Eric Geno Sije Odhiambo (born 12 May 1989) is an English

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 for

Kidlington Kidlington is a major village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and 7 miles (12 km) south-west of Bicester. It remains officially a village ...

in the Hellenic League as a striker. He began his career with

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 ...

, but didn't make any first team league appearances, spending time on loan with

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

and

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 ...

. Since leaving Leicester in 2009, Odhiambo has played for

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...

in Scotland,

Denizlispor Denizlispor, due to current sponsorship Altaş Denizlispor, is a Turkish sports club based in Denizli. It is known by its distinct green and black colors. The club's branches include football, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, and gymnastics. ...

in Turkey,

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

in England and

Sligo Rovers Sligo Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí Shligigh) is an Irish professional football club playing in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. The club is based in Sligo in the west of Ireland. The club was founded in 1928 ...

in Ireland before joining Kidlington in 2015. He is the brother of football players,

Eddie Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle * Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...

and Anaclet Odhiambo. Odhiambo is now back at Leicester City as a part-time Academy coach.

Club career

Leicester City

Odhiambo made his senior debut in a 3–2

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

defeat against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

on 24 October 2006. On 5 May 2007 he signed his first professional contract with Leicester along with seven other players, including

Andy King Andrew or Andy King may refer to: * Andrew King (astrophysicist) (born 1947), British astrophysicist * Andrew King (architect), Canadian architect and cross-disciplinary artist * Andrew King (mayor) (born 1960 or 1961), former mayor of Hamilton, Ne ...

Max Gradel Max-Alain Gradel (born 30 November 1987) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Turkish club Sivasspor and the Ivory Coast national team. Gradel received his first call-up to the Ivory Coast national team i ...

and

Carl Pentney Carl Benjamin Pentney (born 29 October 1989) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the head of academy goalkeeping at Ipswich Town. Club career Leicester City Born in Colchester, Essex, Pentne ...

. He joined League One side

on a one-month loan on 31 August. Odhiambo made his debut, coming on as a substitute in the late minute, as Southend lose 3–2 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 ...

the following day and on 29 September 2007, he made his first start and played 90 minutes, in a 2–1 win over

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

. His loan deal was extended by a month on 27 September, and several days later, having his loan deal extended, his loan spell was extended by a month once again but he returned to Leicester on 29 October without scoring any goals. Odhiambo joined

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

club

on loan in the January transfer window until the end of the season, under former Leicester manager

Craig Levein Craig William Levein (born 22 October 1964) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is currently a full-time advisor to the board of directors at Highland Football League club Brechin City. During his playing career ...

. He made his debut as a last-minute substitute in United's 4–1 win against Hearts on 2 January. On 27 November 2008 having failed to feature for Leicester up to this point, he joined

on an initial one-month loan deal. Having returned from an unsuccessful loan spell at Brentford, Odhiambo had his Leicester contract terminated by mutual consent on 30 January 2009, having never played a league game for the club.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle

On the same day, Odhiambo joined

side

until the end of the season, making his debut as a second-half substitute against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. The next game, Odhiambo scored his first goal, with the opener, in a 1–1 draw against his former club, Dundee United. Later in the season, the club would get relegated from the Scottish Premier League. Despite being used less often, Odhiambo was offered a new contract for another season and signed a new deal the following month, with a one-year deal. With the club relegated, Odhiambo started his season, having missed out, due to injury but kept his first-team place and scored his first goal of the season, in a 2–0 win over

Airdrie United Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

on 14 November 2009, having played his first match last week. In the second half of the 2009–10 season, he was a key player in

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. He works as an academy coach for Ipswich Town. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps ...

's side which gained promotion to the SPL and scored five goals. At the end of the season, with the club promoted, Odhiambo was offered a new contract with the club for another season and signed another one-year deal. With the club back at the Scottish Premier League, Odhiambo soon started his season when he scored his first of the season in the first round of Scottish League Cup in a 3–0 win over Queen's Park and scored three goals in two consecutive games against Hearts and a brace against St Mirren and on 30 October 2010, Odhiambo soon scored against Scottish giant Rangers. After the match, manager Butcher praised his performance. Due to his goalscoring form for months, Odhiambo was known as a 'super sub', insisting he wants to make a start in the first team, rather staying on the bench. Since then, Odhiambo was unable to score more goals and have been most used substitute later on the season. Despite earlier in the season that Odhiambo will stay, He was released by Inverness at the end of the 2010–2011 season Since been released by Inverness,

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

reports that Odhiambo is being tracked by number of clubs south of the border with an unnamed League One club

Denizlispor

In July, Odhiambo then signed for Turkish side

on a three-year deal After the move, Odhiambo says his challenge to make an impact, like

Kenny Miller Kenneth Miller (born 23 December 1979) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. Miller, who played as a striker, is one of only five post-war players to have played for both Rangers and Celtic. Miller began his career at ...

. Having made five appearances by coming on as a substitute in the second half, Odhiambo scored his first goal, as Denizlispor lose 5–2 against

Bucaspor Bucaspor was a professional Turkish football club based in Buca, Izmir. Formed in 1928, Bucaspor were nicknamed Fırtına (Storm). The club colours were yellow and navy. It was dissolved in 2020. History Bucaspor was the fifth football club to ...

on 15 October 2011. On 25 March 2012, Odhiambo received a red card – for the first time in his Turkish career – after a second bookable offence, in a 1–1 draw against

Karşıyaka Karşıyaka () is a district of İzmir Province in Turkey. The district extends for twelve kilometres along the northern and eastern coastline of the tip of the Gulf of İzmir. Its centre is at a distance of to the north from the traditional cen ...

. The next season, Odhiambo provided assist for Yasin Görkem Arslan – in a 1–0 win over

Gaziantep Büyükşehir Belediyespor Gaziantep Futbol Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Gaziantep. Founded in 1988, the club currently plays in the Süper Lig, the highest tier of Turkish football. The club was founded as Sankospor in 1988 and competed at th ...

on 3 September 2012 and several weeks later on 23 September 2012, Odhiambo scored his second goal for the club – in a 4–3 loss against

Tavşanlı Tavşanlı is a town and district of Kütahya Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. Tavşanlı is a typical Aegean town where a government-owned coal mine company attracted thousands of settlers from surrounding cities and villages which mad ...

. Several months later, Odhiambo soon find himself left out of the first team after a contract dispute with the club. Soon after, Odhiambo went on trial with League Two side

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

. However, the move had no avail.

Hereford

On 19 September 2013, Hereford signed Odhiambo subject to international clearance. During his time at Edgar Street, his opportunities were limited as he made only seven appearances, scoring one goal against Dartford. He left Edgar Street on 7 January 2014 following the expiration of his contract.

Sligo Rovers

After leaving Hereford, Odhiambo signed for

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

side

, based in

County Sligo County Sligo ( , gle, Contae Shligigh) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the Border Region and is part of the province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in the county. Sligo County Council is the local ...

, Ireland. On 24 February 2014, Odhiambo scored a hat-trick on his debut against

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

in the 2014 Setanta Sports Cup.

Kidlington

After leaving Sligo Rovers, Odhiambo signed for Uhlsport Hellenic Premier Division side

, based in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England. Odhiambo signed for Kidlington in August 2015 where he was a member of the side that won the Uhlsport Hellenic Premier Division title 2015–16 season, thus earning promotion to the

Southern Football League The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...

Division One Central.

Honours

;

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as t ...

: 2009–10

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Odhiambo, Eric 1989 births Living people Footballers from Oxford English footballers English people of Tanzanian descent Black British sportspeople Association football forwards Leicester City F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. players Denizlispor footballers Hereford United F.C. players Sligo Rovers F.C. players Brackley Town F.C. players Kidlington F.C. players North Leigh F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Scottish Premier League players English expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Turkey