Dominic Ayodele Solanke-Mitchell (born 14 September 1997), known as Dominic Solanke, is an English 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 side

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

. Solanke started his career with

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, making his first-team debut in October 2014. He spent the 2015–16 season on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

with Vitesse in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

. He signed for

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in July 2017, making 27 appearances before joining AFC Bournemouth in January 2019. Solanke has represented England at all youth, under-21 and senior levels. He has won the

2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 13th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship, an annual football competition between men's under-17 national teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament was hosted for the first tim ...

and the

2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as ...

with his country and received the Golden Ball award for best player in the latter tournament. He made one appearance for the England national team in 2017.

Early life

Solanke was born in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

, Berkshire to a Nigerian Yoruba father and an English mother. He attended Brighton Hill Community College in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

Club career

Chelsea

Early career

Solanke started his career with

in 2004 in their under-eight team. During the 2013–14 season, Solanke scored 20 goals in 25 appearances for the under-18 team. On 6 May 2014, he scored two late goals as Chelsea came from two goals down to beat local rivals

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

7–6 on aggregate in the FA Youth Cup Final. On 29 July 2014,

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

stated a belief that he should blame himself were Solanke not to become a senior

England international The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

under his management, and indicated that the player would train with the first-team squad during the 2014–15 season.

2014–15 season

Solanke signed his first professional contract with Chelsea in September 2014. Due to the injury of

Diego Costa Diego da Silva Costa (, ; born 7 October 1988), commonly known as Diego Costa, is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Spain national team. Costa began his football care ...

, Solanke was named on the bench for a

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 ...

match against

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

on 18 October 2014. Three days later, he made his first-team debut as a substitute for

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

in the 73rd minute of a 6–0 win over

NK Maribor NK may refer to: Businesses *Imerys (Euronext ticker code NK) *Nordiska Kompaniet, a department store in Stockholm, Sweden *Northrup-King Seed Company *Spirit Airlines (IATA code NK) *NK.pl, a Polish school-based social networking service Places ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. This made him the youngest player to debut in the UEFA Champions League for Chelsea. He finished as top scorer in the group stages of the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League ...

after scoring a hat-trick in the final group stage match against

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

. On 10 April 2015, Solanke scored two goals in the semi-final of the

2014–15 UEFA Youth League The 2014–15 UEFA Youth League was the second season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. It was contested by the under-19 youth teams of the 32 clubs qualified for the group stage of the 2014–1 ...

against

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

to send Chelsea into the final. He scored in the 3–2 win over

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

in the UEFA Youth League final, ending the tournament with 12 goals in nine appearances as Chelsea won the title. On 20 April 2015, Solanke scored a late goal to give the team side a 3–1 win in the first leg of 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 ...

final against

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 ...

. He played in the 2–1 win in the second leg, as Chelsea won the final 5–2 on aggregate. On 7 May 2015, Solanke reached 41 goals for the season after scoring a hat-trick in a 4–3 victory over Liverpool U21. He was awarded the inaugural Chelsea Academy Player of the Year award for the 2014–15 season.

2015–16 season: Loan to Vitesse

On 4 August 2015, Solanke joined

club Vitesse on a season-long

to gain first-team experience. After getting approval from

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

to play in the Netherlands, he made his debut on 23 August 2015, coming off the bench in the 79th minute against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

, the match ending in a 2–0 defeat for Vitesse. A week later, Solanke scored his first goal in a 4–1 victory over

SC Cambuur SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2020–21 Ee ...

after coming off the bench with 15 minutes to go. He ended the season with seven goals in 25 appearances, just three behind top scorer

Valeri Qazaishvili The French name Valery () is a male given name or surname of Germanic origin ''Walaric'' (see Walric of Leuconay), that has often been confused in modern times with the Latin name ''Valerius''—that explains the variant spelling Valéry (). The S ...

and one behind runner-up

Milot Rashica Milot Rashica (; born 28 June 1996) is an Albanian- Kosovan footballer. He is a professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Süper Lig club Galatasaray, on loan from club Norwich City, and the Kosovo national tea ...

2016–17 season

After rejecting many loan offers from several clubs, Solanke was retained as Chelsea's third-choice striker behind Diego Costa and

Michy Batshuayi Michy Batshuayi-Atunga (born 2 October 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and the Belgium national team. Batshuayi began his professional career at Standard Liège in 2011, scorin ...

for the first half of the 2016–17 season. On 23 August 2016, he was involved in Chelsea's matchday squad for the first time since returning from his loan at Vitesse, for their

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 ...

home tie against

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

. He remained as an unused substitute in Chelsea's 3–2 victory. In February 2017, Chelsea manager

Antonio Conte Antonio Conte (; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later b ...

confirmed that it was likely that Solanke would leave the club in the summer upon the expiry of his contract.

Liverpool

On 30 May 2017, Solanke agreed to sign for Premier League club

on 1 July upon the expiration of his Chelsea contract. He was officially confirmed as a Liverpool player on 10 July 2017, with Liverpool expected to pay a tribunal-set fee of around £3 million. He made his debut for the club on 16 August 2017, coming on as a substitute for

Roberto Firmino Roberto Firmino Barbosa de Oliveira (born 2 October 1991) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward or attacking midfielder for club Liverpool and the Brazil national team. After starting his career with Figueirense in 20 ...

in a 2–1

first-leg win over

Hoffenheim Hoffenheim () is a village in Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It belongs to the municipality of Sinsheim and, as of 2020, it has a population of 3,191. History The village, settled since prehistoric times, and first mentioned ...

. His first Premier League start for Liverpool came on 30 November in a 3–0 win over

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

at the

Bet365 Stadium The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as ''bet365 Stadium'') is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City F.C., Stoke City. The stad ...

. He scored his first Liverpool goal on 13 May 2018, the final day of the 2017–18 season, in the 4–0 home victory against

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

AFC Bournemouth

Solanke signed for fellow Premier League club

on 4 January 2019 on a long-term contract for an undisclosed fee, reported by ''

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

'' as £19 million. He made his debut on 2 February in a 2–0 away loss against Cardiff City in the league. Solanke scored his first and second Premier League goals for Bournemouth in his 39th league appearance on 12 July 2020, a 4–1 win over

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

. He then netted in Bournemouth's 3–1 victory at Everton on the final day of the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

season but it was not enough to save the club from relegation to the

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 ...

. Solanke scored fifteen goals in the

during the

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 ...

season, finishing as the club’s joint top goal scorer in the league along with Arnaut Danjuma. On Bournemouth's return to the Premier league during the 2022-23 season, Solanke scored 6 and finished as the clubs top assister in the league with 7 assists.

International career

Solanke has represented England at all youth levels. In May 2014, Solanke was part of the under-17 team that won the

. He was the tournament's joint top scorer with four goals in four appearances, a brace against Turkey, a goal in the semi-final secured a place in the final, and England's goal in the final. In January 2015, Solanke was named the England Men's Youth Player of the Year for 2014. In March 2015, Solanke collected his trophy and was invited to train with the senior England squad. He was named in the under-19 squad for the

2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 15th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (65th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual European international youth football championship contested by the ...

. Solanke was named in the under-20 squad for the

. He scored four goals in the tournament; in the quarter-final, he scored the only goal against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

as England advanced into the semi-final, and scored twice in the semi-final as England beat

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

3–1 to reach the final. Solanke started as England beat

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

1–0 in the final. Solanke was awarded the Golden Ball as the player of the tournament. Solanke was called up by the senior team for the first time in November 2017 for a friendly against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. He came on as a 75th-minute substitute in a 0–0 draw. On 27 May 2019, Solanke was included in England's 23-man squad for the

2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2019) was the 22nd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (25th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football ch ...

Style of play

Solanke primarily plays as a striker, although can also operate as either an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

or a winger. Former Chelsea striker

Tore André Flo Tore André Flo (born 15 June 1973) is a Norwegian former professional football striker and coach who is the manager of 1. divisjon club Sogndal. He was capped 76 times, scoring 23 goals for Norway, and represented his country in 1998 FIFA Wor ...

has said that Solanke "works really hard", has "got very good physique" and "a great touch on the ball". He went on to say: "He's quick but often what impresses me the most is when he looks like he's lost the ball, he somehow manages to get out with the ball, no matter how tight the situation is or how difficult it looks".

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Chelsea Youth *

: 2013–14, 2014–15 *

: 2014–15 Liverpool *

runner-up: 2017–18 AFC Bournemouth *

runner-up: 2021–22 England U17 *

UEFA European Under-17 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship or simply UEFA Under-17 Championship, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain is the most successful team in this ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

England U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Individual * Chelsea Academy Player of the Year: 2014–15 * England Men's Youth Player of the Year: 2014 * FIFA U-20 World Cup Golden Ball: 2017 * EFL Championship Team of the Season: 2021–22 *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2021–22 Championship

References

External links

Dominic Solanke
at the AFC Bournemouth website
Dominic Solanke
at the Premier League website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Solanke, Dominic 1997 births Living people Footballers from Reading, Berkshire Footballers from Berkshire English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Chelsea F.C. players SBV Vitesse players Liverpool F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Eredivisie players Premier League players English Football League players England men's youth international footballers England men's under-21 international footballers England men's international footballers English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Black British sportsmen English sportspeople of Nigerian descent