Elkanah Bollington Onyeali (7 June 1939 – 11 August 2008) was a Nigerian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a centre forward for

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

, scoring 8 goals in 13 games in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

during the 1960–61 season. Onyeali was one of the first African players to play in England, and the first black player to play professionally on

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

. He came to England in 1960, to study at Birkenhead Technical College, and was offered a contract by local club Tranmere Rovers. However, he was released after one season as the new manager did not want to accommodate a part-time player. Both before and after coming to England, he also played for the Nigeria national team, scoring 11 goals in as many games between 1959 and 1961. Between September 1961 and October 1962, Oneyali played for Prescot Cables whilst studying at Liverpool University and was the club's top scorer during the 1961–62 season. He returned to Nigeria at the end of his studies. He later studied in the United States before returning to Nigeria, where he coached teams including the Trojans and the Spartans. Onyeali died in August 2008, aged 69.

References

1939 births 2008 deaths Nigerian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Nigeria men's international footballers Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Holyhead Town F.C. players Prescot Cables F.C. players English Football League players Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in England Sportspeople from Port Harcourt {{Nigeria-footy-forward-stub