Jonathan Chiedozie Obika (born 12 September 1990) is an English 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 striker for

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 ...

club

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

Club career

Tottenham

Obika is a product of the Tottenham Hotspur youth system and was the top scorer for the academy side in the 2007–08 season. He made his

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

debut in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

on 27 November 2008 against

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion fr ...

. He also played against Ukrainian side

FC Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was ...

in the same competition. He signed a more secure contract with the club in January 2009. On 19 March 2009 he signed with

team

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

on a month's

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

. His loan was extended until the end of the 2008–09 season in April. In his two-month loan spell he played 10 games scoring four goals. Obika returned to Yeovil on a three-month loan on 11 August 2009. He scored in his third game of the 2009–10 season against

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 professio ...

. He scored again on 1 September against

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

, coming on as a substitute at half time. Along with fellow Tottenham loanees

Steven Caulker Steven Roy Caulker (born 29 December 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Süper Lig club Fatih Karagümrük. Born in England, he represents and captains the Sierra Leone national team. Caulker started his profe ...

and

Ryan Mason Ryan Glen Mason (born 13 June 1991) is an English professional football coach and former player. He became the interim head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in 2021, becoming the youngest coach in Premier League history, at 29. Ma ...

, his loan was extended until the end of the season on 5 November. On 11 February, Obika was sent back to Spurs due to the return to Yeovil of

Arron Davies Arron Rhys Davies (born 22 June 1984) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He made one appearance for the Wales national team. Early life Davies was brought up in Llantwit Major, where he attended Llantwit ...

and was then immediately sent on loan to fellow League One side

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 ...

. On 13 April, Obika scored an injury time equaliser for Millwall against Yeovil and despite what it meant to Millwall's promotion push, he didn't celebrate as a mark of respect for his old club. On 20 August, Obika returned to south London to join

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

on a season-long loan deal. However this was cut short in early January after a series of disappointing performances, and he went on loan to

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

instead. He then joined

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

a few weeks later until the end of the season but was recalled after lack of opportunities at Swindon. Obika then subsequently rejoined Yeovil until the end of the season, his third club of the 2010–11 season, and made 11 appearances scoring 3 goals. Obika then rejoined Yeovil on loan at the start of the 2011–12 season until January 2012, this deal was later extended until the end of the season. On 26 December 2011, Obika scored the first goal of his new loan deal 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 ...

with an overhead kick, and he then went on to score against Carlisle, Sheffield Wednesday and Leyton Orient. In February 2013, Obika signed on loan with Championship side

for the remainder of the 2012–13 season and also signed a one-year contract extension with Spurs until 2014. Obika scored his first goal for Charlton against Leeds United, a stoppage time header to win the match 2–1. Obika followed this up with a 90th-minute winner against Wolves. On 8 January 2014, Obika joined Championship club

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 ...

on an initial three-month loan deal. He scored his first goal for Brighton in the FA Cup 4th round tie against Port Vale in the 78th minute, Brighton won 3–1.

Rohan Ince Rohan Greg Ince (born 8 November 1992) is a Montserratian professional footballer who plays for Woking as a holding midfielder. Ince can also play as a central defender. Club career Chelsea Ince joined Chelsea's academy at the age of seven, ...

Solomon March Solomon Benjamin March (born 20 July 1994) is an English professional footballer who predominantly plays as a left wing-back for club Brighton & Hove Albion. March can also operate further forward as a winger. Early life March was born in Eas ...

scored the other two goals for the Albion. After his deal with Brighton expired, Obika rejoined Charlton Athletic on loan, for the remainder of the season.

Swindon Town

Obika left Tottenham and joined League One club

on 1 September 2014 for an undisclosed fee. He signed a deal to keep him at The County Ground for two years. On 15 June 2017, Obika confirmed that he would be leaving Swindon upon the expiry of his current deal after a three-year spell at the County Ground.

Oxford United

Obika became new manager

Pep Clotet Josep Clotet Ruiz (born 28 April 1977) is a Spanish football coach, currently in charge of Italian Serie B club Brescia. As well as working as assistant at several clubs, he managed Cornellà, Figueres, Espanyol B, Halmstad, Málaga B, Oxfor ...

's first signing at Swindon's rivals

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 ...

when his two-year deal was announced on 5 July 2017. He made his debut as a substitute against

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

in the opening match of the 2017–18 season, which ended in a 2–0 away victory for Oxford, and made his home debut and first starting appearance, and scored his first goal, in the following game, a 4–3 defeat to

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

in the first round of the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. He was released after his contract expired after the 2018–19 season.

St Mirren

In August 2019, Obika signed a two-year deal with

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

side St Mirren. He scored 8 goals in the league, the last of which came in a 1–0 win over Hearts which relegated the Edinburgh club.

Morecambe

In June 2021, Obika signed a two-year deal with

side

International career

Obika was called up to represent

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the Under 20 World Cup tournament hosted in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

from 24 September – 16 October 2009. Obika featured in the first two games against

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Personal life

Obika was born in

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

, London and grew up in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

of Nigerian descent. He attended The Bishop Stopford's School in Enfield. He is the cousin of singer and former ''

Fame Academy ''Fame Academy'' was a British television talent competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner received a chance to become a successful music artist and part of the international franchise ''Star Academy'' known under va ...

'' contestant

Lemar Lemar Obika (born 4 April 1978), known as Lemar, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Initially rising to fame after finishing third on the first series of British talent show ''Fame Academy'', he was later signed to Sony BMG ...

Career statistics

Honours

;Individual *

Sky Bet Sky Betting & Gaming is a British-based gambling company, owned by Flutter Entertainment, with headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire and offices in Sheffield & Solihull. Sky Betting & Gaming consists of five core brands: Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, Sky ...

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

Team of the Week 13/09/14 – 14/09/14

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Obika, Jonathan 1990 births Living people Footballers from Enfield, London English people of Nigerian descent English footballers England youth international footballers Black British sportspeople Association football forwards English Football League players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players St Mirren F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players People educated at Bishop Stopford's School at Enfield Scottish Professional Football League players