Noah Arinzechukwu Okafor (born 24 May 2000) is a Swiss 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 ...

who plays as a striker 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 Cop ...

club

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

and the Switzerland national team.

Club career

FC Basel

Okafor played his first youth football with local team FC Arisdorf. In 2009 he moved to the youth of

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, a ...

and continued through all the stages of their youth academy. He advanced to their first team during their 2018–19 season and on 31 January 2018, Okafor signed his first professional contract with his club under head coach Raphaël Wicky. He played his debut for their first team on 19 May 2018 in the home game against

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league s ...

. The trainer substituted him in for the injured

Mohamed Elyounoussi Mohamed Amine Elyounoussi (born 4 August 1994), nicknamed Moi (), is a professional footballer who plays as a forward or winger for Premier League club Southampton and the Norway national team. Early life Elyounoussi was born in Al Hoceim ...

in the 34th minute and the game ended in a 2–2 draw. He scored his first goal for his club in the second round of the 2018–19 season on 28 July 2018 in the 1–1 away draw against Xamax. Under trainer

Marcel Koller Marcel Martin Koller (born 11 November 1960) is a Swiss professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Al Ahly in the Egyptian Premier League. Playing career Born in Zürich, Koller played his entire career ...

Basel won the Swiss Cup in the 2018–19 season. In the first round Basel beat FC Montlingen 3–0, in the second round Echallens Région 7–2 and in the round of 16

Winterthur , neighboring_municipalities = Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell , twintowns = Hall in Tirol (Austria ...

1–0. In the quarter-finals

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Pl ...

were defeated 4–2 after extra time and in the semi-finals

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

were defeated 3–1. All these games were played away from home. The final was held on 19 May 2019 in the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf Bern against

Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg , twintown = , website = www.thun.ch Thun (french: Thou ...

. Striker Albian Ajeti scored the first goal,

Fabian Frei Fabian Frei (born 8 January 1989) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder and a centre-back for Swiss Super League club Basel and the Switzerland national team. Until June 2011, he played for the Swiss U-21 te ...

the second for Basel, then

Dejan Sorgić Dejan Sorgić ( sr-cyr, Дејан Соргић; born 15 September 1989) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a forward for FC Luzern. Career On 20 July 2016, he joined Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwe ...

netted a goal for Thun, but the end result was 2–1 for Basel. Okafor played in four cup games and scored a goal in the semi-final against Zürich. Between the years 2017 and 2020 Okafor played a total of 72 games for Basel scoring a total of nine goals. 39 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, seven in the Swiss Cup, eight in the

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 18 were friendly games. He scored three goals in the domestic league, two in the cup, two in the European competitions and the other two were scored during the test games.

Red Bull Salzburg

On 31 January 2020, Okafor signed for Red Bull Salzburg. On 8 December 2021, Okafor scored the only goal of the game as Salzburg defeated

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

in the final group stage match of the Champions League. The win meant Salzburg secured progression to the Round of 16 and became the first-ever Austrian club to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. On 7 September 2022, during a Champions League group stage match against

, Okafor scored a remarkable goal, leading the match to a 1–1 draw. After outmaneuvering Milan's defender Pierre Kalulu and goalkeeper

Mike Maignan Mike Peterson Maignan (born 3 July 1995) is a French professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club AC Milan and the France national team. Maignan came through the youth teams at Paris Saint-Germain, he was an unused substitute sev ...

with a 'gurkerl' trick shot, his goal landed in the bottom right corner of the net, sparking widespread celebrations in the stadium.

AC Milan

On 22 July 2023, Okafor signed for Italian

side

until 30 June 2028.

International career

Okafor played various international games for the Swiss U-15 and U-17 teams. He played his first game for the U-18 team on 9 May 2018 in the 1–1 draw against the Italian U-18 team. He made his debut for the senior national team debut on 9 June 2019 in the 2019 UEFA Nations League third place game against England, as an 113th-minute substitute for

Haris Seferovic Haris Seferovic ( bs, Seferović, ; born 22 February 1992) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a striker for Süper Lig club Galatasaray, on loan from Portuguese club Benfica, and the Switzerland national team. Seferovic made his ...

. Okafor scored his first international goal for Switzerland on 15 November 2021, in their World Cup qualifying game against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

, a win which secured automatic qualification for Switzerland to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Personal life

Born in

Binningen, Switzerland Binningen ( Swiss German: ''Binnige'') is a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland. It is nestled in a valley, on a plateau, and on two hills overlooking the city of Basel. History ...

, Okafor is of

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...

descent. His father is from Nigeria and his mother is Swiss.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Switzerland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Okafor goal.''

Honours

Basel * Swiss Cup: 2018–19 Red Bull Salzburg * Austrian Bundesliga: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22, 2022–23 * Austrian Cup: 2019–20,

, 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okafor, Noah 2000 births Sportspeople from Basel-Landschaft Living people Swiss men's footballers Swiss people of Nigerian descent Men's association football midfielders Switzerland men's international footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Swiss Super League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players FC Basel players FC Red Bull Salzburg players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Igbo sportspeople Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Austria