Oluwafemi Hollinger-Janzen (born 14 December 1993) is a Beninese former

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 ...

Early life

Hollinger-Janzen was born on 14 December 1993 in

Cotonou Cotonou (; fon, Kútɔ̀nú) is a city in Benin. Its official population count was 679,012 inhabitants in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area. The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The ci ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...

. A mission worker named Lynda Hollinger-Janzen was working in a church-based health care center in Benin, in the maternity department. Women would arrive well into labor, pay $3 to have their babies’ umbilical cords cut with sterile instruments, then leave a few hours later. A maternity doctor burst in the room with an abandoned child... one with a deformed leg. That child was Femi. After a few attempts of connecting the birth mother to him, it failed. When Femi was 6, the birth father signed off on him being adopted, and the birth mother was considered legally incapable of caring for her child. A family court judge then granted Femi’s adoption into the Hollinger-Janzen family. He was officially adopted in 1999.

Career

High school

Femi Hollinger-Janzen attended high school at Bethany Christian Schools in

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka ...

. Femi was named Northern Indiana Soccer Conference Player of the Year, Gatorade All-American, Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year and Indiana Soccer Coaches Association Player of the Year in 2011. Femi had a total of 67 goals and 23 assists during his high school career.

College

Hollinger-Janzen spent his entire college career at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. In his four years with the Hoosiers, he made a total of 88 appearances and tallied 22 goals and eight assists and was part of the team that won the 2012 College Cup.

Professional

On 19 January 2016, Hollinger-Janzen was selected in the third round (51st overall) of the

2016 MLS SuperDraft The 2016 MLS SuperDraft was the seventeenth SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The SuperDraft is held each year in conjunction with the annual National Soccer Coaches Association of America convention. The 2016 convention was held in Ba ...

by the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

. He signed a professional contract with the club on March 16 and made his professional debut four days later in a 3–0 defeat to the

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Union compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the club began playing in 201 ...

. Hollinger-Janzen scored his first professional goal in a 2-0 win over Chicago Fire on 14 May 2016. In the

2016 MLS Expansion Draft The 2016 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion teams Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC. Atlanta United was selected to pick first by an "Expansion Priority Draft" conducted on October 16, 2016. Prot ...

, Femi was selected by

Minnesota United FC Minnesota United FC is an American professional soccer club based in Saint Paul, Minnesota that plays in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer. The club began play in 2017 as the league's 22nd club, and replaced the North American Socc ...

with the 10th pick. In 2017, the

and

completed a trade deal which included a player swap.

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

received

goalkeeper

Bobby Shuttleworth Robert "Bobby" Shuttleworth (born May 13, 1987) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper for multiple teams in MLS and USL Championship. Early life Shuttleworth grew up in Buffalo, New York, and while attending ...

, and Revs received Hollinger-Janzen. New England declined Hollinger-Janzen's contract at the end of their 2018 season. On 7 January 2019, Hollinger-Janzen joined

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

club

Birmingham Legion Birmingham Legion FC is an American professional soccer club based in Birmingham, Alabama, that competes in the USL Championship, the second division of American soccer. The team was established in August 2013 and played under the name Birmingh ...

ahead of their inaugural season. Following his release at the end of the 2019 season, Hollinger-Janzen announced his retirement.

References

External links

*
Indiana Hoosiers biobethanycs.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollinger-Janzen, Femi 1993 births Living people Men's association football forwards Beninese men's footballers Beninese expatriate men's footballers Birmingham Legion FC players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Indiana Hoosiers men's soccer players Major League Soccer players New England Revolution draft picks New England Revolution players People from Goshen, Indiana Soccer players from Indiana FC Tulsa players USL Championship players Sigma Alpha Epsilon members Sportspeople from Cotonou