Legenda FCST. Chidi Odiah

Legends of FC Sheriff. Part three. Chidi Odia-a Nigerian defender, was one of the best foreign players who ever played for our club. If Chidi was in the #FIFA21 series among the Legends of our club, we would rate him with a rating of 85.

Chidi Odia was born in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt as the sixth child in the family. As a child, he spent all his free time outside playing soccer. At one of the yard tournaments, he was noticed by representatives of the Eagle Seed club (now the Dolphins).

Chidi Odia made his first-team debut at the age of 15, which is not uncommon for Nigeria. After playing two years, Odia moved to Julius Berger,

where he spent only six months, but lost enough to win the gold medal of the Nigerian champion.

Chidi did not even think about the subsequent offer from Moldova. For him, like other players, it was important to get to Europe, and then try to move on. At Sheriff, Odia immediately became a Foundation player, helping the club win four League titles, two cups, the Moldovan super Cup and the first Commonwealth Cup in the club's history.

In January 2003, the Nigerian defender drew the attention of CSKA. For a year, the army negotiated, and then made the transition.

In the first season, Chidi Odia became the main player of CSKA. Together with Sergey Ignashevich, Alexey Berezutsky and Deivydas Shemberas, he made up the four defense of the army club. Odia played on the left flank of the defense, and at the same time connected well to attacks, fortunately, with speed and endurance, he always had everything in order.

The following season becomes the "Golden" for CSKA, the Team wins the championship and the Cup of the country, and becomes the first Russian club to win the European Cup. In that season, Odia played 49 matches, scoring 3 goals. Everything was going great, but injuries interfered. Over the next two years, Odia played only 13 games for CSKA. In the 2008 season, he recovered, but then again spent more time in the infirmary than on the field. All this led to the fact that in February 2012, the player terminated the agreement with CSKA by mutual consent. At that time, Odia was not even 30 years old.

For the national team of Nigeria, Chidi Odia joined for 5 and a half years, played 27 matches for it, scored 1 goal. Twice, in 2006 and 2010 (the 2008 Odia tournament was missed due to injury), participated in the African Cup of Nations, and both times the Nigerians lost in the semifinals.

In 2010, Chidi Odia played in the world Cup for the only time in his career. As a member of the Nigerian national team, he took part in all 3 matches, but the Nigerians did not leave the group at that time.

$ 40,000 – this is the amount that the "Sheriff" cost the transfer of Chidi Odia. CSKA paid 30 times more for it.

Chidi Odia was also remembered for celebrating goals-he portrayed a dog relieving himself. Not to say that it is too original, but, in General, not usually.

After leaving CSKA, he was treated in Belgium for three years, after which he tried to return to big-time football. Unfortunately, it didn't work out.