Festy Oseiwe Ebosele (born 2 August 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

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

or winger for

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club Udinese.

Early years

Ebosele was born in the town of Enniscorthy in

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

, Ireland to

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

parents. He began playing football for Moyne Rangers in 2010 before joining the academy of League of Ireland side

Bray Wanderers Bray Wanderers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Fánaithe Bhré) are an Irish association football club playing in the League of Ireland First Division. The club in its present form was founded in 1942 in Bray, and was known until 2010 as ''B ...

when he was 14-years-old. Two years later in 2018, he signed for English Championship side Derby County.

Club career

Derby County

Ebosele made his debut for Derby County as a substitute in a 2–0 FA Cup loss to

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...

on 9 January 2021. He was one of fourteen players from Derby County's academy to make their debut in the game, after the entirety of Derby's first team squad and coaching team were forced to isolate due to a

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

outbreak. He made his league debut as a substitute in a 1–0 loss to Norwich City on 10 April 2021. On 6 November 2021, Ebosele scored a first senior goal in a 1–1 draw at Millwall. In January 2022, Ebosele was linked to a move to Derby County's rivals

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 ...

, however Ebosele was said to have rejected the prospect of a move. In March 2022, with Derby being unable to offer Ebosele new contract terms due to the restrictions put on the club by the EFL whilst in administration, it was confirmed that Ebosele would join Udinese at the end of his Derby contract in summer 2022, signing a five year deal with the

club. In the weeks following the transfer, Derby manager

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...

questioned Ebosele's attitude and had him training with the Under-23 squad. Ebosele later got back into the team and finished the season with 37 appearances in all competitions, scoring 2 goals.

Udinese

On 21 March 2022, it was announced that Ebosele would join Italian

club Udinese on a five-year contract starting in the summer of 2022. The transfer was confirmed by Derby County on 4 July, as the club was also entitled to compensation due to Ebosele's homegrown status.

International career

Born in Ireland, Ebosele is of Nigerian descent, so he could choose to represent both the respective countries at international level. He has represented 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 ...

at U16, U17, U19 and U21 levels ever since. He then received his first call-up to the Irish senior national team on 25 May 2022, ahead of their

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

games against

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebosele, Festy 2002 births Living people Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland youth international footballers Association football defenders Association football fullbacks Association football midfielders English Football League players Serie A players Bray Wanderers F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Udinese Calcio players Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers Expatriate footballers in England Irish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Irish people of Nigerian descent Irish sportspeople of African descent European sportspeople of Nigerian descent Black Irish people Black Irish sportspeople Republic of Ireland under-21 international footballers