Wilfred Oluwafemi Onyedinma (born 24 November 1996) is a Nigerian 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 winger or

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

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

, on loan from club

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

Early life

Onyedinma was born in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

, Nigeria and his parents moved the family to England, along with his brother and two sisters, when Fred was aged three. He grew up in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

Plumstead Plumstead is an area in southeast London, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, England. It is located east of Woolwich. History Until 1965, Plumstead was in the historic counties of England, historic county of Kent and the detail of mu ...

and

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

and attended

Corelli College The Halley Academy is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status located on Corelli Road and near the Kidbrooke area of the Royal Borough of Greenwich in southeast London. It originally opened as Kidbrooke School in 1954 as an all-gi ...

Kidbrooke Kidbrooke is an area of South East London, England, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich south-east of Charing Cross and north west of Eltham. The district takes its name from the Kyd Brook, a watercourse which runs from Orpington to Lewisham, ...

. He played local football representing

Blackheath Blackheath may refer to: Places England *Blackheath, London, England ** Blackheath railway station **Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England *Blackheath, Surrey, England ** Hundred of Blackh ...

district as a youngster alongside

Alex Iwobi Alexander Chuka Iwobi ( ; born 3 May 1996) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Everton and the Nigeria national team. Iwobi began his career at Arsenal, making 149 appearances and scoring 15 goals, and wi ...

, Joe Gomez and

Kasey Palmer Kasey Remel Palmer (born 9 November 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Championship club Coventry City. Born in England, he represented England up to U21 level and currently represents the Jamaica national team. ...

, before he was spotted by

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

scout and former player Andy Massey, and subsequently signed for the club at the age of twelve.

Career

Early career

Onyedinma made his senior debut for

on 4 January 2014 in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

against

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 ...

. He came on as a 62nd-minute substitute for Richard Chaplow as Millwall lost 4–1. He later made his full debut against

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

and was named

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

Wycombe Wanderers

On 27 November 2014, Onyedinma joined

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side,

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

on a loan deal, lasting until January 2015. On 31 December 2014, Onyedinma's loan spell at Wycombe Wanderers was extended to the end of the 2014–15 season as part of the

Paris Cowan-Hall Paris Declan Joseph Cowan-Hall (born 5 October 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward and winger. Having started his career as a youngster at Portsmouth, he went on to play in the Football League for Grimsby Town, ...

transfer deal. On 30 August 2018, Onyedinma rejoined Wycombe Wanderers – this time in

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

– on loan until 1 January 2019. After returning to Millwall in January 2019 for the remainder of the season Onyedinma found first team opportunities hard to come by despite praise for his performances in training from manager Neil Harris. On 30 July 2019 it was confirmed that Onyedinma would be returning to Wycombe for a third time, this time on a permanent 3 year deal for an undisclosed fee. On 6 July 2020, Onyedinma scored twice in the second leg of Wycombe's EFL League One semi-final match against

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

to secure a 2–2 draw and a 6–3 win on aggregate. In the final against

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

on 13 July, Onyedinma won the penalty that led to Wycombe's match-winning goal, securing promotion 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 ...

for the first time in the club's history.

Luton Town

Onyedinma signed for

for an undisclosed fee on 25 May 2021. He scored and assisted a further two goals on his debut for the club, a 3–0 victory over

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

on 7 August 2021. On 28 July 2023, Onyedinma signed for

on a season-long loan.

Career statistics

Honours

Millwall *

EFL League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise tw ...

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 ...

Wycombe Wanderers *EFL League One play-offs:

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Luton Town *

EFL Championship play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , t ...

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

References

External links

Soccerbase Profile

Millwall profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Onyedinma, Fred 1996 births Living people Footballers from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Nigerian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Millwall F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players English Football League players Nigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom Rotherham United F.C. players Nigerian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in England