Oluwanisola "Sola" Abolaji (born March 27, 1985) is a former American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player.

Career

College and Amateur

Abolaji attended

Eaglecrest High School Eaglecrest High School is a public high school located in unincorporated Arapahoe County, Colorado, near the cities of Aurora and Centennial. Eaglecrest was the fourth high school to open in the Cherry Creek School District, and it is a member of ...

Aurora, Colorado Aurora (, ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Arapahoe, Adams County, Colorado, Adams, and Douglas County, Colorado, Douglas List of counties in Colorado, ...

and played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

Barton County Community College Barton Community College, previously Barton County Community College, is a public community college in Great Bend, Kansas. Its service area includes Barton, Ellsworth, Pawnee, Rush and Russell Counties, Stafford County north of US Highway 5 ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, where he was named to the NJCAA Region VI All-Region second team in 2003. He transferred to

Northern Oklahoma College Northern Oklahoma College (NOC) is a Public college, public community college in Tonkawa, Oklahoma, with additional campuses located in Enid, Oklahoma and Stillwater, Oklahoma. Student enrollment is approximately 2,700. NOC bought the former Phil ...

in 2004, where he was named the team's defensive MVP and helped lead the Mavericks to the

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

Region II championship. He then transferred again, to the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

, where he spent his junior and senior years. He played 18 games for the

Bulls Bulls may refer to: *The plural of bull, an adult male bovine *Bulls, New Zealand, a small town in the Rangitikei District Sports *Bucking bull, used in the sport of bull riding *Bulls (rugby union), a South African rugby union franchise operated ...

his senior year, scoring two goals and one assist, the helper coming on the game-winning goal in the Bulls' upset win over 19th-ranked

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by th ...

. While in college, Abolaji also played for

Colorado Rapids U23's Colorado Rapids U–23 were an American soccer team based in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, Colorado, United States. Originally founded in 2000 as part of the development system for the Colorado Rapids, the team played in the Premier Develop ...

in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

Professional

Abolaji was the first overall selection in the 2007 USL-1 Draft by the

Carolina RailHawks North Carolina FC is an American professional soccer team in Cary, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh. Founded in 2006, the team plays in USL League One, the third tier of the American league system. The team has played its home games a ...

, making him the first athlete from the University of Buffalo to be drafted first overall in any professional sports draft. Having played just 10 games for the RailHawks, Abolaji was traded to the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

in exchange for

Joel John Bailey Joel John Bailey (born February 17, 1980) is a forward who last played for the Carolina RailHawks of the USL First Division. He played three seasons in Major Indoor Soccer League. Club career Indoor Bailey began his indoor soccer career in 20 ...

on July 29, 2007, but later left the team after a coaching change. After a few years playing in the lower tiers of the American soccer pyramid, he transitioned to Scandinavia where he played with several teams. In 2015, he returned to the United States and was a long-term trialist with the Chicago Fire and the Sacramento Republic, featuring in games against the San Jose Earthquakes. He joined the Ventura County Fusion, where he featured prominently in their 2nd Round U.S. Open Cup win over the L.A. Galaxy. In January 2016 he returned to Scandinavia.

Personal

His parents are of Nigerian origin. His name "Oluwanisola" means "God creates Wealth" in

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abolaji, Sola 1985 births Living people American sportspeople of Nigerian descent American men's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Canada Soccer players from Colorado North Carolina FC players Vancouver Whitecaps (1986–2010) players Colorado Rapids U-23 players Thunder Bay Chill players Expatriate soccer players in Canada Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders People from Carbondale, Illinois Soccer players from Illinois Buffalo Bulls men's soccer players USL First Division players USL League Two players Barton Community College alumni Junior college men's soccer players in the United States