John Chukwudi Utaka (born 8 January 1982) is a Nigerian former footballer who played as a striker and is currently a youth coach at Montpellier HSC.

During his career he has mainly been utilised as a pacy winger making him a very effective element in a team's counter-attacking style of play.

In February 2006, he scored two consecutive hat-tricks, against Lens and Lyon, and as a result received the L'Équipe's player of the month award.

[9] On 29 January 2011, Utaka signed for French first division side Montpellier, agreeing a two-and-a-half year deal for an undisclosed fee.

[12] On 19 February 2012, Montpellier travelled to the Parc des Princes to face league leaders PSG; he headed in an 81st-minute goal from a Giroud cross but a late tap in from Guillaume Hoarau levelled the game at 2–2 and earned the sides a share of the points.

[13] Montpellier played host to Bordeaux six days later and he headed home the only goal of the game in the 80th minute to keep up the pressure on league leaders PSG.

[14] On 20 May 2012, in a game marred by stoppages for crowd violence, Utaka scored a brace, his sixth and seventh league goals of the campaign, to secure a 2–1 victory over Auxerre and win the Ligue 1 title for Montpellier over PSG, for the first time in the club's history.