Uche Henry Agbo

Uche Henry Agbo (born 4 December 1995) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as either a centre-back or a defensive midfielder for Kazakhstan Premier League club FC Aktobe.^[2]

Uche Agbo

Personal information
Full name	Uche Henry Agbo[1]
Date of birth	(1995-12-04) 4 December 1995 (age 29)
Place of birth	Kano, Nigeria
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Defensive midfielder / Centre-back
Team information
Current team	Aktobe
Number	4
Youth career
	Bai Boys
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2010–2011	Taraba	?	(1)
2011–2012	JUTH	?	(1)
2012–2013	Enyimba	1	(0)
2013–2016	Udinese	0	(0)
2014–2015	→ Granada B (loan)	57	(4)
2015–2016	→ Granada (loan)	7	(0)
2016–2017	Watford	0	(0)
2016–2017	→ Granada (loan)	31	(0)
2017–2020	Standard Liège	45	(1)
2019	→ Rayo Vallecano (loan)	6	(0)
2019	→ Braga (loan)	1	(0)
2020	→ Deportivo La Coruña (loan)	9	(0)
2020–2021	Deportivo La Coruña	18	(0)
2021–2023	Slovan Bratislava	40	(1)
2024–	Aktobe	20	(3)
International career‡
2013	Nigeria U20	3	(0)
2017	Nigeria	1	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16 November 2024 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 22:14 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Club career

Born in Kano, Uche started playing for local lowly Bai Boys, and moved to Taraba in 2010.^[3] In May 2011 he signed for JUTH,^[4] and appeared regularly for the side, scoring once.

In January 2012 Uche joined Enyimba International along with teammate James Amankwei.^[5] He made his debut for the club on 28 April 2013, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 2–0 win against Dolphins.^[6]

In October 2013, Uche went on a trial at Udinese,^[7] signing a four-year deal in the following month.^[8] In March 2014 he moved to Granada CF, linking up with the Andalusians also until 2018 and being assigned to the reserves in Segunda División B.^[9]

On 23 February 2015, Uche made his first team – and La Liga – debut, replacing Javi Márquez in the dying minutes of a 2–1 away loss against Levante UD.^[10] On 25 July of the following year, he signed a five-year contract with Premier League club Watford, being immediately loaned back to Granada for one year.^[11]

On 11 July 2017, Uche joined Belgian club Standard de Liège.^[12] On 31 January 2019, he returned to Spain and its first division after agreeing to a six-month loan at Rayo Vallecano, with an option to buy.^[13] In doing so, he said that he had turned down a big-money move to China, as his career development was more important.^[14]

On 21 January 2020, after a six-month loan spell at S.C. Braga, Uche agreed to a deal with Deportivo de La Coruña, still owned by Standard.^[15]

On 1 September 2021, following mass exodus from La Coruña, Agbo was announced as a signing of reigning Slovak champions Slovan Bratislava on a three-year contract. His performance against Slovan from the Europa League was recalled in his introduction.^[16]

International career

Uche got his first call up to the senior Nigeria side to replace the injured Leon Balogun for a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Zambia in October 2016.^[17] On 1 June 2017, he made his international debut for Nigeria in a 3–0 win against Togo in a friendly replacing Wilfred Ndidi.^[18][19]

Uche was included in Nigeria's preliminary 30-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia,^[20] but he did not make the final 23-man squad.^[21]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 13 October 2023^[22]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Continental		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Granada B (loan)	2013–14	Segunda División B	4	1	—		—		—		—		4	1
	2014–15		29	1	—		—		—		—		29	1
	2015–16		24	2	—		—		—		—		24	2
	Total		57	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	57	4
Granada (loan)	2014–15	La Liga	1	0	0	0	—		—		—		1	0
	2015–16		6	0	4	0	—		—		—		10	0
	2016–17		31	0	1	0	—		—		—		32	0
	Total		38	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	43	5
Standard Liège	2017–18	Belgian First Division A	35	1	5	0	—		6[a]	0	—		46	1
	2018–19		10	0	1	0	—		—		1[b]	0	12	0
	Total		45	1	6	0	0	0	6	0	1	0	58	1
Rayo Vallecano (loan)	2018–19	La Liga	6	0	0	0	—		—		—		6	0
Braga (loan)	2019–20	Primeira Liga	1	0	0	0	2	0	2[c]	0	—		5	0
Deportivo La Coruña (loan)	2019–20	Segunda División	9	0	0	0	—		—		—		9	0
Deportivo La Coruña	2020–21	Segunda División B	14	0	1	0	—		—		—		15	0
	Total		23	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	24	0
Slovan Bratislava	2021–22	Slovak First League	20	0	4	1	—		6[d]	0	—		30	1
	2022–23	Slovak First League	16	1	5	0	—		10[e]	0	—		31	1
	2023–24	Slovak First League	2	0	0	0	—		0	0	—		2	0
	Total		38	1	9	1	0	0	16	0	0	0	63	2
Slovan Bratislava II	2021–22	Slovak Second League	2	0	—		—		—		—		2	0
	2022–23	Slovak Second League	5	0	—		—		—		—		5	0
	2023–24	Slovak Second League	2	0	—		—		—		—		2	0
	Total		9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	0
Career total			170	5	12	0	2	0	8	0	1	0	193	5

1. Four appearances in UEFA Europa League, two appearances in UEFA Champions League
2. Appearance(s) in Belgian Super Cup
3. Appearance(s) in UEFA Europa League
4. Appearances in UEFA Europa Conference League
5. 2 appearances in UEFA Champions League, 2 appearances in UEFA Europa League and 6 appearances in UEFA Europa Conference League

Honours

Slovan Bratislava

• Fortuna Liga: 2021–22, 2022–23

References

1. "FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013 List of Players: Nigeria" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 23 June 2013. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 June 2013.
2. "Prichádza posila so skúsenosťami z La Ligy". www.skslovan.com (in Slovak). Retrieved 2 September 2021.
3. The Nigeria U-20 national football team; West African Football, 27 May 2012
4. Uche Agbo; Foetbal 247, 4 January 2012
5. Ghanaian striker Amankwei set for Enyimba Archived 3 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine; MTN Football, 2 January 2012
6. Enyimba triumphant again after 2–0 Dolphins win; Enyimba's official website, 28 April 2013
7. Exclusive: Uche Agbo Begins Trials At Udinese; All Nigeria Soccer, 11 October 2013
8. Exclusive: Uche Agbo Set To Sign Four-year Deal With Udinese; All Nigeria Soccer, 18 November 2013
9. Success Isaac y Uche Agbo: nuevos jugadores del Granada CF (Success Isaac and Uche Agbo: new players of Granada CF) Archived 3 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine; Granada CF, 18 March 2014 (in Spanish)
10. El Levante resurge de sus cenizas (Levante rises from its ashes); Marca, 23 February 2015 (in Spanish)
11. Uche Agbo signs for Watford, yet is loaned to Granada immediately; Vavel, 25 July 2016
12. "Uche Henry Agbo rejoint Les Rouches" (in French). Standard Liege. 11 July 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
13. "Agbo Uche nuevo jugador del Rayo Vallecano" [Agbo Uche new player of Rayo Vallecano] (in Spanish). Rayo Vallecano. 31 January 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
14. Okeleji, Oluwashina (12 February 2019). "Nigeria's Uche Agbo 'football more important than cash'". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
15. "Uche Agbo, nuevo jugador del Deportivo 2019–2020" [Uche Agbo, new player of Deportivo 2019–2020] (in Spanish). Deportivo La Coruña. 21 January 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
16. "Prichádza posila so skúsenosťami z La Ligy". www.skslovan.com (in Slovak). Retrieved 2 September 2021.
17. "The young defender has been handed his first national team call-up to replace injured Leon Balogun ahead of October's World Cup qualifier against Chipolopolo". goal.com. 27 September 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
18. Audu, Samm. "Super Eagles fly past Togo 3-0 | SCORE NIGERIA". scorenigeria.com.ng. Archived from the original on 3 June 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
19. "Internationals (Sky Sports)". SkySports. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
20. "Revealed: Every World Cup 2018 squad - 23-man & preliminary lists & when will they be announced? | Goal.com". Retrieved 31 May 2018.
21. "World Cup 2018: Arsenal's Iwobi in Nigeria's 23-man squad". BBC Sport. 3 June 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
22. Uche Henry Agbo at Soccerway. Retrieved 18 March 2021.

External links

• Agbo at BDFutbol
• U. Agbo at Soccerway
• Agbo Uche Henry at Futbolme (in Spanish)
• Uche Henry Agbo at Fortunaliga.sk (in Slovak)