Christian Obodo

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Christian Obodo
Personal information
Date of birth	May 11, 1984 (1984-05-11) (age 24)
Place of birth	Warri, Nigeria
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Udinese
Youth clubs
	Plateau United
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2001-2004 2004-2005 2005-present	Perugia Fiorentina Udinese	62 (1) 33 (2) 58 (6)
National team
	Nigeria	?? (?)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Christian Obodo (born May 11, 1984 in Lagos, Nigeria) is a football defensive midfielder from Nigeria. Christian currently plays for Italian Serie A side Udinese Calcio.

[edit] Football career

He was plucked from relative obscurity in the Nigerian league, playing for Plateau United before he became one of the hottest properties in the Italian Serie A where he had a brilliant season at Perugia. He scored his first ever Serie A goal in a 2-2 draw against Inter at the end of the season 2003.

Fiorentina signed him as a key part of their renovation as the team came back to Serie A in 2004. Fiorentina nearly failed to protect their place in Serie A, but Obodo rarely one of the highly rated player as Fiorentina only bought half the registration rights, La Viola and Perugia forced to make a blind auction to decide the future of the player, as Perugia won at last but sold him to Udinese.^[1]

Obodo played his first UEFA Champions League with Le zebrette in 2005-06 season. Partnered with Sulley Muntari, they formed a strong midfielder role up until Muntaris exit for Portsmouth F.C. in 2007.

[edit] International career

He made his long-awaited debut for the Super Eagles in the LG Cup tournament featuring in the games versus Ghana and Cameroon. He also made a substitute appearance in the prestigious Brazil friendly, surprisingly playing as a striker. He has not yet shown his true mettle when donning the national jersey, although he has also appeared in Nigeria's 4-1 win over Malawi in an ANC 2004 qualifier. b mmjm

[edit] References

v • d • e Udinese Calcio – current squad 1 Saulo • 2 Zapata • 3 Gyan Asamoah • 4 D'Agostino • 5 Obodo • 6 Coda • 7 Pepe • 8 Dossena • 10 Di Natale • 11 Pinzi • 14 Candreva • 15 Isla • 16 Laurito • 17 Colombo • 19 Felipe • 20 Mesto • 21 Zápotočný • 22 Handanovič • 23 Eremenko • 24 Luković • 25 Chimenti • 27 Quagliarella • 29 De Martino • 30 Đurić • 32 Ferronetti • 34 Gotti • 83 Floro Flores • 86 Siqueira • 88 İnler • Coach: Marino