Born:
December 25, 1957
in
Middlesbrough
Best Known For:
Being a footballer and a football pundit.
Early-life:
Christopher Kamara was born in Middlesbrough on December 25, 1957 to Albert and Irene. His father was from Sierra Leone. Being one of the few black families in his neighbourhood, he suffered a lot of racist abuse. Chris joined the Royal Navy when he was 16 and he was spotted playing football for the Navy by Portsmouth manager Ian St John, who signed him in November 1974 after paying the Navy's £200 buy-out fee. Chris made his first team debut for Portsmouth in August 1975. He was sold to Swindon in 1977 and went on to make 147 appearances for the club.
Career:
Kamara returned to Portsmouth in 1981 for a brief spell before moving on to Brentford in the same year. A second spell at Swindon between 1985 and 1988 was followed by stints at Stoke City, Leeds United and Luton. He joined Bradford City as a player-coach in 1994 and was appointed manager of the club in November 1995. He had a disastrous spell as manager of Stoke City in 1998. Since then he has been a football pundit for Sky Sports. In April 2015, he began co-presenting ITV game show Ninja Warrior UK alongside Ben Shephard and Rochelle Humes.
Quote:
'It's real end-to-end stuff, but unfortunately it's all up at Forest's end.'
Trivia:
Kamara was inducted into the Show Racism the Red Card Hall of Fame in 2004.