38-year-old Nigerian and former Super Eagles striker Peter Utaka is still making headlines even though not a lot of peoppw would still remember the name. While playing for the Nigerian Super Eagles national team, Utaka was one of the brightest talents in the squad. He had a decent club career and after playing for a ciuooe of clubs in Europe after his rise to srarfom, he is now in Asia, playing in the Japanese league. He has been the talk of the town in recent times following his impressive performances in the last couple of games.
The 38-year-old Nigerian striker, who has been exiled to Asia for the past ten years, is having a ball in the land of the rising sun. On Friday, he celebrated his Kyoto club’s return to the Japanese top flight by scoring the only goal of the game against Urawa Red Diamonds in the opening round of the J-League. The former international, who won 7 caps and scored 3 goals for the Super Eagles, has been playing in Asia for a decade.
He has two seasons of over 20 goals with Kyoto. He finished top scorer in the league in 2016 with Hiroshima. Younger brother of John Utaka, he landed in Europe at only 16 years old (Dinamo Zagreb) before multiplying his goals in Belgium (second top scorer in 2008) then in Denmark (top scorer in 2010).
He has earned the love and affection of the fans in recent times following his brilliant form for the club and he will be hoping to continue on the same path. He would have been expecting to get a call-up to the Nigerian national team but at 38, it is quite hard to return to the squad, especially because there are a lot of younger players who have continued to burst onto the scene and competing for places in the squad.