Sunday ("Sunny") Oyarekhua was a Nigerian international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Football career

A career

policeman A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

, Oyarekhua was discovered by the national team's coaches while playing for the Police F.C. of Lagos. Oyarekhua scored 17 times in 28 appearances for

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 ...

between 1971 and 1976. He scored on his debut, a friendly match against the Upper Volta in 1971. He was the leading scorer on Nigeria's

1973 All-Africa Games The 2nd All-Africa Games – Lagos 1973 were played from January 7, 1973, to January 18, 1973, in Lagos, Nigeria. After the success of the first African Games, the organizing bodies awarded the second games to Bamako, Mali to be held in 1969. A ...

winning squad. Oyarekhua also played for Nigeria at the 1976 African Cup of Nations finals in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. He recently retired as the Assistant Commissioner of the

Osun State Osun State (; yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Ọ̀ṣun), occasionally known as the State of Osun by the state government, is a state in southwestern Nigeria; bounded to the east by Ekiti and Ondo states, to the north by Kwara State, to the south by Ogun S ...

Police.

References

External links

Nigeriasports.comGuardian, "Adieu Haruna Ilerika"
* Living people Nigerian men's footballers Nigeria men's international footballers 1976 African Cup of Nations players African Games gold medalists for Nigeria African Games medalists in football Men's association football forwards Year of birth missing (living people) {{Nigeria-footy-forward-stub