Jon Okafor (born August 25, 1989) is an American soccer player who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

College and amateur

Okafor played four years of

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United K ...

at Brown University between 2007 and 2010. Brown soccer team won the Ivy League Conference and went 7–0 in 2007. In 2010, Brown also reached the Sweet 16 round in the NCAA tournament. During his time at college, Okafor also played for

USL PDL USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

club

Central Jersey Spartans Central Jersey Spartans was an American soccer team based in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 2009, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Mid Atlan ...

in 2010.

Professional career

Okafor was drafted 40th overall by

Chivas USA Chivas USA (pronounced ''CHEE-vahs'') was an American professional soccer team based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. The club played from 2005 to 2014 in Major League Soccer (MLS) and was a subsidiary of Mexican club C.D. G ...

in the

2011 MLS SuperDraft The 2011 MLS SuperDraft was the twelfth annual SuperDraft presented by Major League Soccer. It was held on January 13, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland, during the 2011 NSCAA Convention at the Baltimore Convention Center. The 2011 SuperDraft consiste ...

. However, he wasn't signed by the team due to contract disputes. Okafor signed his first professional contract in February 2013, when he joined

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

club MYPA. He went on to play for Arizona United in the USL and was a standout player with the squad before moving to Atlanta Silverbacks in the NASL.

References

1989 births Living people American soccer players American expatriate soccer players Brown Bears men's soccer players Central Jersey Spartans players Myllykosken Pallo −47 players Phoenix Rising FC players Atlanta Silverbacks players People from Verona, New Jersey Soccer players from New Jersey Sportspeople from Essex County, New Jersey Chivas USA draft picks USL League Two players Veikkausliiga players USL Championship players North American Soccer League players Expatriate footballers in Finland Association football midfielders American expatriate sportspeople in Finland {{US-footy-midfielder-stub