Innocent Ufoma Melkam (born 26 May 1981) 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

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 ...

Career

In July 1999, Melkam joined SG Wattenscheid 09, a Regionaliga club in Germany where he played for two years. In 2001, he left for

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

's reserve Oberliga team and earned ten caps with the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

team. With the reserve team, he played 76 games and scored 14 goals. In January 2005, he joined SV Langenberg and remained until May 2005. He then moved over to

Hammer SpVg Hammer SpVg is a German association football club from the city of Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is part of a larger sports club with some 1,500 members in departments for aikido, judo, cheerleading, fitness and dance, gymnastics, handball, ...

(2005–2007), whom he helped gain promotion into the Oberliga in 2006. After the 2006–07 season, Melkam moved to the

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 ...

, but was unfortunate because the club Hohhot Black Horse of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

was banned by the Chinese FA for rules violation. He later made a brief switch to Shanghai East Asia F.C. (China League One) in February 2008. Melkam returned to Germany in January 2009 and played a half season for SUS Niederbonsfeld.

Personal life

Melkam was born in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

, Nigeria. He holds both Nigerian and German citizenship. His elder brother

Gabriel Melkam Gabriel Chukwuwunzo Melkam (born 13 March 1980) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a left back or midfielder. Club career In April 2007, Melkam was banned three matches and fined 5000 RMB for misconduct for showing "All ...

is a left sided midfielder who played for Changchun Yatai in China.

References

External links

* * Living people 1981 births Men's association football midfielders Nigerian men's footballers German men's footballers 2. Bundesliga players Karlsruher SC II players Karlsruher SC players SG Wattenscheid 09 players Hammer SpVg players Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate men's footballers in China {{Nigeria-footy-midfielder-stub