Andrew Abiola Omobamidele (born 23 June 2002) 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 defender for club

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and the Republic of Ireland national team.

Early life

Omobamidele was born in

Leixlip Leixlip ( or ; , IPA: �lʲeːmʲənˠˈwɾˠad̪ˠaːnʲ is a town in north-east County Kildare, Ireland. Its location on the confluence of the River Liffey and the Rye Water has marked it as a frontier town historically: on the border between ...

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

, to an Irish mother and a Nigerian father. As a youth, he played for the Dublin District Schoolboys League representative side alongside fellow future Irish international

Gavin Bazunu Gavin Okeroghene Bazunu (born 20 February 2002) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for EFL Championship club Southampton and the Republic of Ireland national team. Bazunu started his career at Shamrock Rovers, making ...

Club career

Norwich

On 23 December 2020, Omobamidele signed a new professional contract with

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

. He made his debut for Norwich on 16 January 2021 as a substitute in a 2–1

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

league win against

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

. Omobamidele's first start for Norwich was on in a 1–1 draw to Preston North End on 2 April 2021, when he played the full 90 minutes and was awarded Man of the Match. On 11 September 2021, he made his

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

debut, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 loss to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

at the

Emirates Stadium The Emirates Stadium (known as Arsenal Stadium for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Holloway, London, England. It has been the home stadium of Arsenal Football Club since its completion in 2006. It has a current seated capacity ...

. On 31 October 2021, Omobamidele scored his first

goal, which was also his first goal in senior football, heading home the equaliser from a corner in an eventual 2–1 loss to

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

Carrow Road Carrow Road is an association football stadium located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship side Norwich City. The stadium is located toward the east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum. N ...

Nottingham Forest

On 1 September 2023, Omobamidele signed with

club

until 2028, for a fee reported to be £11 million.

International career

On 24 May 2021, Omobamidele received his first call up to the

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 ...

senior squad for the summer friendlies against

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. He made his international debut on 1 September 2021, as a 36th minute substitute for the injured

Dara O'Shea Dara Joseph O'Shea (born 4 March 1999) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a defender for club West Bromwich Albion and the Republic of Ireland national team. Club career Born in Dublin, O'Shea began his career at St. Kevin's B ...

in a 2022 World Cup qualifier against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

at the

Estádio Algarve The Estádio Algarve (Algarve Stadium), also known as ''Estádio Faro/Loulé'' (Faro/Loule Stadium), is an association football stadium located between Faro and Loulé municipalities, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The stadium has a capacit ...

in Faro.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

* 2002 births Living people People from Leixlip Black Irish sportspeople Irish people of Nigerian descent Association footballers from Dublin (city) Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Men's association football midfielders Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Norwich City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England {{Ireland-footy-defender-stub