Chris Kamara

Chris Kamara

Personal information
Full name	Christopher Kamara
Date of birth	25 December 1957 (1957-12-25)
Place of birth	Middlesbrough, Teesside, England
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Defender/Midfielder
Youth career
1975	Royal Navy
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1975–1977	Portsmouth	63	(7)
1977–1981	Swindon Town	147	(21)
1981	Portsmouth	11	(0)
1981–1985	Brentford	152	(28)
1985–1988	Swindon Town	87	(6)
1988–1990	Stoke City	60	(5)
1990-1991	Leeds United	20	(1)
1991–1993	Luton Town	49	(0)
1992–1993	→ Sheffield United (loan)	8	(0)
1993	→ Middlesbrough (loan)	5	(0)
1993–1994	Sheffield United	16	(0)
1994–1995	Bradford City	23	(3)
2012–	Welshpool	1	(0)
Total		642	(71)
Teams managed
1995–1998	Bradford City
1998	Stoke City
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Chris Kamara (born 25 December 1957 in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire) is a retired English footballer. He ended his playing career in 1995 and last managed a club in 1998. He is now a presenter and football analyst on Sky Sports.

Playing career

Kamara was born in Middlesbrough to a father of Sierra Leonean roots. After serving with the Royal Navy, Kamara joined Portsmouth in 1975, beginning a professional footballing career that saw him move between nine clubs, scoring 71 goals in 641 league appearances. The clubs he played for included Brentford, Luton Town and Leeds United - where he won the Division 2 Championship title.

Kamara became the first English player to be convicted of assault for an on-pitch incident, after breaking Shrewsbury Town player Jim Melrose's cheekbone with a punch straight after the final whistle of a game in 1988.

Kamara spent short spells as manager of Stoke City and Bradford City, which saw him nearly relegated with the former but gaining promotion with the latter. He steered The Bantams to promotion in the 1995-96 season after winning 2–0 in the play-off final against Notts County.

Chris is a great friend of Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson with whom he grew up on Middlesbrough's Park End council estate. He and Gibson regularly attended matches together.

Career statistics

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
Bradford City	27 November 1995	6 January 1998	122	40	26	46	32.79
Stoke City	22 January 1998	8 April 1998	14	1	5	8	7.14
Total			136	41	31	54	30.15

Commentator and presenter

Kamara presents Sky Sports' Goals On Sunday show and provides additional commentary on some of Sky's televised matches. He also appears on the Soccer Saturday programme, where he usually appears over live video link providing brief updates on whichever match he is watching. He is well-known on the programme for his highly excitable nature, propensity for comical gaffes and tendency to come out with unusual sayings that baffle host Jeff Stelling and the other studio pundits, such as his observation that the Tottenham players were "fighting like beavers" in their match against Arsenal. In one of his more famous on-air gaffes, he failed to realise that Anthony Vanden Borre had been sent off in the game he was watching between Portsmouth and Blackburn. He has also coined the popular phrase "Unbelievable Jeff!".

Kamara also guest-stars on Soccer AM where he brings live link ups hours before games from various stadia. Since the beginning of the 2010-2011 season he has appeared weekly on Soccer AM fronting a challenge sketch titled "Kammy do it". This involves him going on various challenges, at the request of the viewers, across the UK against professionals or other celebrities. So far his activities have included clay pigeon shooting, weight lifting and challenging Bolton Wanderers manager Owen Coyle to a game of table tennis. Kamara was formerly the chairman of the panel which chooses the Football League Championship Manager of the Month award, but left the role for the beginning of the 2009-2010 season.

Change of surname

Before the 2010 World Cup, Kamara changed his name by deed poll to Chris Cabanga in response to a Facebook campaign supported by 20,000 people. Cabanga is an African word meaning ‘to think’ or ‘imagine’. Before the World cup UK-based neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis conducted a number of experiments into the field of positive thinking. In the experiments, conducted at Sussex University March 2010, Dr Lewis found ‘Cabanga’ to be a particularly resonant word. Many England fans supported the Facebook campaign in the hope that it could help England win the World Cup.

Computer Games

In September 2000, Chris Kamara's Street Soccer was released for the Sony PlayStation, pre-dating EA Sports' FIFA Street series. He was also a commentator for 2005's This Is Football, alongside Peter Drury.^{[citation needed]}

Charity Work

In December 2011, Chris was awarded the 'The Above & Beyond in Memory of Sir Bill Cotton award' for his contributions to Marie Curie Cancer Care. Chris, and a team of Football League ambassadors including Brendan Rodgers, Aidy Boothroyd and Middlesbrough Chairman Steve Gibson managed to raise £385,000 for the charity and to climb to the peak of Kilimanjaro.

As well as being an Ambassador for Marie Curie Cancer Care, Kamara became an Ambassador of the Special Olympics Great Britain Organisation in April 2011 after taking part in the Special Olympics Unity Cup as a celebrity partner before the Germany v Argentina quarter-final match in Cape Town, during the 2010 World Cup.As well as being an Ambassador for Marie Curie Cancer Care Kamara also represents the Special Olympics GB as an Ambassador.

External links

• Chris Kamara career stats at Soccerbase
• Chris Kamara management career stats at Soccerbase
• Photos and stats at sporting-heroes.net
• Chris Kamara's funniest moments
• Chris Kamara at the Internet Movie Database