Sani Haruna Kaita (born 2 May 1986) 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 defensive midfielder.

Club career

Kaita was born in Kano, Nigeria. He joined

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

in the 2005–06 season from Kano Pillars FC. Kaita moved to AS Monaco FC in September 2008. Kaita left Monaco on 13 January 2009 and joined FC Kuban Krasnodar on loan through 31 December 2009. On 25 August 2009, Lokomotiv Moscow signed the Nigerian midfielder on loan from Monaco until December. On 25 February 2010

Alania Vladikavkaz FC Alania Vladikavkaz (russian: "Алания" (Владикавказ), os, Футболон клуб "Алани" (Дзæуджыхъæу)) is a Russian football team from Vladikavkaz. Founded in 1921, the club played in the Soviet Top League ...

signed the midfielder on loan. On 31 May 2010

FC Metalist Kharkiv Football Club Metalist Kharkiv ( uk, Футбо́льний Клуб Металі́ст Ха́рків ) is a Ukrainian football club based in Kharkiv that plays in the Ukrainian First League during the 2021–22 season. It was revived 5 years ...

signed Kaita on loan. On the last day of the 2011 winter transfer window, Kaita moved to Greek Superleague side

Iraklis Gymnasticos Syllogos Iraklis ( el, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Ηρακλής, en, Gymnastics Club Heracles), commonly referred to as Iraklis, is a Greek multi-sports club based in Thessaloniki. The club was founded in 1908 as "Mace ...

on a six-month loan deal. In April 2014, Kaita was back in Nigeria training with

Enyimba F.C. Enyimba Football Club or simply known as Enyimba, is a Nigerian football club based in the city of Aba which plays in the Nigerian Professional Football League. Their name means ''People's Elephant'' in Igbo language and is also the nickname u ...

He made his debut against Sharks F.C. on 7 May and spent a three-month loan with the Aba side. The loan was part of the

League Management Company The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) is the highest level of the Nigerian football league system, for the Nigerian club-football championships. The Nigerian league has suffered, like many others, from the financial impact and dwindl ...

's elite initiative for foreign based professionals. He signed for Ifeanyi Ubah in the Nigeria premier league for the season 2015, but played only few matches for the team. In 2016, he joined a Finnish club,

JS Hercules JS Hercules is an association football club established in Oulu, Finland, in 1998. The team started at the lowest level of the Finnish league system and was playing in the Third Division until promoted to Finnish Second Division, Kakkonen, for ...

, which was coached by his former national team coach

Daniel Amokachi Daniel Owefin Amokachi (born 30 December 1972) is a Nigerian football manager and former professional footballer and a member of the dubious goals panel for the Premier League. As a player he was a forward who notably played in the Premier Lea ...

. For the 2017 season, Kaita signed for Veikkausliiga team RoPS. He made his debut for the team on 28 January 2017 in a

Suomen Cup The Finnish Cup ( fi, Suomen cup; sv, Finlands cup) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the ...

3–0 win against

HauPa Haukiputaan Pallo ry (abbreviated HauPa) is a football club from Haukipudas, Oulu, Finland. The club was formed in 1993 and their home ground is at the Haukiputaan keskuskenttä. The men's first team got promoted after 2010 season and currently ...

. He scored his first goal on 22 April against

Ilves Tampere Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the cit ...

in the 79th minute, after being brought in three minutes earlier for injured team captain

Antti Okkonen Antti Okkonen (born 6 June 1982) is a former footballer who played in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium. In addition, he represented the national team. He was a defensive midfielder. Career Okkonen started youth career in Oulun Luistinseura. ...

. At the end of the year he was released after featuring sporadically in the second half of the season. After the season, his signing was publicly called a poor bargain by club president Risto Niva.

International career

Kaita caught the eye of Sparta when playing all seven matches for Nigeria U-20 at the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup in the Netherlands. He was also a member of the senior Nigeria national team making his debut in a 3–0 friendly loss against Romania in November 2005. Kaita was sent off in a match against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

on 17 June 2010, in their second

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

match for kicking

Vasilis Torosidis Vasilis Torosidis (Greek: Βασίλης Τοροσίδης, born 10 June 1985) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Club career Skoda Xanthi Torosidis made his senior debut for Skoda Xanthi on 19 April 2003 at ...

. This made him the first Nigerian player to be sent off in a World Cup match. Greece went on to score their first World Cup goals, and win their first match in the World Cup.

Honours

Nigeria *

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

: bronze medalist

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

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 ...

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

: runner-up

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Nigeria U20 * FIFA U-20 World Cup: runner-up

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

External links

*
Player profile
– Sparta Rotterdam

– Voetbal International *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaita, Sani 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Kano Association football midfielders Nigerian footballers Kano Pillars F.C. players Sparta Rotterdam players AS Monaco FC players FC Kuban Krasnodar players FC Lokomotiv Moscow players FC Spartak Vladikavkaz players SC Tavriya Simferopol players FC Metalist Kharkiv players Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. players Eredivisie players Ligue 1 players Super League Greece players Cypriot First Division players Veikkausliiga players Nigeria international footballers Nigeria under-20 international footballers Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Nigeria Olympic silver medalists for Nigeria 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2010 Africa Cup of Nations players Nigerian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Monaco Expatriate footballers in France Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in Russia Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate footballers in Greece Enyimba F.C. players Russian Premier League players 2010 FIFA World Cup players Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Expatriate footballers in Finland Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Ukrainian Premier League players Moldovan Super Liga players JS Hercules players