Skip to main content

Martin Offiah



Martin "Chariots" Offiah MBE is a former English rugby league player.

Offiah attended Woolverstone Hall School near Ipswich, Suffolk, where he represented the school at fencing and played rugby and cricket. He turned out for Essex 2nd XI but soon realised his main talent was for rugby. At club level, he first played rugby union for Rosslyn Park and after starring on the Sevens circuit and for the Barbarians, there was talk of an England future. He was spotted by Widnes coach Doug Laughton playing in the Middlesex Sevens and was "brought North" to play Rugby League for the 1987-88 season. It was at Widnes were he forged his reputation as a devastating winger scorching in for 181 tries in 145 games.

Offiah joined Wigan in January 1992 for a fee of £440,000. This figure remained a record for a total cash transfer until Wigan beat their own record, paying £450,000 for Stuart Fielden from the Bradford Bulls in 2006.

He played in Wigan's World Club Challenge win over the Brisbane Broncos in 1994, four Challenge Cup wins, five Championship teams, three Regal Trophy wins and one Lancashire Cup victory. He twice won the Lance Todd Trophy at Wembley. His 90 metre solo try in the 1994 Challenge Cup Final win over Leeds is remembered as one of the finest ever but he made a habit of such runs during his career.

Offiah made a total of 158 appearances for Wigan with another single appearance as a substitute. He notched up more than a try a game, crossing the line 186 times. He also managed a goal and 3 drop goals thus bagging a grand total of 749 points for the club.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Donatus Ibeakwadalam Nwoga

The late Donatus Nwoga was a Professor of African Literature and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Donatus was the Secretary of the Planning and Management Committee of the former Eastern Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (1970); member of the Board of the former East-Central State Broadcasting Corporation (1974-76); member of the former East-Central State Library Board (1975-76); and former member of Imo State Library Board (1977-79). Ibeakwadalam passed the Cambridge School Certificate Examination in Division One, with exemption from matriculation in 1950; he passed the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level Examinations in English Literature, Latin and Ancient History at a sitting, with exemption from Inter B.A. of the University of London In 1955; and in 1960, when he obtained his Bachelor's degree from the Queen's University of Belfast, he won in the same breath the highly coveted "High Graham Mitchell Bursary" for the...

Paul Onwuanibe

  Paul is the Group Chief Executive Officer and founder of The Landmark Group. He began his career in the ‘built environment’ with a formal education in Architecture, Property Development and Construction Management, together with a London Business School MBA merit in “Value Engineering”. Paul has over 25 years of professional experience of design and execution of projects in Africa, USA and Europe. He served as Development Director with Beacon Housing, in the UK. Paul was the Executive with responsibility for the Property and Logistics team of Regus Plc during its rapid expansion years, which oversaw the opening of 190 business centers globally. He has expert knowledge of commercial property and workplace management and led Landmark’s expansion into America, Europe and Africa, has raised in excess of $100m of funding for Landmark and grown the company to achieve a PWC endorsed book valuation in excess of $300M. Paul is an African business leader, with a deep and passionate interes...

Chika Chukwumerije

Chika Chukwumerije (born December 30, 1983) is a male taekwondo practitioner. The son of Nigerian politician Uche Chukwumerije, Chika first drew attention in 2003 during the qualifiers for the 2003 All-Africa Games, where he eventually won a bronze medal in the Heavyweight Male category. He qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but lost his first bout to Pascal Gentil, the eventual bronze medal winner. Nevertheless, after a period of intensive training that was funded by his father, he became one of Nigeria's best chances for a medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He won a gold medal at the 2007 All-Africa Games in the +80kg class and qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games soon after. Although he lost to eventual silver-medal winner Alexandros Nikolaidis in the semifinals of the +80kg event, he was entered into the repechage round of the tournament. Here, after defeating Akmal Irgashev of Uzbekistan he claimed a bronze medal in the event, Nigeria's third meda...