Pascal Karibe Ojigwe (born 11 December 1976) 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 defender or

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He also holds German citizenship.

Early life

Ojigwe was born in

Aba ABA may refer to: Businesses and organizations Broadcasting * Alabama Broadcasters Association, United States * Asahi Broadcasting Aomori, Japanese television station * Australian Broadcasting Authority Education * Académie des Beaux- ...

, Nigeria.Eastern part of Nigerian

Club career

Loan to Köln

Ojigwe went on loan from

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in severa ...

to second-tier

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballsp ...

for the 1999–2000 2. Bundesliga season.

Leverkusen

Ojigwe refused to return to his parent club and instead moved to Champions League participant

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, ...

, for a transfer fee believed to be DM 3.5 million (about €1.75 million) On the occasion of the transfer there had been a huge public argument between then Köln and Leverkusen managers, Johannes Linßen and Reiner Calmund.

Honours

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

runner-up: 2001–02 *

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

: 1997–98; runner-up: 2001–02 *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

finalist: 2001–02

References

1976 births Living people People from Aba, Abia Association football defenders Association football midfielders Nigerian footballers Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigeria international footballers Enyimba F.C. players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players 1. FC Köln players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Borussia Mönchengladbach players TSV 1860 Munich players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 2002 African Cup of Nations players Expatriate footballers in Germany {{Nigeria-footy-midfielder-stub