Peter Odemwingie — footballer with roots in the USSR
Peter Osaze Odemwingie was born on 15 July 1981 in Tashkent, then the capital of the Uzbek SSR, in the Soviet Union. His father, Peter Odemwingie Sr., was Nigerian and his mother, Raisa, a Russian Tatar; both were studying medicine there.
The family moved to Nigeria when he was two. Some years later they returned to Russia, settling in Naberezhnye Chelny, where he finished his secondary education and played in the youth teams of KAMAZ and then CSKA Moscow. His professional career, however, began in Nigeria, with Bendel Insurance in the Nigeria Premier League in 2000.
In 2004 he moved to Europe, joining La Louvière in Belgium and then Lille in France. In 2007 Lokomotiv Moscow bought him for a reported fee of about $14 million, and in three seasons there he scored 21 goals in 75 Russian Premier League games, becoming the focus of the team's attack. When he left for West Bromwich Albion in August 2010, a group of Lokomotiv supporters displayed a racist banner; West Brom fans answered with one of their own reading "Thanks Lokomotiv". He scored on his debut against Sunderland and was more than once named the Premier League's Player of the Month. In August 2011 West Brom extended his contract to 2014. He later played for Cardiff City, Stoke City, Bristol City and Rotherham United.
He chose to play for Nigeria rather than Russia or Uzbekistan and represented the Super Eagles from 2002 to 2014. He played at four Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010, captaining the side in 2010, and at the World Cups of 2010 and 2014; in Brazil his goal against Bosnia and Herzegovina sent Nigeria into the round of sixteen. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, selected as an over-age player, he scored in the quarter-final against Côte d'Ivoire as Nigeria went on to win the silver medal, losing the final to Argentina.
After retiring from football he took up golf, which he had started playing at West Brom, and in 2023 qualified as a PGA Professional. Looking back on his Russian years, he has described Moscow as a top city.
"Born in Tashkent to two medical students; moved to Nigeria at two, returned to Russia (Naberezhnye Chelny), where he trained with KAMAZ and CSKA Moscow; professional career in Nigeria, Belgium, France, Russia and England."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Tashkent, Uzbek SSR (USSR); raised partly in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia
Born in Tashkent, in the Uzbek SSR, in 1981 to a Nigerian father and a Russian-Tatar mother, both medical students. He grew up partly in Russia, trained in the KAMAZ and CSKA Moscow youth teams and played for Lokomotiv Moscow from 2007 to 2010.
Father Peter Odemwingie Sr., Nigerian; mother Raisa, Russian Tatar — both medical students in Tashkent.
Tashkent, Uzbek SSR (USSR); raised partly in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia. At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.