Ayodeji Sotona (born 7 December 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

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for Burnley Academy.

Club career

Sotona was born in

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

, but moved to Mullingar as a child, where he joined local side Mullingar Athletic. At a young age, he joined the Mullingar Harriers Athletic Club, picking up several provincial and national sprinting medals, including an All-Ireland bronze medal in 2013. At the age of 13, he began attracting attention from English sides

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

and

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, eventually signing with the latter. While at Manchester United, Sotona was named as the club's fastest player, ahead of first team members Diogo Dalot, Marcus Rashford and Daniel James. After four years with the club, in which he trained with the first team, he rejected the offer of a three-year extension to his contract, and left the club as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in September 2020. After a phone call with

Patrick Vieira Patrick Vieira (born 23 June 1976) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Crystal Palace. He is widely considered as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. Vieira began his career at ...

, who was managing

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

at the time, Sotona decided to join the French side at the expiration of his contract with Manchester United. Vieira had promised first-team football, but after he was sacked in December 2020, new manager Adrian Ursea assigned Sotona to the reserves. With the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

disrupting the footballing schedule, he struggled for game time, and when a return to England with

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

presented itself in January 2022, Sotona took the opportunity, and joined on a six-month loan deal. On 9 August 2022, Sotona signed for Scottish club

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

on a season-long loan. He returned to Nice in January 2023. On 30 January 2023, Sotona moved to Burnley Academy.

International career

Sotona is eligible to represent the Republic of Ireland, Nigeria and England at international level. He has represented the Republic of Ireland at under-15 and under-16 level.

Career statistics

Club

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sotona, Deji 2002 births Living people People from Waterford (city) Irish people of Nigerian descent Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland youth international footballers Association football forwards Manchester United F.C. players OGC Nice players Brentford F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers Irish expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Irish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Scotland Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England