Jerry Uche Mbakogu (born 1 October 1992) is 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 plays as a striker or winger for Italian club

Legnago Legnago () is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Verona, Veneto, northern Italy, with population (2012) of 25,439. It is located on the Adige river, about from Verona. Its fertile land produces crops of rice, other cereals, sugar, and toba ...

Club career

Padova

Mbakogu was born in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

, but moved to Italy at an early age to Scorzè Peseggia. In 2006, aged 14, he joined

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

's youth setup, and progressed through the ranks. In 2009 he was loaned to Palermo and assigned to the ''Primavera'' squad. On 28 August 2010, Mbakogu made his

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

debut, starting in a 1–1 draw at Crotone.

Juve Stabia (loan)

Three days after making his debut, he was loaned to

side Juve Stabia. Mbakogu spent three years on loan at Juve Stabia, including winning the Coppa Italia Lega Pro the 2010–11 season, scoring 13 goals in 71 games, before returning to Padova.

Carpi (loan)

On 2 September 2013, Mbakogu joined Carpi on loan. Mbakogu helped Carpi to their highest ever league finish, scoring seven times in 28 appearances, as the ''Biancorossi'' ended the season in 12th.

Carpi

On 23 July 2014, Mbakogu moved to Carpi in a permanent transfer, signing a five-year contract with the

side. At the end of the 2014–15 season he was named in the Serie B 'Team of the season' after scoring 15 league goals in 30 games helping the club to a historic promotion to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

. After promotion, Mbakogu stayed at Carpi, with Carpi competing in Serie A for the 2015–16 season, which saw Mbakogu feature 24 times, scoring twice during the season for the club, with Serie A goals against

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

and

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during the season.

Krylya Sovetov loan

On 10 August 2016, Mbakogu was loaned to Krylya Sovetov in the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

on a season long loan deal, with a deal in place for him to join permanently for 2 million pounds were he to impress over the course of the season. He made his debut on 21 August 2016, in a 0–0 draw against

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (''FC Lokomotiv Moskva'', russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three oc ...

. He played a further six times for the side without scoring. After manager

Franky Vercauteren François Vercauteren (born 28 October 1956), nicknamed "The Little Prince", is a Belgian former footballer who played as a left winger. He is currently unemployed after most recently managing Antwerp. Club career Vercauteren made his first ...

was sacked on 1 November 2016, Mbakogu did not play under his successor

Vadim Skripchenko Vadim Viktorovich Skripchenko (russian: Вадим Викторович Скрипченко; be, Вадзім Віктаравіч Скрыпчанка; born 26 November 1975) is a Belarusian professional football coach and a former player. He is ...

before returning to Carpi.

Return to Carpi

However, in January 2017 Carpi recalled Mbakogu to the club and he returned to training on 1 February 2017, upon his return, he went on to score 5 times in 20 appearances for the club, helping Carpi reach the

playoffs, as they narrowly missed out on promotion at the expense of Benevento to gain promotion to

after losing the two legged playoff final 1–0 on aggregate. With Carpi performing well in Serie B, and Mbakogu scoring 8 goals in his first 22 games of the season in all competitions during the 2017–18 season, in January 2018, Mbakogu was subject of interest from English side

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

. On 31 January 2018, Leeds United agreed an 'option' with Carpi to sign the player at the end of the 2017–18 season should they wish to execute the right. He picked up a knee injury for Carpi in February 2018, and was sent to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

for medical treatment on the injury. In May 2018, Carpi President Stefan Bonacini said Leeds had until the 30 June to exercise the option to sign Mbakogu. On 20 June, it was reported that Leeds were negotiating the transfer fee. The transfer to Leeds failed to materialise, and on 6 August Mbakogu was released from his Carpi contract by mutual consent.

Return to Padova

On 8 January 2019, he returned to his first club

until the end of the 2018–19 season. He scored twice on his Padova debut on 20 January in a 3–0 defeat of

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

Cosenza

On 31 January 2021 he joined

club Cosenza.

Apollon Smyrnis

On 19 February 2022, Mbakogu signed with Apollon Smyrnis in Greece.

Serie C

In the summer of 2022, Mbagoku joined

Gubbio Gubbio () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria). It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennines. History The city's origins are very ancient. ...

who compete in Serie C, Group B. On 31 January 2023, Mbagoku moved to Triestina, who were bottom of the table in

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

. On 7 August 2023, Mbakogu signed a one-year contract with

International career

With Mbakogu applying for Italian dual citizenship for the summer of 2018. He declared he was still wanting to represent the country of his birth

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

at international level. He received

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

citizenship towards the end of April 2018, making his eligible for a European passport and if he was to change allegiance the

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

national side. As of September 2022, he has yet to receive a call-up to the Italian national side.

Honours

Juve Stabia * Coppa Italia Lega Pro: 2010-2011 Carpi *

: 2014–15 * Serie B Playoff finalist: 2016–17 Individual * Serie B Team of the season: 2014–15

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mbakogu, Jerry 1992 births Living people Footballers from Lagos Nigerian men's footballers Italian men's footballers Nigerian emigrants to Italy Naturalised citizens of Italy Men's association football forwards Calcio Padova players SS Juve Stabia players PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara players AC Carpi players NK Osijek players Cosenza Calcio players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players AS Gubbio 1910 players US Triestina Calcio 1918 players FC Legnago Salus players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Russian Premier League players Croatian Football League players Super League Greece players Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Greece