Ugochukwu Christus Iwu (; born 28 November 1999) is a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

er who plays 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. ...

for

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there through the 2021–2 ...

. Born in Nigeria, he represents Armenia at

international International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

level.

Club career

In August 2019, Iwu joined Pyunik on a season-long loan deal from Lori.

Urartu

In the summer 2020, Iwu moved to the

Urartu Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...

. On 16 July 2023, Iwu left Urartu by mutual consent to join

Rubin Kazan

On 16 July 2023,

announced the singing of Iwu to a three-year contract.

International career

On 20 March 2023, Ugochukwu Iwu received Armenian citizenship, which made him available to play for the Armenia national team. Iwu made his international debut for

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

on 25 March 2023 in the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

, against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. He played the entire match.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Urartu *

Armenian Premier League The Armenian Premier League (, known as the Armenian Fastex Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is the top association football, football competition in Armenia. From 1936 to 1991, the competition was held as a regional tournament within th ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Armenian Cup The Armenian Cup () is the main football cup competition of Armenia. In its original form as the Armenian Cup, it started in 1939, when Armenia was a republic of the Soviet Union. It served as a qualification tournament for the Soviet Cup, and it ...

Individual *

Player of the Year: 2022-23

References

External links

* *
FC Urartu official club profile
1999 births Living people Footballers from Jos Naturalized citizens of Armenia Armenian men's footballers Armenia men's international footballers Nigerian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Lori FC players FC Pyunik players FC Urartu players FC Rubin Kazan players Armenian Premier League players Russian Premier League players Nigerian emigrants to Armenia Naturalised association football players Armenian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Armenian expatriate sportspeople in Russia 21st-century Nigerian sportsmen {{Armenia-footy-bio-stub