Dickson Etuhu

Early career

Etuhu was born in Kano. He started his professional career with Manchester City but made only 11 appearances for the club. He signed for Preston North End in January 2002 for £300,000 as David Moyes' side looked to improve from their playoff final defeat to Bolton the season before. Etuhu made his debut in a 1–0 victory at Bradford City and scored his first goal for the club in a 4–2 victory over Sheffield Wednesday a week later. Etuhu became a regular in the Preston side, playing alongside Sean Gregan in centre midfield replacing the injured Mark Rankine. He would go on to score two more goals in the 2001–02 season as Preston ultimately fell short of the playoffs losing manager David Moyes to Everton in March. Preston began 2002–03 season under the stewardship of new manager Craig Brown and whilst Etuhu was initially first choice in midfield, he soon found himself in and out of the side as Preston struggled to find consistency. Etuhu made 38 appearances in all competitions, adding to his goal tally as Preston finished the season in 12th. Preston's patchy form continued into 2003–04 as their impressive attack was let down by a poor backline despite a number of personnel changes. Etuhu again found himself, along with a number of other Preston players, in and out of the starting eleven as Brown looked to find his best side. Etuhu was reduced to 26 appearances as Preston finished 15th following a poor second half of the season which had seen them in danger…

It was announced in late September 2007 that Etuhu had been called up to play for his country on 14 October. He first played in two friendlies for his country and he then made his competitive international debut in the African Cup of Nations in January 2008. Etuhu was part of the Nigeria squad for the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa. He turned down a callup in August 2011 as a replacement player and stated he would not play for Nigeria coach Samson Siasia, temporarily ending his international career. He was however recalled in November 2011 for a pair of friendlies under new coach Stephen Keshi.

Club

As of 17 May 2016

2011–12 appearances includes match in Uefa Cup, away to Dnipro on 25 August 2011, which is currently not included on Soccerbase website. 2015 appearances includes three matches in 2014–15 Svenska Cupen, also not included on Soccerbase.

His younger brother Kelvin is also a footballer. He grew up in Peckham, south London, but then, the family moved to Manchester for Etuhu to pursue his professional ambitions with City.

Match fixing

In November 2019 he was found guilty of match fixing by a Swedish court, and said he would appeal. Both Defence and Prosecution said they would appeal the sentence. In June 2020, Etuhu was handed a five-year ban from football in Sweden.