Chris Kamara is an English former footballer and football manager who now works as a presenter
and football analyst at Sky Sports. As a player he was known as a tough-tackling
midfielder. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16, before being signed up to Portsmouth
in November 1974. He spent three years at the club before being sold on to Swindon Town
for £14,000. He returned to Portsmouth in 1981 for a £50,000 fee, but was traded to
Brentford in October 1981. He spent four years with the "Bees" before leaving the club after
picking up a runners-up medal in the Football League Trophy in 1985. He re-signed with Swindon
Town in August 1985 and helped the club to two successive promotions into the Second
Division. He moved on to Stoke City in 1988, and a successful spell with the club won him
a move to Leeds United in 1990. He helped the club to the Second Division title in 1989–90,
but was never a first team regular before being sold to Luton Town for £150,000 in
1991. He had loan spells with Premier League clubs Sheffield United and Middlesbrough,
before joining Sheffield United on a permanent basis in 1993. The following year he joined
Bradford City as a player-coach. He was appointed Bradford City manager in
November 1995 and took the club from a relegation scrap to promotion out of the Second Division
via the play-offs in 1996. He left the club in January 1998 and quickly took the reigns
at Stoke City, before he left the "Potters" in April 1998. From there he became a broadcaster
with Sky Sports.
Early life Kamara was born in Middlesbrough, in north-east
England to a Sierra Leonean father – Alimamy Kindo "Albert" Kamara – on Christmas Day
in 1957. Through his father he was eligible to play for Sierra Leone, and was called up
to play in the 1994 African Cup of Nations, though he declined the offer. His father was
a heavy gambler, leaving his mother Irene to sometimes plead for money from neighbours
in order to provide food for Chris and his brother George and sister Maria. Being one
of the few black families in Park End, Middlesbrough the family suffered racist abuse.
He remains a great friend of Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson with whom he grew up
on the Park End council estate. He and Gibson regularly attended matches together.
He joined the Royal Navy at age 16, at the insistence of his father, himself a former
naval mariner. In doing so he missed the youth cup final for Middlesbrough Boys, though he
went on to play for the Royal Navy's football team. He was trained for six months at the
HMS Raleigh at Torpoint. He later transferred to the HMS Vernon.
Playing career Kamara's football career started when he was
spotted playing for the Navy by Portsmouth manager Ian St. John, who signed him on apprentice
wages in November 1974 after agreeing to pay the Navy a £200 buy-out fee. Youth team coach
Ray Crawford told the Portsmouth News that Kamara was "weak in the air, his marking is
wayward and he hasn't got much positional sense", but privately told Kamara that he
had to the potential to become a first team player. He made his first team debut in August
1975 in a 2–0 defeat to Luton Town, winning his chance after Mick Mellows was struck down
with a knee injury. The next match he scored his first senior goal in a 4–1 loss to Bolton
Wanderers after being set up by Bobby McGuinness. He went on to play regular football at Fratton
Park in the 1975–76 season as "Pompey" were relegated out of the Second Division in last
place. The club avoided relegation out of the Third Division by a single point in 1976–77,
after which new manager Jimmy Dickinson sold Kamara to Third Division rivals Swindon Town
for £14,000. Upon joining Swindon he was sent death threats
by Portsmouth supporters, and was given police escorts to the County Ground. He scored on
his debut against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough, but was frequently left out of the starting
eleven by manager Danny Williams during the 1977–78 campaign. New boss Bobby Smith took
the "Robins" to within three points of promotion in 1978–79, and then the semi-finals of
the League Cup in 1979–80. John Trollope replaced Smith as manager following a dismal
start to the 1980–81 campaign, and he sold Kamara back to Portsmouth for £50,000.
He was re-signed to Portsmouth by Frank Burrows, who had previously coached Kamara at Swindon.
However in October 1981 he was again transferred after Brentford manager Fred Callaghan agreed
to a swap deal with David Crown going the other way. Kamara was paired with Terry Hurlock
in a highly committed central midfield partnership at Griffin Park. He settled in well during
the 1981–82 campaign and scored a career best of 11 goals in the 1982–83 season as
Brentford posted two top ten finishes. The club then struggled to just one place above
the Third Division relegation zone in 1983–84 before rising to 13th place in 1984–85.
He won a Football League Trophy runners-up medal in 1985, playing at Wembley in a 3–1
defeat to Wigan Athletic. He took the decision to leave the club in summer 1985 after he
rejected manager Frank McLintock's offer of a new one-year contract on the same terms.
Kamara re-joined Swindon Town in August 1985 for a fee of £12,500 despite suffering from
a ruptured hamstring tendon. Under the guidance of Lou Macari the "Robins" won promotion out
of the Fourth Division as champions in 1985–86, though Kamara missed the first half of the
campaign and only played 23 games. He missed just four games of the 1986–87 season as
Swindon secured a second successive promotion by beating Gillingham in the play-offs; Kamara
missed the replay but played in the original home and away leg fixtures of the tie. However
Kamara became the first English player to be convicted of Grievous bodily harm for an
on-pitch incident, after breaking Shrewsbury Town player Jim Melrose's cheekbone with a
punch straight after the final whistle of a game in the 1987–88 season; he was fined
£1,200. Kamara moved on again in the summer of 1988
after choosing to reject Swindon's offer of a one-year contract. He instead joined Mick
Mills at Stoke City. He was paired with Peter Beagrie in central midfield at the Victoria
Ground. He had a good 1988–89 season, scoring five goals in 44 appearances and he won the
player of the year award. On 19 August 1989 he broke West Ham United's Frank McAvennie's
leg in a 50/50 challenge; McAvennie attempted to sue Kamara for damages but was unsuccessful.
Mid-way through the 1989–90 season Mills was sacked and replaced by Alan Ball, who
promptly sold Kamara to Leeds United. In joining Leeds he rejected the offer to join Bruce
Rioch's Middlesbrough – his hometown club that was owned by childhood friend Steve Gibson.
At Elland Road were David Batty, Vinnie Jones, Gordon Strachan and Gary Speed; the presence
of these highly skilled midfielders meant that Kamara was frequently left on the bench
by manager Howard Wilkinson. Kamara helped Leeds win the Second Division title in 1989–90
but appeared sparingly for the "Whites" in the First Division after finding himself injured
with an Achilles tendon problem during the 1990–91 campaign. He left Leeds in November
1991 and they went on to win the First Division title.
Kamara remained in the top-flight by joining David Pleat's Luton Town for a £150,000 fee
after returning to full fitness. The "Hatters" were relegated on the last day of the 1991–92
season after letting slip a 1–0 lead over Notts County to lose the game 2–1.
In October 1992 Kamara returned to the Premier League after joining Dave Bassett's Sheffield
United on loan. Despite failing to nail down a regular first team place in the 1992–93
season he made the move from Kenilworth Road to Bramall Lane permanent. Before joining
United he finally joined his hometown club Middlesbrough, albeit on a one month loan,
in February 1993. His spell at Ayresome Park lasted just five games as manager Lennie Lawrence
could not afford to offer him a permanent contract. The "Blades" were relegated at the
end of the 1993–94 campaign after slipping into the relegation zone on the final day
of the season after a defeat to Chelsea. Kamara signed with Bradford City in summer
1994 after being offered a playing-coaching role by manager Lennie Lawrence. The "Bantams"
struggled in the 1994–95 season, though Kamara was promoted to assistant manager in
April 1995. Managerial career
Bradford City In November 1995, Bradford City chairman Geoffrey
Richmond sacked manager Lennie Lawrence and elevated Kamara from assistant manager to
take Lawrence's place. His goal was to keep the "Bantams" out of the relegation zone by
the end of the 1995–96 season. However the club went on a run of just three defeats in
the final 13 games to secure a place in the play-offs. They turned round a 2–0 defeat
at Valley Parade in the first leg of the play-off semi-finals to beat Blackpool at Bloomfield
Road. Promotion was secured with a 2–0 victory over Notts County in the play-off final with
goals from Des Hamilton and Mark Stallard. He signed Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer
from 1. FC Kaiserslautern for £150,000, who proved to be a more than adequate replacement
for Gavin Ward who was sold to Bolton Wanderers for £300,000. He paid a club record £550,000
for Gordon Watson, who played just two games before being badly injured after a challenge
from Huddersfield Town defender Kevin Gray. The 1996–97 season saw Bradford narrowly
escape relegation after a final day victory over Queens Park Rangers.
In summer 1997 he brought in Darren Moore and Robbie Blake, whilst paying £50,000 for
Jamie Lawrence and another £50,000 for Peter Beagrie. He also signed Brazilian striker
Edhino and former England international Chris Waddle on free transfers. He remained at Valley
Parade until he left the club in January 1998. He and chairman Geoffrey Richmond had fallen
out over Richmond's insistence on becoming heavily involved in the club's transfer policy.
He recommended his assistant Paul Jewell to be his successor, who went on to have his
own highly successful spell as Bradford's manager.
Stoke City On 22 January 1998 he was appointed manager
of one of his former clubs, Stoke City, and arrived with bold intentions at the Britannia
Stadium stating that he would build a squad good enough to take the club into the Premier
League. However, with Stoke already in serious relegation trouble in 1997–98, Kamara sold
their only player of real value, Andy Griffin to Newcastle United. He fell out with Chief
Executive Jez Moxey over how to spend the proceeds of the sale; Moxey wanted Marco Gabbiadini
but Kamara vetoed the deal. He instead spent £350,000 on Coventry City striker Kyle Lightbourne.
In his 14 games in charge with the "Potters", only one was won and he was sacked on 8 April
1998. Kamara's three months as Stoke manager was a disaster and the team could not recover
from their poor form and were relegated to the third tier.
Media career Kamara gave up on management after his time
at Stoke City and instead worked as a pundit for a number of television and radio stations.
He won a regular slot on Soccer Extra with Brian Woolnough in 1999, and from there was
asked by Rob McCaffrey to contribute to Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports. There he was asked
to attend a match on Saturday and appear over live video link providing brief updates on
the match. At the time this was an untried concept in the UK, and Kamara and his camera
crew largely learned how to best present the format as they went along. He quickly became
well-known on the programme for his highly excitable nature, propensity for comical gaffes
and tendency to come out with unusual sayings that baffled host Jeff Stelling and the other
studio pundits, such as his observation that the Tottenham players were "fighting like
beavers" in their match against Arsenal. In one of his more famous on-air gaffes, he failed
to realise that Anthony Vanden Borre had been sent off in the game he was watching between
Portsmouth and Blackburn, instead thinking that he had been substituted.
Kamara has also presented Sky Sports' Goals on Sunday show since August 2000 and provides
additional commentary on some of Sky's televised matches. He is also a regular guest on Soccer
AM, interviewing players and managers at grounds around the country.
Before the 2010 World Cup, Kamara changed his name by deed poll to Chris Cabanga in
response to a Facebook campaign supported by 20,000 people.
In 2012, he made a one-off appearance for Mid Wales Football League side Welshpool Town,
after his Sky Sports colleague Jeff Stelling mocked the strugglers following the club's
10–1 loss to Waterloo Rovers the previous week. Welshpool manager David Jones e-mailed
Sky explaining how the club nearly folded, and Sky made amends by arranging for Kamara
to play for them. He played the full 90 minutes, in midfield in a 6–1 defeat, assisting a
goal with a corner. Other work
In September 2000, Chris Kamara's Street Soccer was released for the PlayStation, for which
Kamara provided both commentary and some basic motion capture for player animation, with
the concept of the game pre-dating the EA Sports' FIFA Street series. He was also a
commentator for 2005's This Is Football, alongside Peter Drury.
Kamara was formerly the chairman of the panel which chooses the Football League Championship
Manager of the Month award, but left the role for the beginning of the 2009–10 season.
Charity work Kamara was inducted into the Show Racism the
Red Card Hall of Fame in 2004. As a player he suffered years of severe racial abuse.
In December 2011, Kamara was awarded the 'The Above & Beyond in Memory of Sir Bill Cotton
award' for his contributions to Marie Curie Cancer Care. He, and a team of Football League
ambassadors, including Brendan Rodgers, Aidy Boothroyd, and Middlesbrough Chairman Steve
Gibson managed to raise £385,000 for the charity and to climb to the peak of Mount
Kilimanjaro. As well as being an Ambassador for Marie Curie Cancer Care, Kamara became
an Ambassador of the Special Olympics Great Britain Organisation in April 2011 after taking
part in the Special Olympics Unity Cup as a celebrity partner before the Germany v Argentina
quarter-final match in Cape Town, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Kamara released a charity single entitled Sing 4 England in 2012 as England's officially
sanctioned tournament song for Euro 2012. Personal life
He married Anne in 1982 and the couple had two sons, Ben and Jack.
Career statistics As a player
Sourced from The English National Football Archive
As a manager Honours
As a Player Brentford
Football League Trophy runner-up: 1985 Swindon Town
Swindon Town Player of the Season: 1979–80 Football League Fourth Division champion:
1985–86 Football League Third Division play-off winner:
1986–87 Stoke City
Stoke City Player of the Year: 1988–89 Leeds United
Football League Second Division champion: 1989–90
As a Manager Bradford City
Football League Second Division play-off winner: 1996
References Specific
General Kamara, Chris; Young, Colin, Mr Unbelievable,
HarperSport, ISBN 978-0-00-736317-9 External links
Chris Kamara career stats at Soccerbase Chris Kamara management career stats at Soccerbase
Chris Kamara at the Internet Movie Database