Nwankwo Kanu, simply called Kanu, is a retired footballer from Nigeria who is best known for serving as the captain of the national team for 16 years. Born on 1 August 1976, in Owerri, Nigeria, Kanu is one of the few players to have won highly regarded trophies like the Premier League, UEFA cup, and others during his career. An Olympics gold medallist, Kanu was professionally active in football between 1992 and 2012.
A leading player and former captain of the Nigerian Football Team, how rich is Nwanko Kanu as in 2015? Currently, Kanu enjoys a total worth of $9 million. The significant hotspot for his riches is clearly his fruitful career with several European teams, and as national team captain of Nigeria.
Kanu chose football as a profession and began to play at the early age of fifteen, starting his career as a player at Nigerian association club, Federation Works. After giving an outstanding performance at the U-17 World Championships, he got a chance to signed for leading Dutch club Ajax for more than 200,000 Euros, winning the Champions League with the team in 1995. Clearly his net worth was on the rise.
Nwankwo Kanu Net Worth $9 Million
In 1996 Kanu was signed by Italian Serie A side Internazionale of Milan for $4.7 million. Obviously, this also added significantly to his net worth. In the same year, Nwankwo got the opportunity of a lifetime as he captained the Nigerian national team at the Atlanta Olympics and brought the trophy home. This outstanding phase of his life was properly rewarded as Kanu was named as ‘The African Footballer of the Year’ for year 1996, then again in 1999.
Unfortunately, June 1996 also brought a halt in the career of this star player as it was revealed that he had a serious heart defect. He underwent surgery and couldn’t play for a year. However, Kanu’s career was quickly revived at Arsenal, and he went on to score 44 goals in 197 games for the Premier League club during six seasons, winning the 2003 FA Cup and 2004 League title.
In 2004 Kanu moved to play for Premier League West Bromwich Albion on a free transfer, playing for three seasons before transferring to Portsmouth for the last six years of his career. Overall, Kanu played more than 400 club games for six teams in in four countries.
Apart from winning the Olympics gold at 1998 Olympics Game, Kanu participated in the FIFA World Cup in 1998 and 2002 before retiring from International Career on 24 June 2010. Altogether, he won 86 caps and scored 13 goals for his country and is one of the most capped Nigerian players of all time.
Kanu, the twice CAF African Footballer of the Year was so moved by people’s concern towards him amid his recovery period; that he set up the most famous Charity(NGO), Kanu Heart Foundation, in his country Nigeria with the view of serving the entire continent. There are already five KHF hospitals built in Africa to ease the problem of undetected heart diseases which proves his sincerity towards social work. Currently, he has also been serving as an UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
As for his personal life, Kanu married Amaron in December 2004, and together they are blessed with three kids. Nwankwo Kanu is regarded as one of the richest as well as one of the best players from Nigeria who is making good use of his net worth of $9 million.
