James Bamidele Oluwafemi Alabi (born 8 November 1994) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for

Bath City Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club have ...

. He has previously played for Stoke City, Scunthorpe United,

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete his ...

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

, Chester,

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

Dover Athletic Dover Athletic Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in the town of Dover, Kent, England. The club currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club was formed in 198 ...

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, ...

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

and Maidstone United.

Career

Alabi was born in

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas ...

and began his career at

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

, before departing the club after not being offered a professional contract. Alabi later joined Stoke City, playing for the club's academy in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

before moving to Scottish club

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 ...

. After a season at

Lennoxtown Lennoxtown ( gd, Baile na Leamhnachd, ) is a town in East Dunbartonshire council area and the historic county of Stirlingshire, Scotland at the foot of the Campsie Fells, which are just to the north. The town had a population of 4,094 at the 20 ...

he moved back to Stoke City for the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season. On 21 February 2013 he joined

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 ...

side Scunthorpe United on loan for a month. After seeing him in training Irons manager

Brian Laws Brian Laws (born 14 October 1961) is an English former professional footballer and manager. Playing as a defender, Laws made over 100 appearances for each of Burnley, Middlesbrough, and Nottingham Forest. In 1994, Laws became player-manager of ...

compared him as a 'technically better' version of John Gayle, who Laws believes was one of his best signings in his first spell at Scunthorpe. He made his professional debut on 23 February against

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded i ...

Glanford Park Glanford Park is a football stadium in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, and is the current home of team Scunthorpe United. Opened in 1988 at a construction cost of £2.5 million, it was the first new purpose-built Football League stadi ...

, scoring 10 minutes after coming on as a 67th-minute substitute. On 26 March 2013 his loan spell at Scunthorpe was extended until the end of the

season. He remained at

for the remainder of the season, playing in nine matches as they failed to avoid relegation. On 31 October 2013, Alabi joined

on a one-month loan. He made his debut for Mansfield the next day 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 ...

but was sent-off after for a late tackle. Alabi then joined

on a one-month loan on 28 November 2013. He made his debut on 30 November 2013 in an FA Trophy first round tie against Dartford. He played in six games for Forest Green without scoring before returning to Stoke at the end of December 2013. On 11 March 2014, Alabi 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 Scunthorpe United for a second loan spell with the Iron. He made one appearance for Scunthorpe before returning to Stoke. On 9 August 2014, Alabi joined

on a one-month loan. He played three times for Stanley before returning to Stoke. In January 2015 Alabi had a trial with Dutch side De Graafschap. He was released by Stoke at the end of the 2014–15 season and joined

, after impressing Mick McCarthy by scoring 2 goals in 2 appearances for the under 21s side on trial, on a one-year deal on 24 August 2015. On 25 August 2015, Alabi made his Ipswich debut, scoring in a 4–1 win against

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

in a League Cup second round match. On 25 November 2015, Alabi joined

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

side

, on loan until 3 January 2016. Following his release by Ipswich, Alabi signed for

side Chester, on a deal until the end of the 2015–16 season. Alabi joined

from Chester on 10 July 2017.He was placed on the transfer list in May 2019, but removed by the club in July 2019. On 16 January 2020, Alabi signed for

, on loan from

until the end of the 2019–20 Season.On 4 September 2020, Alabi signed for

, as a free agent previously from

in the 2020–21 season.On 1 July 2022, Alabi left Bromley following the expiry of his contract. On 9 July 2022, Alabi joined newly promoted National League club Maidstone United. Following the club's relegation, Alabi was released after one season. On 12th January 2024 Bath City confirmed the signing of Alabi until the end of the season.

Personal life

Born in England, Alabi is of Nigerian descent.

Career statistics

Honours

Leyton Orient *

: 2018–19
Bromley * FA Trophy: 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alabi, James 1994 births Living people English men's footballers English people of Ghanaian descent Black British sportsmen Men's association football forwards Stoke City F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Chester F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Dover Athletic F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Eastleigh F.C. players Bromley F.C. players Maidstone United F.C. players Bath City F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Footballers from Southwark