Emmanuel
Amuneke (born December 25, 1970 in Eze Obodo) is a former
football midfielder from Nigeria. He played many international
matches for Nigeria, and was part of the team that participated
in the 1994 World Cup and won the 1994 African Nations Cup. He
also helped to win the Olympic gold medal in 1996.
In his early career Amuneke won league titles in Nigeria and
Egypt. In 1994 he signed for Sporting Clube de Portugal, and
became popular after scoring a winning goal against club rivals
SL Benfica. He was bought by Spanish giants Barcelona for
$3,600,000 during the 96/97 season, but only fulfilled the
season before sidelined by injuries. Knee problems even kept him
away from the 1998 World Cup. Amuneke never recovered fully, and
retired after playing a final season in Jordan.
On Spanish and Catalan television he now appears in an advert
that jokes about his own lack of success at Barcelona. He plays
the role of an entrepreneur setting up a business selling his
football skills video. The advert for his video says "watch his
best move over and over again", following which there are
repeated clips of him about to take a throw-in. The advert then
announces a free gift, a "Dance with Amuneke" video, in which we
see him dancing, without great expertise, in a disco.
Contrary to popular belief, his name is Amuneke, not Amunike. |
