Former Nigeria forward, John Chukwudi Utaka, has been appointed Youth Team coach at his former French Ligue 1 side Montpellier.
His football club on Tuesday disclosed this in a statement on their Facebook page, in which they congratulated the 38-year-old on the appointment.
The statement read: ‘It was with great pleasure that I learned of the appointment of John Chukwudi Utaka as a youth team coach in Montpellier HSc of France. Allow me to congratulate you most warmly both on my behalf and on behalf of the John Utaka Football Academy family.”
Utaka was a player of Montpellier from 2011–2013, scoring 12 goals in 68 matches on his second stint in Ligue 1, having previously played at RC Lens and Rennes before joining Portsmouth, where he lifted the English FA Cup alongside compatriot and Nigeria team-mate, Nwankwo Kanu.
He started his professional career at Rangers International before going on to also excel as a winger at El Mokawloon, Ismaily Al-Sadd, Sivasspor, Nogoom El Mostakbal, and Aswan, Sedan.
He retired in 2018 and has been massively involved in grassroots football through Utaka Football Academy.
Utaka scored six goals in 49 appearances for Super Eagles between 2001 and 2012. He participated in the 2002 and 2010 World Cup finals and started four of Nigeria’s six games in the 2006 African Cup of Nations, in which Nigeria finished in third place.
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