Temitayo Olufisayo Olaoluwa Aina (born 8 October 1996) is a 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 wing-back or right back 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 Coppa ...

club

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, and the Nigeria national team.

Club career

Chelsea

Early career

Ola Aina signed for Chelsea as an under-11 and made his youth team debut as a schoolboy in the 2012–13 season and went on to start in both legs of the semi-final and final of the FA Youth Cup. In his youth career, he has also represented Chelsea in the under-18s, under-19s, and under-21 levels. On 19 July 2014, Aina made his first-team debut in a pre-season friendly against

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

, after

Todd Kane Todd Arthur Lucien Kane (born 17 September 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays for Coventry City in the Championship. He plays primarily as a right back, but can also play at right midfielder or left back. He is also eligible t ...

's injury. Aina started the match and was

substituted A substitution reaction (also known as single displacement reaction or single substitution reaction) is a chemical reaction during which one functional group in a chemical compound is replaced by another functional group. Substitution reactions ar ...

at half-time for

Branislav Ivanović Branislav Ivanović ( sr-Cyrl, Бранислав Ивановић, ; born 22 February 1984) is a Serbian former professional footballer. A versatile defender, Ivanović played as a right back, although he can also play as a centre back. Ivanovi ...

as Chelsea went on to win 3–2. Before the 2015–16 season, he was included in the pre-season tour, playing three matches in the

International Champions Cup The International Champions Cup (ICC) was an annual club association football exhibition competition. In 2020, it was abolished due to COVID-19 pandemic. Format The format has changed in each competition. Subsequent tournaments have had diffe ...

. After impressing Chelsea manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

, Aina was included in the first-team squad for the

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

. Although he spent the entire season training full-time with the first-team, he continued his role in the under-21s and under-19s sides. On 23 September 2015, Aina was included in the match-day squad against

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

in the fourth round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

, although he was an unused substitute. Due to a lack of first-team opportunities, Aina refused a new contract despite his current contact ending at the end of the season.

2016–17 season

On 6 July 2016, he signed a new four-year contract, ending the rumours of him leaving the London side. After signing a new contract, Aina was included in the travelling squad to Austria and the United States. He went on to play in all six pre-season matches. On 23 August 2016, Aina was given his professional debut by manager

Antonio Conte Antonio Conte (; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later b ...

in a 3–2 victory over

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

in 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 ...

, being replaced by

John Terry John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the assi ...

in the 77th minute. On 15 October 2016, he made his

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

debut in a 3–0 victory over reigning champions

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

, replacing goalscorer

Victor Moses Victor Moses (born 12 December 1990) is a Nigerian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger on either flank for Russian club FC Spartak Moscow, Spartak Moscow. He has also been deployed as a wing-bac ...

in the 82nd minute.

Loan to Hull City

On 11 July 2017, Chelsea announced that they had loaned Aina to

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 ...

side

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

. He made his debut on the opening day of the season, 5 August 2017, away to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

, in a 1–1 draw. He scored the only goal in a 1–0 defeat of

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

in the third-round of 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 ...

on 6 January 2018.

Torino

On 14 August 2018, Aina joined Italian club

on a season-long loan after signing a new three-year deal with Chelsea. He made his

debut a few days later in Torino's 0–1 opening day defeat at home to

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, coming on as a substitute in place of fellow right-back

Lorenzo De Silvestri Lorenzo De Silvestri (; born 23 May 1988) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Defender (association football), defender for Bologna F.C. 1909, Bologna. He is an offensive Defender (association football)#Ful ...

who went off injured after just 25 minutes. Aina scored his first goal for Torino in a match against

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

on 2 February 2019. Aina made 30

appearances in what was a strong season for Il Toro, whose seventh place finish secured a Europa League qualifying spot. On 11 June 2019, Torino triggered Aina's option to permanently transfer from Chelsea for a reported fee of £9 million. He was a regular again during his second season in Turin, playing 37 times in all competitions.

2020–21 season: Loan to Fulham

On 11 September 2020, Aina returned to the Premier League, signing for

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

on an initial season-long loan with an option to make the deal permanent. On 2 November, Aina scored his first goal for the club, and in the Premier League, in a 2–0 home win over West Brom, shooting into the top-left corner from outside the penalty area. The strike was later selected as the goal of the month by the Premier League. Aina became the third Fulham player to win the Budweiser Goal of the Month award, after

Jean Michaël Seri Jean Michaël Seri (born 19 July 1991) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for EFL Championship club Hull City and the Ivory Coast national team. Club career Early career in the Ivory Coast In his native Ivor ...

and

André Schürrle André Horst Schürrle (; born 6 November 1990) is a German former professional footballer who played as a forward. He began his career at Mainz 05 in 2009, spending two years at the club before a £6.5 million transfer to Bayer 04 Leverkus ...

both won the prize in 2018–19.

International career

England youth teams

Aina has represented England at under-16, under-17, under-18, under-19 and England under-20 levels.

Nigeria

On 28 March 2017, Aina was pictured alongside

Chuba Akpom Chuba Amechi Akpom (born 9 October 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for EFL Championship club Middlesbrough. Akpom began his career at Arsenal, making his senior debut in 2013. Whilst at Arsenal, he had loan periods wi ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

after discussions with

Nigeria Football Federation The Nigeria Football Federation (known as Nigeria Football Association until 2008) is Nigeria's football governing body. It was formally launched in 1945 and formed the first Nigerian national football team in 1949. It joined CAF in 1959 and FIF ...

president, Amaju Pinnick. In May 2017, Aina pledged his international future to Nigeria and obtained a Nigerian passport in preparation to making the switch from England to Nigeria. In the same month, he was called up for the first time to play for Nigeria. In May 2018 he was named in Nigeria's preliminary 30 man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Russia. However, he did not make the final 23. He was later recalled into the squad and played a major role in the team's qualification for the

2019 Africa Cup of Nations The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champion ...

held in Egypt. He played the first match against tournament debutant

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...

, assisting the only goal of the match. On 25 December 2021, He was shortlisted in 2021 AFCON Nations Cup by Caretaker Coach Eguavoen as part of the 28-Man Nigeria Squad

Career statistics

Club

International

Personal life

Aina has a brother, Jordan, who is currently playing for

Fulham Academy The Fulham F.C. Academy is a football academy in London. The Academy, headed by director Hew Jennings, runs along the lines of many of the English football academies as deemed appropriate by the national governing body, and recently awarded Catego ...

Honours

Club

Chelsea Youth * Barclays U21 Premier League: 2013–14 *

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

: 2013–14, 2014–15 *

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League ...

: 2014–15, 2015–16

Individual

Premier League Goal of the Month The Premier League Goal of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player who is deemed to have scored the best Premier League goal each month of the season from August to April. The winner is chosen by a combination of ...

: November 2020

References

External links

England profile
at The FA * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aina, Ola 1996 births Living people Footballers from Southwark Citizens of Nigeria through descent English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Nigerian men's footballers Nigeria men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Chelsea F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Torino FC players Fulham F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Serie A players English expatriate men's footballers Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy English expatriate sportspeople in Italy Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Black British sportsmen English sportspeople of Nigerian descent 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players