Who will save the savior?

The wasted career of Bright Anubakara

In Wolves he disappeared, in Coventry the breeze, and in Greece he was thrown out after 14 minutes.

Thanks to the immense talent, predictions have predicted that Bright Anubakara will be a Premier League star.

Due to endless discipline issues, he is in negotiations with Hapoel Jerusalem from the bottom of the Premier League. If he does sign, he will be the most intriguing player who landed here in January

Walla!

sport

27/01/2022

Thursday, 27 January 2022, 10:25

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Summary: Maccabi Haifa - Hapoel Jerusalem 1: 1 (Sport 1)

In early August 2015 the English Wolves held their final pre-season game ahead of the new season and defeated Doncaster 3: 4.

The winning goal was signed by the 17-and-a-half-year-old winger, Bright Anubakara, and the club recorded real enthusiasm for the talent.

Anubakara arrived in England from Nigeria just two years earlier and experienced difficulties due to the distance from his family, but the Wolves were convinced that time would help and saw the path to an unusual success story.

"His hunger, his passion, his commitment to win, the physicality. All of these indicate that Bright is able to fit into the senior team right now," enthused then-coach Kenny Jacket.

So how is a player aged 17-18 considered the next thing in Wolves, an advanced negotiator with Hapoel Jerusalem and likely to reach a team from the bottom of the Israeli Premier League? Blacks, but also his career, and he's not yet 24 years old.

More on Walla!

Betar Jerusalem is waiting for a loan, Mizrahi's despair illustrated the troubles

To the full article

Premiere goal after three minutes playing in the seniors.

Anubakara celebrates against Barnett in 2015 (Photo: GettyImages, James Baylis - AMA)

"The Wolves do not know where Anubakara is," it read in England. "The last time they saw him at the training facility was 12 days ago. Maybe he flew to Nigeria, maybe he's still in England."

Eventually it turned out that he was in Germany at all

Anubakara continued the momentum from that warm-up game against Doncaster, also to the League Cup game after a week and a half against Barnett.

He started in the squad and scored the first goal of his senior career when she was three minutes old, at 17 and a half, on the way to a 1: 2 victory and a step up.

But in parallel with the ascent, the problems began.

In November 2015, about three months after that debut goal, the young Nigerian was given a day off to deal with a personal matter and disappeared.

It later turned out that a few days earlier he had arrived late for training and was fined.

The Wolves estimated that this was the reason he simply evaporated.

"He did not return to the club and Wolves do not know where he is," it was written in England on November 23. "The last time they saw him at the training facility was on November 11. Maybe he flew to Nigeria, maybe he is still in England."

Eventually it turned out that the footballer was in Germany at all, where his father moved.

The Wolves tried to run between the drops.

Wrap it in a cotton ball while keeping it in the groove - even if it means punishing it for being late or disappearing for two weeks.

"He developed a lot in three months with the senior team, both as a footballer and as a person," then-coach Kenny Jacket said.

Anubakara continued at Wolves and was part of the 2017/18 promotion season.

He made 21 appearances under Nono Aspirito, but most of them were substitutes and the parties realized he was not yet ready for the Premier League and had to leave on loan.

The demand was great and the choice was actually in Scottish Kilmarnock.

Scotland summed up Anubakara's short stint at Kilmarnock: "He showed fine moves with the ball, but was unwilling to do anything for the team and his team-mates" (Photo: GettyImages, Ian MacNicol)

Coventry enjoyed his ability and turned a blind eye when he did not show up for group meetings.

"There are too many meetings, it's not for me," he explained to teammate Jack Grimmer

In Kilmarnock they were willing to give Anubakara the keys, but he was not willing to take them.

After 6 appearances in the first 11 rounds of the Scottish Premier League, he simply rolled out of the squad and the club made a decision to shorten the loan period.

"The problem was that he looked uninterested," they concluded in Scotland, "he showed nice moves with the ball, but was not willing to do anything for the team and his teammates."

The Nigerian returned to Wolves and was immediately loaned to Coventry from the League One (third) in what turned out to be his best move (and probably the only one) in his career.

In the 18 league games remaining until the end of the season, Anubakara scored 6 goals and left a mark mainly on the stands at Rico Arena.

The fans fell in love, the team achieved positive results and the Nigerian shone.

Coventry agreed to turn a blind eye to his taps from team meetings ("There are too many meetings, it's not for me," he once told teammate Jack Grimmer), but the team failed to qualify for the championship and Anubakara felt he had to move up a league.

Thus the script was repeated for the third time in less than 12 months: back to Wolves and another question, this time to Wigan.

This was supposed to be the season he breaks, but the young winger failed to meet the demands of coach Paul Cook, who did not like his conduct and threw him off the roster after only a few weeks.

He was sent to the reserve team and so after 48 minutes of play and 23 games in which he was not included in the squad at all, he was returned to Wolves on the day the January transfer window opened.

"I'm not going to talk about Bright Anubakara, he finished here," Cook said on New Year's Eve.

When one of the reporters tried to make it difficult, the coach ruled: "With all due respect, I do not intend to talk about it."

A few days passed and in Nigeria there were reports that Anubakra had been arrested by the British police.

According to the same reports, Anubakara arrived at a hotel accompanied by his friends and a brawl broke out because of a young woman who was there.

Hotel workers called police and the striker was arrested and later released.

If in the summer of 2015 the Wolves were convinced that the prodigy would be sold for a huge sum to another group in the kingdom, in January 2020 they realized that this story needed to end (Photo: GettyImages, Sam Bagnall - AMA)

The Greek media reported on repeated disciplinary violations of the Nigerian winger, violations of instructions during the corona, delays in training and failure to maintain a sporting life

At Wolves, they followed what was happening and decided enough was enough. "Bright has so much talent, but he's one of those footballers we can not promote. I think he could be a world-class player, but he made a lot of mistakes," said coach Nono Aspirito.

If in the summer of 2015 the wolves were convinced that the prodigy would lead the group to achievements or alternatively be sold for a huge sum to another group in the kingdom, in January 2020 they realized that this story needed to end. Birmingham City were not impressed with the negative stories and on the last day of the transfer window agreed with Wolves on the transfer of the winger, but he refused to pass and angered everyone.

The Nigerian was sent to Wolves' reserve team and in the summer the parties decided to part ways. Wolves did not get rich on tens of millions of pounds, not even tens of thousands. Anubakara was sent on his way without compensation, to make trouble elsewhere.

At the start of the 2020/21 season the winger signed Massimo Carrera's AAC Athens.

Not a Premier League team, but a club with a respectable history, a huge fan base, a big budget and far-reaching ambitions.

Compared to Israel: a club that surpasses Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv by almost any scale, and is certainly light years away from Hapoel Jerusalem.

In the Greek capital they hoped to get the talent on the rails and were wrong.

Like in Wolves - AAK Anovkara also scored in the premiere, against Lamia, but this was his debut and also his farewell performance.

In October 2020, just two months after signing for the media, AAC announced a divorce agreement.

14 minutes of official play were the power.

The Greek media then reported repeated disciplinary violations, violations of instructions during the corona time, delays in training and failure to maintain a sporting life.

Coventry has revealed that many things have changed since Anubakara's first term at Rico Arena (Photo: GettyImages, Pete Norton)

Coventry coach Mark Robbins said after the release of Anubakara a few months ago: "If it's not for you and you want to do what you want, maybe you should not be part of a professional football environment"

In January 2021 Anubakara signed in the Indian East Bengal of the legendary Robbie Fowler.

A month before his 23rd birthday he seemed to be seven of the demands that teams in European leagues place on their players.

The Indian league is short and the Nigerian arrived after the start of the season, so in practice he played for his new team for less than two months and continued on his way after 12 appearances and 3 goals.

Last summer he returned to Coventry - the only team where he fulfilled that promise in that successful half-season in 2019.

But Brico Arena realized very quickly that in two and a half years things could change from end to end.

After ending his contract in India, Anubakara took off to visit his family in Nigeria and did not maintain a sporting routine.

For Coventry's season-opening training he showed up in poor form and coach Mark Robbins said: "Bright came in overweight. We work with him in every training session to get him in shape, but he is still very far from the footballer everyone remembers from the previous time."

Anubakra received a lot of patience, but the club did not like what appeared to be a lack of seriousness on his part.

He played 63 minutes in the League Cup in August and it was his only appearance in the blue uniform.

"It just was not it. I wish him success in whatever he chooses to do in his life," Robbins said after Coventry decided to release the Nigerian about three months ago, "maybe he will move somewhere else and explode, I hope for him it will happen."

The coach continued: "You can not force people to do things they do not want to do. If you are in a sporting environment, you have to adapt to it. If it is not for you and you want to do what you want, maybe you should not be part of a professional football environment. Bright. We need to find out for ourselves what he wants to do with his career. "

So what does he want to do?

After no one in England wanted to touch him anymore, Anubakara realized that maybe Hapoel Jerusalem was the solution.

With 63 official minutes of play in the last 11 months, it may be a bit difficult, but if he joins and sees a pinch of talent that led him to 49 appearances in the Wolves uniform, the door in the kingdom will open again, and Hapoel Jerusalem will benefit greatly.

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