona BoIS Landskrona Boll och Idrottsällskap (, locally referred to as BoIS) is a Swedish professional football club located in Landskrona, Scania, which currently plays in Superettan, the second league tier of football in Sweden. The club was formed ...

(where he played alongside brother Kingsley) and, after two years, returned to Portugal, appearing for

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

in the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

. On 21 May 2007, after cancelling out his contract unilaterally, Amuneke agreed to join

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sports Club of the Army'' ...

in Bulgaria for about

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

400,000. However, he returned to Sweden in December of the same year to play for

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollför ...

in the top level – the transfer fee was this time reported as €300,000. After a brief stint in Romania with Politehnica Timişoara, Amuneke moved back to Portugal, signing with

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

in early July 2009. Not having been used at all during the first part of the 2010–11 season, he was released by the club, resuming his career with Öster in the

Superettan Superettan (; ) is an association football league and the second highest league in the Swedish football league system, league system of Swedish football, Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and rel ...

. Amuneke rarely settled in the following years, representing in quick succession

Trelleborg Trelleborg () is a town in Skåne County, Sweden, with 43,359 inhabitants as of 31 December 2015. It is the southernmost town in Sweden located some west from the Smygehuk, southernmost point of Sweden and the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is one ...

(Sweden),

Tondela Tondela () is a concelho, municipality in the Centro, Portugal, central Portugal, Portuguese subregion of Dão-Lafões. The population in 2011 was 28,946, in an area of 371.22 km2. History Local writer and intellectual Amadeu Ferraz de Carv ...

(Portugal), Sloboda Užice (Serbia) and

IS Halmia IS Halmia is a association football, football club, located in Halmstad, Sweden. Background IS Halmia was founded on 16 June 16, 1907 and currently plays in Division 3 (Swedish football), Division 3 Sydästra Götaland. The club originall ...

(Sweden). On 21 December 2016, after a stint at Ballynure Old Boys of the

Ballymena & Provincial Football League The Ballymena and Provincial Football League is a regional association football, football league in Northern Ireland. The league has a Premier Division with Northern Ireland football league system#Intermediate, intermediate status and three Nort ...

, he moved to the

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...

having agreed to a short-term deal at Linfield.

International career

Amuneke won two caps for

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, ...

, both during 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 ...

qualifiers, featuring against

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

and

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

in June 2005.

Personal life

Amuneke's older brothers,

Emmanuel Immanuel or Emmanuel (, "God swith us"; Koine Greek: ) is a Hebrew name that appears in the Book of Isaiah (7:14) as a sign that God will protect the House of David. The Gospel of Matthew ( Matthew 1:22 –23) interprets this as a prophecy of ...

and Kingsley, were also footballers. The former, a winger, played amongst others for

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

and

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

, and was also a Nigerian international.

Honours

CSKA Sofia *

Bulgarian First League The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

: 2007–08 Linfield * Northern Ireland League: 2016–17 *

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

: 2016–17

References

External links

NigerianPlayers profile
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amuneke, Kevin 1986 births Living people Nigerian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Nigeria men's international footballers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Liga I players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Serbian SuperLiga players NIFL Championship players NIFL Premiership players FC Porto B players Vitória F.C. players C.D. Nacional players C.D. Tondela players Landskrona BoIS players IFK Norrköping players Östers IF players Trelleborgs FF players FC Politehnica Timișoara players PFC CSKA Sofia players GFK Sloboda Užice players Linfield F.C. players Portadown F.C. players Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Serbia Expatriate men's footballers in Serbia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the United Kingdom Expatriate men's association footballers in Northern Ireland 21st-century Nigerian sportsmen