Background
Emmanuel Olisadebe born 22 December 1978 in Warri is a retired Nigerian-born Polish football striker.
After moving to Poland and having a successful career with Polonia Warszawa where he won the championship title as well as Polish SuperCup with them he would attract the interests of the Polish national team after he was eligible for Polish citizenship. He participated in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Career
Club career
Polonia Warsaw
Olisadebe began playing for Polonia Warszawa during the 1997/98 league season where in his first season he played in 13 league games.During his time in Polonia Warsaw he helped them secure their first championship title in 50 years in the 1999/00 season, scoring 12 goals in the process. He also won the league cup that season and the super cup the year before.
Panathinaikos
Olisadebe moved to Panathinaikos where he scored 24 goals in 74 matches.In 2004 he helped the club win the title for the first time in 10 years by scoring all the winning goals in the last three of four games of the championship. He also won the cup that year, making it a double. However during his time at Panathinaikos he suffered an injury that required surgery in Greece.
Portsmouth
In January 2006, he joined Portsmouth until the end of the 2005/2006 season.Olisadebe played only two games while at Portsmouth – he was plagued by injury and scored no goals during his short spell there.[citation needed] His contract was terminated after 4 months, at which point he travelled to Xanthi, where he wasn't given a chance to play.
APOP Kinyras Peyias
He then featured for APOP Kinyras Peyia FC where he played in the 2007/08 season where he played in 17 games scoring 6 goals.
Henan Construction
In 2008 he was offered a deal with Chinese Super League club Henan Construction. In his second match with Henan, the third round of 2008 Chinese Super League against Liaoning, he scored 2 goals. In first season at Henan he scored 12 goals in 26 games in the Chinese super league.
On September 27, Olisadebe scored the opening goal for Henan in a 2–0 win over Shanghai Shenhua to regain lead in the league less than ten minutes before injuring his knee. Initial diagnosis showed that he had torn his cruciate ligament of the left knee, and the injury could end his entire football career.Further results confirmed that he injured his patellar ligament and would only miss the rest of the season.He was nominated for the MVP awards two years consecutively only to be 2nd in both occasions.Due to his performance he has been granted by the government of Henan province citizenship.
Return to Greece
In 2011/12 season Olisadebe joined Vyzas Megaron, but failed to make any league appearances before moving to Veria.
National team
Though Nigerian by birth, Olisadebe became a Polish citizen in 2000 and was selected by the Poland national team.
Olisadebe scored 8 times during the 2002 World Cup qualifiers to help secure Poland's place in Japan and South Korea.
Olisadebe scored Poland's first goal of their 2002 FIFA World Cup campaign in a 3-1 victory against the United States, however Poland did not progress to the second round and Olisadebe would not score again for his nation.