On this day in 1986, former Sunderland defender and loanee Nedum Onuoha was born in Warri, Nigeria.
Onuoha would move to Manchester with his family as a young boy where he joined Manchester City’s academy at the age of 10. He was a regular in their reserve team and became a highly thought of prospect for City. The defender would play for the academy between 1996-2004 when, in his last year, he would make his professional debut in the League Cup against Arsenal. He then quickly made his Premier League debut against Norwich.
Despite playing as centre back for the academy, the Nigerian would be played at right back in his first few professional games for the Blues. In his debut season, Onuoha racked up 18 appearances in total and received high praise from City’s manager Kevin Keegan. To cap off a great debut season, Onuoha won the award for the club's Young Player of the Year. His appearances the next season would drop from 18 to 12 as his career at Man City was riddled with injury and he could never truly cement himself into the first team squad.
So after six years of being in and out of the starting XI, Onuoha joined Sunderland on loan in August 2010. It was intended to give him some definitive game time if he could keep fit, and build up his fitness again. Two days later the African defender would make his debut on the opening day of the season at the Stadium of Light against Birmingham City, alongside other debutants Simon Mignolet, Titus Bramble and Ahmed Elmohamady. Sunderland took a 2-0 lead in the first half, although Lee Cattermole would be sent off just before the end of the first half. But we ended up drawing 2-2 against the Brummies as Steve Bruce’s side could not hold out being a man down. Nedum would be a regular starter for Bruce and impressed Lads fans in the first months of the 2010/11.
One of his most notable moments in red and white came at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, in which Onuoha would dribble superbly passed the Chelsea defenders and into the box, where he would slot it past Petr Cech to make it 1-0 to the Black Cats. This was his first and only goal for the club in his 32 appearances. This goal, along with strikes from Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck, would seal a monumental 3-0 victory for Sunderland who left the Capital with all three points.
His presence in the first team would continue until December of 2010 where he suffered a hamstring injury. As a result, Onuoha missed three games and would not play again until the turn of the New Year. The Nigerian’s first game back was actually against the Mags in a 1-1 draw at the SoL. The return would just be for that Derby though, as he would again suffer another injury this time in his calf. He would be missing until April, where he helped SAFC finish tenth in the Premier League. Despite impressing earlier on in the season, Sunderland decided against getting the African on a permanent transfer - most likely because of his recurring theme of injuries.
After Sunderland, Nedum Onuoha would go back to City before joining QPR permanently in January of 2012 to reunite with Mark Hughes. Onuoha stayed at QPR for six years, sticking with them through relegation to the Championship and making over 200 appearances for the club. He would leave to join Salt Lake City in the MLS for two years, seeing out his career before announcing his retirement in 2020.
