Carl Ikeme

Carl Ikeme Biography / Profile

Carl Onora Ikeme was on born June 8th, 1986 in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England. His mother is English and Nigerian father is from Anambra State. Carl is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Nigerian national team.

Carl Ikeme Age

Carl Ikeme is 38 years old.

Carl Ikeme Early Life

Ikeme grew up in the UK and progressed through the Wolverhampton Wanderers academy where he made the first team squad in their 2003-04 Premier League season. Due to Matt Murray's long term injury, he was promoted to the substitutes' bench for a string of games but never played.

Carl Ikeme Career

Ikeme has spent a great part of his career on loan. At the start, he moved on loan to League Two side Accrington Stanley where he made senior debut on 16 October 2004 when he played the first of four games for them, keeping a clean sheet at Aldershot Town. He also had a further loan move to Stockport County in Autumn 2005 which was cut short due to a hand injury. In 2005, Ikeme finally returned to Wolves and got his breakthrough immediately. He made his debut for his beloved Wolves the following season in a 5-1 win over Chester City in the League Cup on August 23.

Injuries and a dip in form saw the Nigerian fall down the pecking order and had further loan spells at Charlton, QPR, Leicester City, Middlesbrough and Doncaster Rovers. He returned to Wolves in the 2012-13 championship season and has never looked back ever since.

Ikeme started the 2012–13 season as Wolves' first choice goalkeeper in the Championship following injuries to Wayne Hennessey and Dorus de Vries; he maintained his place in the first team when the latter returned in September 2012. In March 2013 he conceded a bizarre own goal during a league game against Bristol City, when he allowed a David Davis backpass to go between his legs and roll over the line. Ikeme was substituted at half time, and it was later confirmed that he had broken his hand during the interval by punching a tactics board in the dressing room in frustration at the incident. This injury kept him out for the remainder of the season, which ended in relegation to League One.

Ikeme retained to the goalkeeping position at Wolves for the 2013–14 season, excelling in a 3–0 win over Colchester United at the Colchester Community Stadium on 5 October 2013 when he saved a late penalty from Freddie Sears. However, he again suffered a broken hand when he was injured in a collision against Tranmere on 1 January 2014. He returned to Wolves' goal as the established first choice, following the sale of Wayne Hennessey, and was a part of the team that won the League One title with a record points tally. After keeping 22 clean sheets across the season Ikeme was named in the PFA League One Team of the Year alongside four other teammates.

Once back in the Championship, Ikeme impressed at the start of 2014–15, keeping five clean sheets in the first eight games, during which he saved an Owen Garvan penalty in a 1–0 win over Bolton Wanderers on 20 September 2014 at Molineux. During the 2016–17 season, Ikeme extended his current deal, ensuring he is contracted to Wolves until the summer of 2020. The goalkeeper received his first career red card on 21 January 2017 in a league match at Norwich City; when Wolves appealed against it, the suspension was reduced from three matches to two.

Although being eligible to represent England or Nigeria at international level, he chose Nigeria, and was first called up to the Super Eagles squad in 2007. In an interview with FIFA.com, the goalkeeper disclosed that he has always felt Nigerian. "If anybody asked me, I’d tell them my parents are from Nigeria, but I suppose being part of the squad and going to Nigeria hopefully more in the future will give me more sense of the culture. “It’s difficult to be involved deep in the culture when you’re brought up in England, but going back to Nigeria a lot more will bring me a lot closer to that, and I’m looking forward to spending more time in Nigeria. I actually prefer to play international games in Nigeria than in Europe,” he said.

Carl Ikeme Personal Life

Ikeme was has suffered a pocket of racist attacks in England; chief among of them was the well reported incidence in a League One match at the Banks’s Stadium against Walsall where the keeper was emphatic that he was called a cunt twice. He is married to an English lady and they have two children. On 6 July 2017, it was announced that Ikeme was diagnosed with acute leukaemia after returning abnormal blood tests during a routine pre-season check-up.