Izuchukwu OkosiIt’s Christmas Day – December 25. The day marks the birth of Jesus Christ and Christians all over the world celebrate Him.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to wonder what several sports stars born on December 25 do with their birthday bash on Christmas Day?
Prime Business Africa presents a list of athletes who are born on Christmas day and what they have achieved in the game:
1. Emmanuel Amuneke
Former Super Eagles winger Emmanuel Amuneke was born on 25 December 1970 and was part of Nigeria’s 1994 Africa Cup of Nations triumph in Tunisia. He was in the team to the FIFA World Cup in USA same year where the team reached the round of 16.
Amuneke won the African Footballer of the Year gong that year and in 1996 scored the decisive winner for the U-23 Eagles in the final of the football tournament of the Olympics in Atlanta against Argentina.
Amuneke played for clubs like Zamalek (Egypt), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal) and Barcelona (Spain). He led Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets to winning the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile. He has also been in the Technical Study Group of FIFA.
The one-time Julius Berger star has also coached the Tanzanian national team.
2. Chioma Ajunwa
The year 1996 will forever be remembered by Nigerian sports faithful as the ‘golden year.’ Reason: Nigeria won historic laurels at the Olympic Games. Its football team became the first from a black nation to win the tournament but Chioma Ajunwa created another piece of history.
The police woman won the gold medal, the first by an individual from Nigeria at the Games in the Long jump event in a record 7.12, +0.9 (wind assisted) seconds.
Ajunwa won silver at the World Indoor Championship in Lieven, France and she twice finished in the top 8 place at the Championship.
She was also a medalist in several indoor competitions.
It is worth noting that Ajunwa started her sporting career as a footballer. She was part of the Super Falcons side that played in the maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 hosted by China.
3. Ogenyi Onazi
Former Super Eagles midfielder Ogenyi Onazi was born on Christmas day, 25 December 1992 in the city of Jos albeit his parents are from Benue state.
The defensive midfielder who currently plays in the Italian Serie D for Casertana, precious played for some top flight European clubs like SS Lazio.
Top of his footballing achievement was being in Nigeria’s squad that won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations under coach Stephen Keshi. He was also in the Eagles team to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Onazi according to Transfermarkt is worth €200,000.
4. Nduka Ozokwo
Enugu state-born Nduka Morrisson Ozokwo is the son to the popular actress Patience Ozokwo (alias Mama G) and was born on 25 December 1988.
Nduka is the last child of the Nollywood legend although she had other children she adopted as she revealed to Prime Business Africa’s Izuchukwu Okosi in an exclusive interview in 2005.
Ozokwo captained the Nigerian U-20 side, the Flying Eagles to the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada in 2007.
He last played for Turkish Super Lig side, Ankaragucu.
Three notable international sporting stars born on Christmas day include Brazilian soccer winger, Jairzinho.
Born in 1944 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jairzinho had 81 caps for the Brazilian national side and played 416 league games for his club Botafogo FC.
Chris Kamara was an English midfielder who played for Swindon Town FC and Brentford FC.
After his football career, he became a football commentator for Sky Sports. He was born in Middlesbrough, England in 1957.
Serhiy Novikov was a Russian judoka who won the Olympic gold heavyweight in the 1976 Games in Montreal, Canada.
Novikov was born in Moscow, Russia on this day in 1949.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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