Gabriel Chukwuwunzo Melkam (born 13 March 1980) is a Nigerian former 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 le ...

who played as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

In April 2007, Melkam was banned three matches and fined 5000

RMB The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

for misconduct for showing "All Referee of Chinese Super League were cheat." on his T-shirt after the match against Henan Jianye, to revenge the serious mistake of referee on the match

Xiamen Lanshi Xiamen Blue Lions Football Club () is a defunct Chinese football club, which was located in Xiamen, Fujian. It was founded in the 1996 league season and their nickname was the "Blue Lions" while they played in the Xiamen Stadium. Throughout their ...

against Shanghai Shenhua. Melkam transferred to Guangzhou Evergrande in 2010. He made his

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

debut for Guangzhou against

Beijing BIT Beijing Institute of Technology Football Club (Simplified Chinese: 北京理工大学足球俱乐部) or simply BIT is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League One division under licence from the Chinese ...

on 3 April.

International career

Melkam finished runner-up at the 1999

African Youth Championship The U-20 Africa Cup of Nations also called TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsoring reason (previously known as the African Youth Championship or the African U-20 Championship) is the main international youth football competition ...

and quarter-finalist at

1999 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Nigeria between 3 and 24 April 1999. This was the 12th edition of the tournament. Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. :1.Teams that ...

. Melkam was included in the Nigerian squad for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

qualifier in Zimbabwe on 5 September. The tie marked the debut of the then-

Hansa Rostock FC Hansa Rostock () is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The club is also called as "the cog" because of its club crest. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the forme ...

defender Melkam, who narrowly missed out on a place in Nigeria's 2004 Cup of Nations squad.

Personal life

Melkam's younger brother

Innocent Melkam Innocent Ufoma Melkam (born 26 May 1981) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Career In July 1999, Melkam joined SG Wattenscheid 09, a Regionaliga club in Germany where he played for two years. In 2001, he lef ...

played football in the German lower leagues.

Honours

Guangzhou Evergrande *

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

References

External links

* 1980 births Living people Nigerian footballers Nigeria under-20 international footballers Stationery Stores F.C. players Kwara United F.C. players SG Wattenscheid 09 players Karlsruher SC players FC Hansa Rostock players Sportfreunde Siegen players Association football fullbacks Xiamen Blue Lions players Changchun Yatai F.C. players Guangzhou F.C. players Qingdao Hainiu F.C. (1990) players Chinese Super League players China League One players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate footballers in China {{Nigeria-footy-defender-stub