Norwegian-Nigerian Striker – What Went Wrong For Chuma Anene?:: All Nigeria Soccer

It does not happen frequently that a player of Nigerian origin decides to represent the country from Nordics. However, we have an example of Chuma Anene who is representing Norway.

The 27-year-old forward who was considered to play at a high level did not live up to expectations based on him and he has already left several clubs.

What really went wrong for Chuma Anene in football? Did he lack determination, discipline, or he was at the wrong place at the wrong time? In this article, we will talk about this player.

He grew up in the town of Holmlia, a suburb of Oslo, and from childhood, he played football in the club Holmlia SK, where Norwegian football players of African descent like Mathis Bolly and Adama Diomande played alongside him.

Known for his height and excellent physique, Anene was different from his teammates and possessed a relatively good technique

Club career

At 16, he was invited to the Norwegian club Valerenga and he made his debut in the club in the season of 2011-2012, on November 27, 2011, where he scored his first goal and before the season of 2012 signed the first professional contract with this club.

He spent 2012 on loan at the Ullensaker/Kisa, and in 2013 he joined Stabæk on a loan deal.

In 2014 he moved to Ullensaker/Kisa on a permanent deal but did not establish himself, scoring only 2 goals in 14 appearances and soon moved to the Macedonian club Rabotnichki, with whom he played in the Europa League, reaching the playoff stage, where he participated in meetings with Kazan Rubin (1-1, 0-1). In both games, Anene provided a lackluster performance and rarely created any chances for the team.

At some point scouts considered him to be one of the hottest prospects in Norway. Due to his strong physical appearance, he was considered to create a lot of problems for defenders and represent Norway at the international level.

At some point, he even attracted the attention of the gambling industry in Norway which is developing in the recent period with incredible steps.

However, due to his inconsistency, he hardly managed to provide any value, which was very heartbreaking for everyone.

On August 31, 2015, in the status of a free agent, he signed a two-year contract with the Russian side Amkar Perm.

In the debut match on September 20 against Zenit, he scored his first goal for the club. In total, he played 24 matches for Amkar and scored only two goals, which is not a decent stat for a football player playing as a forward.

On March 13, 2017, Chuma Anene moved to the Kairat club in Almaty. The amount of transfer to Kazakhstan amounted to 1 million euros, although later Kairat denied the information about a million euros, but also did not announce its official amount.

In Kairat, he was mainly a substitute and scored only 4 goals in 20 championship games. He also came from the bench in 4 games of the Kazakhstan Cup won by Kairat.

He also played as a substitute in 4 qualifying matches of the Europa League. In 2018, he stepped up a little and scored the same 4 goals in 9 matches.

But the summer transfer window was pushed back from the team in connection with the acquisition of new foreign players.

When Chuma Anene was released in early September 2018 he became a free agent and joined the Danish club Midtjylland from Herning, signing a contract for 4 years.

But to gain physical fitness, he was sent for three months before the New Year to be trained in Fredericia in the Danish first division from the city of the same name.

In August 2019 he joined Crew Alexandra on loan and made a debut when he replaced Chris Porter in an EFL cup game against Aston Villa. He scored seven goals in 28 games for Crewe.

His loan spell has ended and right now he is back to Midtjylland but it seems likely he will leave this team as well.

What went wrong for him?

If we take a look at his achievements at the club level, they are also very modest. With Stabæk he was a silver medalist in 2013 in the First Division.

At Rabotnichki, he was also a silver medalist in 2015, but in the same year, his team managed to win the Macedonia Cup. With Kairat he also got second place in 2017 and like Rabotnichki was the winner of the Kazakhstan Cup.

The main problem for the Norwegian-Nigerian is his inconsistency. For the position of a striker, he was not prolific and barely scored goals. His lack of determination and hard effort had a great toll and his level deteriorated.

Even if we take a national team he has not made a professional debut yet. Representing Norway at all age levels, he did not make a breakthrough to the main team.

Perhaps it was better for him to choose Nigeria, where he could have had better chances.

Chuma Anene is not a youngster anymore. Even though he is 27, and has 4-5 years of playing at a high level, his lack of hard work prevailed.

It is unlikely that he will be an example of a late bloomer but who knows – things change rapidly in the world of football.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : crewealex.net