Iffy Onuora

Football player infobox2
playername = Iffy Onuora


fullname = Ifem Onuora
height = height|ft=6|in=2
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1967|7|28
cityofbirth = Glasgow
countryofbirth = Scotland
currentclub = Lincoln City (assistant manager)
clubnumber =
position = Striker (retired)
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1988-1989
1989-1994
1994-1996
1996-1998
1998-2000
2000
2000-2002
2002-2004
2003
2003
2003-2004
2004
2004
2004
clubs = British Universities
Huddersfield Town
Mansfield Town
Gillingham
Swindon Town
→ Gillingham (loan)
Gillingham
Sheffield United
→ Wycombe Wanderers (loan)
→ Grimsby Town (loan)
Grimsby Town
Tranmere Rovers
Huddersfield Town
Walsall
caps(goals) = "unknown"
165 (30)
028 0(8)
062 (23)
074 (25)
001 0(0)
085 (26)
007 0(1)
006 0(0)
008 0(1)
011 0(2)
003 0(0)
003 0(1)
000 0(0)
manageryears = 2005
2007 2008
managerclubs = Swindon Town
Gillingham (caretaker) Lincoln City (during Peter Jackson's absence)

Ifem "Iffy" Onuora (born 28 July, 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a coach and ex-professional footballer born in Scotland of Nigerian descent. He is assistant manager at Lincoln City and acted as manager during the absence, due to illness, of Peter Jackson.

Playing career

Ifem Onuora was a journeyman striker who got his professional break playing for Huddersfield Town, he went on to play just under 200 times for The Terriers, and scored over 30 goals for the club before he was transferred to Mansfield Town in 1994.

Onoura stayed with The Stags until Gillingham payed £25,000 for him in August 1996. It was at Priestfield Stadium where Onuora's goal scoring ability started to show, as he notched himself a tally of just under 30 goals in an 18 month stay with the club, before the Gills cashed in on their big front man by selling him to Swindon Town in March 1998. More goal scoring success was on the cards and he remained at the club until he secured a move back to Gillingham in January 2000, following a short loan spell.

Onuora went on to feature heavily for The Gills for the next two seasons before Neil Warnock tempted the player into moving to Bramall Lane to sign a two year deal with Sheffield United . However football for Onoura was rare with the club and he only made 8 appearances in both league and cup competitions, scoring one goal. In August 2003, it was announced that he would be carrying on with The Blades, but was loan listed where he signed for Wycombe Wanderers at the start of the season on a one month loan deal.

After appearing six times for The Chairboys, Onuora returned too Sheffield, only to be poached by Paul Groves to sign for Grimsby Town also on a one month loan. After a reasonable month with Grimsby, Onuora made his move to Blundell Park a permanent one, with the club pairing him up front with Michael Boulding in the absence of the injured Phil Jevons.

This seemed to work as a jinx for Onuora, as despite earning himself a permanent deal, his performances slipped and he was singled out by the clubs supporters for booing, something which the player later spoke publicly about to the Grimsby Telegraph. Following the club's huge dip in form, Paul Groves was dismissed from his managerial duties and Onuora was to be the first player shown the door, after only signing a permanent deal 4 months previously.

He made his next port of call Tranmere Rovers but after 3 league appearances, the club decided to release him a month later. On the 25 March 2004, Onuora signed professional terms once again for Huddersfield Town ,who were his first career club. He played 5 times for The Terriers, scoring an important goal in the play-off semi final against Lincoln City but didn't make an appearance in the final at the Millennium Stadium .

In July 2004, Paul Merson hired Onoura as a player/coach for Walsall, but this was short lived, and he was released in October 2004 and subsequently retired from playing. He scored 133 goals in nearly 500 professional matches.

Managerial and coaching career

Upon retiring in 2004, Onuora moved into coaching. In July 2007 he successfully completed the final part of the UEFA Pro Licence course and joined a group of only 111 coaches holding the game’s top qualification [ [http://www.thefa.com/GrassrootsNew/FALearning/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2007/07/Pro_Licence2007 TheFA.com - The Class of 2007] ] [cite news
url=http://www.thefa.com/GrassrootsNew/FALearning/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2007/07/PL2007_Onuora.htm
title=Onuora on his way
publisher=TheFA.com
date=10 July 2007
accessdate=2008-02-12] .

His coaching career began when he was appointed first-team coach at Walsall in July 2004 but his contract was terminated by Walsall's manager Paul Merson in October 2004, with Merson feeling a more experienced coach was required [cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/walsall/3721162.stm
title=Walsall sack Onuora
publisher=BBC Sport
date=6 October 2004
accessdate=2008-02-12] .

Later in the 2004-05 season, Onuora became a coach and youth development officer at Swindon Town. When Andy King was sacked after a poor start to season 2005/06, Onuora was appointed as Swindon's caretaker manager. In December 2005, Ron Atkinson, who had previously been fired from TV jobs for making racist remarks, was reportedly appointed to work alongside Onuora - one of the league's few black managers. Onuora later denied that this was the case, claiming that Atkinson was at the club to film a fly-on-the-wall documentary called "Big Ron Manager".

Dennis Wise later became the new Swindon manager and Onoura was offered the chance to stay in a reduced capacity but he turned down that offer and left the club. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/swindon_town/4989058.stm BBC Sport] ] He later commentated on Gillingham matches on BBC Radio Kent.

He returned to Gillingham in June 2007 as a first team coach. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/g/gillingham/6758481.stm BBC Sport] ] When manager Ronnie Jepson resigned in September 2007 he was named, alongside Mick Docherty, as joint caretaker manager. [Cite web
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/g/gillingham/6987487.stm
title = Gills coaches in caretaker charge
accessdate = 2007-09-10
publisher = BBC Sport
date=2007-09-10] He held the position until the appointment of Mark Stimson on 1 November 2007 and briefly remained as a first team coach under the new regime before departing approximately two weeks later. [Cite web
title = Stimson unveiled as new Gills boss
accessdate = 2007-11-01
url = http://www.kentonline.co.uk/gillingham/article.asp?article_id=35859&startrecord=3] [Cite web
title = Coach Onuora leaves Gillingham post
accessdate = 2007-11-19
url = http://www.kentonline.co.uk/sport/default.asp?article_id=36254
author=Luke Cawdell] In February 2008 he was appointed assistant to Peter Jackson at Lincoln City.

As of March 1 2008, he became Lincoln's acting manager [Cite web
url = http://www.redimps.com/archive3/index.mv?cat=managers&drop=matchsearch
title = The Managers
publisher = The Official Lincoln City FC Archive
accessdate = 2008-04-29] whilst Peter Jackson underwent treatment for throat cancer. He was assisted in this role by Grant Brown. Under Onuora's tenure, Lincoln won five and lost six of their remaining fixtures.

Personal life

Iffy has one daughter named elisha onuora and a son named aaron onuora.

External links

*soccerbase|id=5998|name=Iffy Onuora
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/swindon_town/4563400.stm BBC Article on Onuora & Atkinson]