Onyekachi Okonkwo

Onyekachi Okonkwo
Personal information
Full name Onyekachi Donatus Okonkwo
Date of birth (1982-05-13) 13 May 1982 (age 42)
Place of birth Aba, Nigeria
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Midfielder, centre back
Youth career
Pepsi Football Academy
Calabar Rovers
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
–2004 Enyimba 30 (6)
2004–2007 Orlando Pirates 43 (3)
2007–2010 FC Zürich 62 (2)
2010–2012 Al Kharitiyath 39 (5)
2012–2013 Orlando Pirates 20 (3)
2013–2015 Mpumalanga Black Aces 43 (2)
2015–2016 Mosta 17 (2)
2018–2019 Nuorese 25 (3)
2019–2020 Assisi Subasio
2020–2021 Cortona Camucia
International career‡
2006–2008 Nigeria 20 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14 November 2022
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 14 November 2022

Onyekachi Donatus Okonkwo (born 13 May 1982 in Aba) is a Nigerian football midfielder.

Club career

Okonkwo was a member of Enyimba's winning side in the 2003 MTN CAF Champions League and 2004 MTN CAF Champions League finals.

During his two-year stay in South Africa he was arguably one of the club's most influential players even scoring the decisive goal against his former club Enyimba to lead the Johannesburg-based club Orlando Pirates to the 2006 MTN CAF Champions League semifinals.

Okonkwo caused a stir in Europe by signing a pre-contract agreement with German side FC Köln only to leave the club a week later to sign a four-year deal at Swiss side FC Zürich saying that he had only ever agreed to a one-week trial at the German team. Despite FC Köln's sporting director Klaus Horstmann threatening to take the matter to FIFA in order for him to fulfil his obligations to his side, Okonkwo says he did not breach any rules in moving to Switzerland. He joined Qatari side Al Kharitiyath in the summer of 2010.

On 26 June 2012 Okonkwo rejoined Orlando Pirates[1] and next year, on 12 July 2013, signed with local rivals Mpumalanga Black Aces.[2]

International

He won his first international cap for Nigeria in a 2008 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Lesotho in October 2006.

Honours

FC Zürich

References

  1. ^ "Six new signings for Orlando Pirates". 26 June 2012. Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  2. ^ "Okonkwo signs for Aces". Mpumalanga Black Aces F.C. 12 July 2013.