Seven Shades of... John Chiedozie

So the gauntlet has been well and truly thrown down. In the last 'Seven Shades of...', Smart challenged me to link John Chiedozie with Henrik Larsson in the next of the series. (One can only wonder at the strange thought processes going on inside his head...)

Anyway, true to form, here goes with another ride on the 'Seven Shades Express' - first stop:

John Chiedozie
who you may remember was the former Notts County and Tottenham winger whose speed caused a veritable frisson of panic among those teams he faced during a career that lasted between 1978 and 1988. Chiedozie's middle name is Okechukwu, which he shares with another former star of the Nigerian national team,

Uche Okechukwu
who played for the Super Eagles in the 1994 and 1998 World Cup Finals and won an Olympic football gold medal in the Atlanta games of 1996. The Nigerian defender caught the eye of many a coach during the 1990’s, but the first to spot his potential was

Morten Olsen
who signed Okechukwu for his side, Brondby, in 1990. After a lengthy international career playing for Denmark, Olsen went on to become Coach of the national team and has remained in that post since 2000. His greatest achievement thus far was when he successfully guided Denmark to the second round of the 2002 World Cup, a run ended by England thanks to goals from Michael Owen and

Emile Heskey
who at the time was playing for Liverpool but previously came to the nation’s attention while playing for Leicester City. Heskey - full name Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey - was born in nearby Evington in 1978 and went to the City of Leicester Secondary School just like

Gary Lineker
the ubiquitous figurehead of Match of the Day, Tottenham, Everton, England and Walkers Crisps. The top scorer from the 1986 World Cup was said to be wanted by Alex Ferguson three years later as he tried to lure him to Old Trafford in a bid to form a lethal strike partnership with his old Barcelona team mate

Mark Hughes
but Lineker chose Tottenham instead. Hughes, meanwhile, had already returned to United in 1988 for a second spell at the club where he would go on to make another 256 appearances to add to the 89 he made between 1980 and 1986. Between the two stints at Manchester United, Hughes spent one season at Barcelona under the tutelage of Terry Venables, but he enjoyed only limited success, not unlike

Henrik Larsson
who followed a highly impressive spell at Celtic with an injury-plagued couple of seasons at the Catalan club. He still managed to score 12 goals in 33 appearances before announcing a return to Sweden to end his career with Helsingborgs in Sweden. In 2003 his country gave him the accolade 'Greatest Swedish Player in the Last 50 Years' - an honour attained perhaps by default given the number of other well known Swedish football players you can think of from the past, but he’s certainly a star player of recent times and without a doubt a god to Celtic fans everywhere.