Emmanuel Olisadebe
Encyclopedia
Emmanuel Olisadebe (born 22 December 1978 in Warri) is a Nigerian-born Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

 football striker
Striker
Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...

 who plays for Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 football club Vyzas Megaron
Vyzas F.C.
Vyzas F.C. is a football club based in Megara, Greece. It was founded in 1928.-History:Vyzas Megaron was founded in 1928 by students and named after the ancient Megara hero Byzas. In 1960, the club was promoted to Greece's Beta Ethniki, where it stayed for seven years. Vyzas was later promoted to...

 in Gamma Ethniki.

After moving to Poland and having a successful career with Polonia Warszawa
Polonia Warszawa
Polonia Warsaw is a Polish sports club with football and basketball teams, founded in 1911, and is the oldest such club in Warsaw, where it is based.- History :...

 where he won the championship title as well as Polish SuperCup
Polish SuperCup
The Polish SuperCup in football is an annually held match between the champion of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winner. To this date the Polish SuperCup has been played out 21 times with the Polish Cup winner taking the trophy 13 times, while the Ekstraklasa champions had won the trophy 8 times...

 with them he would attract the interests of the Polish national team
Poland national football team
The Poland national football team represents Poland in association football and is controlled by the Polish Football Association, the governing body for football in Poland...

 after he was eligible for Polish citizenship. His international career would see him participate in the 2002 FIFA World Cup
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was implemented. Brazil won the tournament for a record fifth time, beating Germany 2–0...

 while his club career would see him move to Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in Athens. Founded in 1908, they play in the Super League Greece and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Greek football history. They have won 20 Greek Championships and 17 Greek Cups.Panathinaikos is the most...

 before moving around Europe.

Polonia Warsaw FC

Olisadebe began playing for Polonia Warszawa
Polonia Warszawa
Polonia Warsaw is a Polish sports club with football and basketball teams, founded in 1911, and is the oldest such club in Warsaw, where it is based.- History :...

 during the 1997/98 league season where in his first season he played in 13 league games. During his time in Polonia Warsaw he helped them secure their first championship title in 50 years in the 1999/00 season, scoring 12 goals in the process. He also won the league cup and the super cup that year with them.

Panathinaikos FC

Olisadebe made a move to for 3 million euro to Panathinaikos where he scored 24 goals in 82 matches. While at Panathinakos he played a large part in helping the club win the title for the first time in 10 years by scoring all the winning goals in the last four games of the championship. He also won the cup that year, making it a double. However during his time at Panathinaikos he suffered an injury that required surgery in Greece, although he still caught the attention of Portsmouth's manager Harry Redknapp, who was desperate for reinforcements to prevent relegation.

Olisadebe is very much loved by fans of Panathinaikos. He has a song dedicated to him. Olisadebe would have loved to play a vital role for his team but this ambition was short lived by the arrival of coach Alberto Malesani
Alberto Malesani
Alberto Malesani is an Italian association football manager, currently in charge of Genoa.-Early career and breakthrough at Chievo:...

, who preferred other strikers to Olisadebe. Because of the good time Olisadebe spent in Greece he currently lives there.

Portsmouth

Portsmouth's
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...

 manager Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp
Henry James "Harry" Redknapp is a former English footballer who has enjoyed a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth. He is the current manager of Tottenham Hotspur....

 called upon Olisadebe, along with Benjani Mwaruwari, to provide the attacking force needed to stay out of the bottom three. Portsmouth signed him on a "pay as you play" deal; unfortunately Olisadebe only played two games while at Portsmouth – he was plagued by injury and scored no goals during his short spell there. His contract was terminated after 4 months, at which point he travelled to Xanthi, where he wasn't given a chance to play. Unfortunately for Olisadebe, the president of Xanthi football club, Mr Panopoulos, decided the player's services were no longer needed. Olisadebe played only a few games. It is said that Mr Panopoulos had ego problems with the player.

APOP Kinyras Peyias

Olisadebe, being unhappy, decided to break his contract and travel to Cyprus in order to revive his career.
He then featured for APOP Kinyras Peyia FC where he played in the 2007/08 season where he played in 17 games scoring 6 goals.

Henan Construction

In 2008 he was offered a deal with Chinese Super League
Chinese Super League
The Chinese Football Association Super League , commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the Pirelli Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional association football in China, operating under the auspices of the...

 club Henan Construction. In his second match with Henan, the third round of 2008 Chinese Super League against Liaoning, he scored 2 goals and was highly praised by the Chinese sports media.

Olisadebe's first season at Henan was personally successful when he became the second top scorer in the Chinese super league with 12 goals in 26 games.

On September 27, Olisadebe scored the opening goal for Henan in a 2–0 win over Shanghai Shenhua to regain lead in the league less than ten minutes before injuring his knee. Initial diagnosis showed that he had torn his cruciate ligament
Cruciate ligament
Cruciate ligaments are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee...

 of the left knee
Knee
The knee joint joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two articulations: one between the fibula and tibia, and one between the femur and patella. It is the largest joint in the human body and is very complicated. The knee is a mobile trocho-ginglymus , which permits flexion and extension as...

, and the injury could end his entire football career. Further results confirmed that he injured his patellar ligament
Patellar ligament
The patellar ligament is the central portion of the common tendon of the Quadriceps femoris, which is continued from the patella to the tuberosity of the tibia.-Anatomy:It is a strong, flat, ligament, about 10 cm...

 and would only miss the rest of the season.
Olisadebe has had two fantastic seasons in China. He was nominated for the MVP awards two years cosecutively only to be 2nd in both occasions. Due to his performance he has been granted by the government of Henan province citizenship.

Vyzas Megaron

Currently Emmanuel is on trial with Vyzas Megaron
Vyzas F.C.
Vyzas F.C. is a football club based in Megara, Greece. It was founded in 1928.-History:Vyzas Megaron was founded in 1928 by students and named after the ancient Megara hero Byzas. In 1960, the club was promoted to Greece's Beta Ethniki, where it stayed for seven years. Vyzas was later promoted to...

 after being released from Henan Construction in November 2010.
Panathinaikos fans have shown their love and admiration to Emmanuel, since they have created a group on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 called "Emmanuel Olisadebe - -> Μανώλη Γύρνα Πίσω" (which means: "Emmanuel Olisadebe - -> Emmanuel Come Back), where they ask from Olisadebe to go back to Panathinaikos.

National team

He is a former player of the Polish national team
Poland national football team
The Poland national football team represents Poland in association football and is controlled by the Polish Football Association, the governing body for football in Poland...

, who he played for after becoming a citizen of Poland after Michał Listkiewicz, the president of PZPN, and Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Aleksander Kwasniewski
Aleksander Kwaśniewski is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s...

 were persuaded to do so by Zbigniew Boniek
Zbigniew Boniek
Zbigniew "Zibì" Kazimierz Boniek is a former Polish footballer and coach. He first played at Zawisza Bydgoszcz and later at Widzew Łódź. Boniek was named by Pelé as one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers and by FIFA as one of the 100 best-ever players. On 12 October 2009 he received a Golden...

, a former national striker.

In 2002, Olisadebe broke the record for the greatest number of goals scored by a Polish player in a single World Cup qualifying tournament (8). For the two years prior to his World Cup debut, Olisadebe was on an incredible run, charging Poland through World Cup qualifiers. In Poland's match against Ukraine in Kiev during Poland's bid to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986 Olisadebe scored twice, leading Poland to an unexpected 3–1 victory.

Olisadebe then scored two goals the next March in Oslo against the Norwegians to secure Poland as the leader of group 5.

Olisadebe was a contender for the FIFA World Footballer of the Year 2001
2001 FIFA World Player of the Year
The 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year award was won by Luís Figo by the slim margin of 12 points. David Beckham was again forced into second place.-Men:-Women:-External links:*...

 receiving one point in the voting.

Club statistics

|-
|1996||rowspan="2"|Jasper United
Jasper United
Jasper United was a Nigerian football club based in the city of Onitsha.Founded by Jude Ezechukwu in 1991 under the name Premier Breweries FC, they were founding member of the Professional League second division....

||||32||17||||||||||||||||
|-
|1997||||8||3||||||||||||||||

|-
|1997/98||rowspan="4"|Polonia Warsaw||rowspan="4"|Ekstraklasa||13||1||||||||||||||||
|-
|1998/99||16||4||||||||||||||||
|-
|1999/00||24||12||||||||||||||||
|-
|2000/01||13||3||||||||||||||||

|-
|2000/01||rowspan="6"|Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos is a multi-sport club based in Athens, Greece. It has the shamrock as its official emblem and green and white as its colours...

||rowspan="6"|Alpha Ethniki
Super League Greece
The Superleague Greece is the highest professional football league in Greece. It was formed on July 16, 2006 and replaced Alpha Ethniki at the top of the Greek football league system. The league consists of 16 teams and runs from August to May, with teams playing 30 games each...

||8||4||||||||||||||||
|-
|2001/02||18||9||||||||||||||||
|-
|2002/03||19||8||||||||||||||||
|-
|2003/04||9||3||||||||||||||||
|-
|2004/05||13||0||||||||||||||||
|-
|2005/06||6||0||||||||||||||||

|-
|2005/06||Portsmouth||Premier League||2||0||||||||||||||||

|-
|2006/07||Skoda Xanthi
Skoda Xanthi
Skoda Xanthi F.C. , or F.C. Skoda Xanthi Athletic Club, is a Greek football club, based in the city of Xanthi. The club currently competes in the Super League Greece.-History:...

||Super League
Super League Greece
The Superleague Greece is the highest professional football league in Greece. It was formed on July 16, 2006 and replaced Alpha Ethniki at the top of the Greek football league system. The league consists of 16 teams and runs from August to May, with teams playing 30 games each...

||5||0||||||||||||||||

|-
|2007/08||APOP Kinyras Peyias||First Division
Cypriot First Division
The Cypriot Championship First Division is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus. As of 2007 it is sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank and is hence officially known as Marfin Laiki League .-Format:...

||17||6||||||||||||||||

|-
|2008||rowspan="3"|Henan Construction||rowspan="3"|Super League
Chinese Super League
The Chinese Football Association Super League , commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the Pirelli Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional association football in China, operating under the auspices of the...

||26||12||||||||||||||||
|-
|2009||18||10||||||||||||||||
|-
|2010||19||2||||||||||||||||
40||20||||||||||||||||
66||20||||||||||||||||
78||24||||||||||||||||
2||0||||||||||||||||
17||6||||||||||||||||
63||24||||||||||||||||
266||94||||||||||||||||
|}

National team statistics

|-
|2000||5||3
|-
|2001||8||7
|-
|2002||8||1
|-
|2003||3||0
|-
|2004||1||0
|-
!Total||25||11
|}

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1 August 16, 2000 Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 
1–1 (1:0) Draw Friendly (Debut)
2 September 2, 2000 Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

1:3 (1:2) Win World Cup Qualifier
3 September 2, 2000 Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

1:3 (1:2) Win World Cup Qualifier
4 February 28, 2001 Larnaka, Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

0:4 (0:2) Win Friendly
5 March 24, 2001 Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

2:3 (0:2) Win World Cup Qualifier
6 March 24, 2001 Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

2:3 (0:2) Win World Cup Qualifier
7 March 28, 2001 Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

4:0 (2:0) Win World Cup Qualifier
8 June 2, 2001 Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

1:2 (1:1) Win World Cup Qualifier
9 September 1, 2001 Chorzów
Chorzów
Chorzów is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central districts of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropolis with a population of 2 million...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

3:0 (1:0) Win World Cup Qualifier
10 October 6, 2001 Chorzów
Chorzów
Chorzów is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central districts of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropolis with a population of 2 million...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

1:1 (1:0) Draw World Cup Qualifier
11 June 14, 2002 Daejeon
Daejeon
Daejeon is South Korea's fifth largest metropolis and the provincial capital of Chungnam. Located in the center of the country, Daejeon had a population of over 1.5 million in 2010. It is at the crossroads of Gyeongbu railway, Honam railway, Gyeongbu Expressway, and Honam Expressway. Within the...

, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

3:1 (2:0) Win 2002 FIFA World Cup
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was implemented. Brazil won the tournament for a record fifth time, beating Germany 2–0...


Honours

Polonia Warszawa
Polonia Warszawa
Polonia Warsaw is a Polish sports club with football and basketball teams, founded in 1911, and is the oldest such club in Warsaw, where it is based.- History :...

  • Ekstraklasa: 1999–2000
  • Polish SuperCup
    Polish SuperCup
    The Polish SuperCup in football is an annually held match between the champion of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winner. To this date the Polish SuperCup has been played out 21 times with the Polish Cup winner taking the trophy 13 times, while the Ekstraklasa champions had won the trophy 8 times...

    : 2000
  • Polish League Cup
    Ekstraklasa Cup
    The Ekstraklasa Cup was an elimination tournament for Polish football clubs who play in the Polish 1st Division Ekstraklasa. The first ever Ekstraklasa Cup was held in 1952 in which Wawel Kraków came out victorious over Cracovia Kraków with the final score being 5-1. Two tournements were also held...

    : 2000
    • Polish footballer of the year;2004.

Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in Athens. Founded in 1908, they play in the Super League Greece and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Greek football history. They have won 20 Greek Championships and 17 Greek Cups.Panathinaikos is the most...

  • Superleague Greece: 2003–04
  • Greek Cup
    Greek football Cup
    The Greek Football Cup , commonly known as the Greek Cup or for sponsorship reasons the Football Cup OPAP, is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation....

    : 2003–04

External links

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