Adam Idah (born 11 February 2001) is an Irish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for club Norwich City and the Republic of Ireland national team.

Early career

Idah was born in

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

and grew up in the city, attending

Douglas Community School Douglas Community School, also known as Douglas Com, The Com or DCS, is an all-boys community school in Douglas, Cork, Ireland. It was founded as Coláiste Muire by the Presentation Brothers in 1926 as a juniorate (i.e. for lower-cycle secon ...

. He started playing football with College Corinthians in 2007 at the age of six. He stayed with the Corinthians for 10 years progressing through the youth levels before joining Norwich City as an academy scholar in 2017. In his first season at Norwich Idah played in the

Professional Development League The Professional Development League is a system of youth association football, football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the The Football Association, Footbal ...

in Norwich's Premier League Under-18 side, scoring nine goals in 15 games. He completed a 10-minute hat-trick against

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

in the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

before scoring another hat-trick against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

in the U18 league. At the end of the season Idah won both the Norwich Under-18 player of the season and the academy player of the year awards. During his second season at Norwich, Idah was productive in the youth team. He played in the club's under-23 side in Premier League 2, scoring 12 goals in 19 games. At the end of the season Idah was one of the eight nominations for Premier League 2 player of the season. On 4 July 2019, he signed his first professional contract with the club, signing a contract until 2023. In the 2019 pre-season, Idah trained with the first team, and was chosen to be part of Norwich's squad on their pre-season tour to Germany. In the first game of the tour he came on as a substitute in the 2–2 draw with

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

, starting his first senior game for Norwich three days later in the friendly against

Bonner SC Bonner SC is a German association football club based in Bonn. The club was formed in 1965 through the merger of ''Bonner FV'' and ''Tura Bonn''. Its former women's football department won the German national championship in 1975. History ''B ...

, scoring two goals. Idah again featured in Norwich's final game of the tour, coming on as a substitute against Schalke 04.

Senior career

Idah made his first senior appearance on 27 August 2019, playing the full 90 minutes as

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

lost 1–0 to Crawley Town in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. He made his Premier League debut as a substitute against Crystal Palace on 1 January 2020 before starting Norwich's

2019–20 FA Cup The 2019–20 FA Cup (also known as the Football Association Challenge Cup) was the 139th edition of the oldest football tournament in the world. It was sponsored by Emirates and known as The Emirates FA Cup for sponsorship purposes. On 13 Marc ...

third round match at

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

on 4 January, making his FA Cup debut. He scored his first professional

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in the match, his third senior appearance for Norwich. On 15 January 2022, Idah scored his first Premier League goal for Norwich City in a 2–1 win against Everton. It was his first start for Norwich City in the Premier League and his first start for the Canaries at Carrow Road.

International career

Idah was born in Cork to a Nigerian father and Irish mother. He has been a youth international for Ireland. Following Idah's hat-trick for Norwich City against

on 4 January 2020,

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

manager Mick McCarthy hinted that Idah may soon earn a full cap, commenting "He might have just got himself one", while working as a pundit for BT Sport's coverage of the match. On 24 August 2020, Idah was named in the

senior squad for the first time for the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

games against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, in what was his manager at under 21 level, Stephen Kenny's first squad as senior manager. On 3 September 2020, on his first call-up for the senior team, he made his debut in a 1–1 draw away to Bulgaria in the

2020–21 UEFA Nations League The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League was the second season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The competition was held from Septembe ...

. On 19 June 2023, he scored his first goal for Ireland in a 3–0 win against

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

in a UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier. On 10 September 2023, he scored his second goal for Ireland in a 2-1 defeat against Netherlands in a UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list the Republic of Ireland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Norwich City *

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Norwich City F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Idah, Adam 2001 births Living people Association footballers from Cork (city) Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Men's association football forwards College Corinthians A.F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Black Irish sportspeople Irish people of Nigerian descent