Chris Camara or Kamara born 25 December 1957 inMiddlesbrough is a retired English footballer. He ended his playing career in 1995 and last managed a club in 1998. He is now a presenter and football analyst on Sky Sports.
Kamara was born in Middlesbrough to a father ofSierra Leone roots. After serving with the Royal Navy, Kamara joined Portsmouth in 1975, beginning a professional footballing career that saw him move between nine clubs, scoring 71 goals in 641 league appearances.
Kamara acquired a reputation as a hard man as a player.[citation needed] He was the first English player to be convicted of Assault, after breakingShrewsbury Town player Jim Melrose's cheekbone with a punch straight after the final whistle in 1988.[1] This persona continued into his forays as a manager, resulting with him being censured for his conduct.
Kamara spent short spells as manager of Stoke City and Bradford City, which saw him nearly relegated with the former but gaining promotion with the latter. He steered The Bantams to promotion in the 1995-96 season after winning 2–0 in the play-off final againstNotts County, and is very highly thought of at Valley Parade.[citation needed]
Chris is a great friend of Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson whom he grew up with on Middlesbrough'sPark End council estate.
Kamara presents Sky Sports' Goals On Sunday show and provides additional commentary on some of Sky'stelevised matches. He also appears on the Soccer Saturday programme, where he usually appears over live video link providing brief updates on the match he is watching. He has a reputation for making frequent mistakes during these updates.[3] He also guest-stars on Soccer AM where he brings live link ups hours before games from various stadia. He is often known for his amusing live commentaries and exclaiming "Unbelievable, Jeff!" to host Jeff Stelling, a phrase which has become his catchphrase.[citation needed] The pair own shares in a racehorse with the same name.[4]
Before the 2010 World Cup, Kamara changed his name by deed poll to Chris Cabanga in response to aFacebook campaign supported by 20,000 people.[5][6][7] Cabanga is an African word meaning ‘to think’ or ‘imagine’. Before the World cup UK-based neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis conducted a number of experiments into the field of positive thinking. In the experiments, conducted at Sussex University March 2010, Dr Lewis found ‘Cabanga’ to be a particularly resonant word. Many England fans supported the Facebook campaign in the hope that it could help England win the World Cup.[8]
In September 2000 Chris Kamara's Street Soccer was released on the original PlayStation format.[9] The game is seen as the inspiration for the FIFA Street series by EA Sports, this is due to the game allowing you to play on pitches inside of a volcano or on top of a skyscraper.[citation needed] He was also the commentator for This Is Football 2005 along with Peter Drury.[citation needed]
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