Kelechi Iheanacho Biography
Kelechi Iheanacho Promise MON. Ỉheanachọ, born October 3, 1996) is a professional football player from Nigeria. He is a striker for Sevilla in La Liga and the Nigeria national team.
Iheanacho’s first season as a professional player was with Manchester City in 2015–16, when they won the Football League Cup.
In 2017, he went to Leicester City for a reported £25 million. At the time, it was the biggest transfer fee ever paid for a Nigerian player and the second-biggest for an African player, after Mohamed Salah of Egypt.
Iheanacho scored four goals in the 2020–21 FA Cup season, which helped Leicester City win the title for the first time. He tied for the season high. He also scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot, which helped Leicester win the FA Community Shield in 2021.
Iheanacho played for Nigeria’s under-17 team in the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup. He led the team to a record-setting fourth win and was named the tournament’s best player. He also scored the second-most goals. After that, he played for Nigeria’s under-20 team in the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Later that same year, he made his debut for his country as an adult. Since then, he has played for his country in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the 2021 and 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, and the 2023 event, where they came in second place. Two times, in 2013 and 2016, Iheanacho was named the Most Promising African Talent. He was also named as a replacement for the 2016 CAF Team of the Year.
Club Career
Iheanacho signed a five-year deal with Premier League club Leicester City on August 3, 2017, for what was said to be £25 million. He played his first game for the team on August 11, 2017, when they lost 4–3 to Arsenal.
On October 24, 2017, he got his first goal for Leicester in an EFL Cup game against Leeds United. It was Iheanacho on January 16, 2018, who became the first player in English football history to get a goal overturned by a video assistant referee.
The referee thought that Iheanacho had been wrongly called offside for his second goal. He scored his second goal in a 2–0 win over Fleetwood Town in the FA Cup Third Round playoff. Callao After the end of his deal with Leicester City on July 31, 2024, Iheanacho joined the Spanish club Sevilla for free.
International Career
Iheanacho has played for Nigeria at the youth level since he was 13 years old. He played in his first big international event at the African U-17 Championship in Morocco in 2013. Iheanacho’s best game was when he scored three goals in a win over Botswana.
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His mother died two months before the event, so he set his goals in honor of her. The game went all the way to the final, where Ivory Coast beat Nigeria on penalties. He was picked to play for Nigeria in the 2018 World Cup in Russia in June 2018.
On December 25, 2021, caretaker coach Austin Eguavoen chose him to be in Nigeria’s 28-person Africa Cup of Nations team. In the 30th minute of Nigeria’s first game, which they won over Egypt, he scored their first goal of the event. He was picked to play in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in December 2023.
Coming off the bench in the semi-final match against South Africa, Iheanacho scored the winning goal in a 4–2 win in the shootouts after the game ended in a 1–1 tie. This sent his country to the final.
Personal life
The Igbo people in Nigeria are where Iheanacho comes from. He is a devoted Christian.