Patrick Olaiya Olukayode Owomoyela (; born 5 November 1979) is a German former 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 ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n descent who played mainly as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He previously played for

Lüneburger SK Lüneburger Sport-Klub von 1901 e. V. was one of the oldest and most successful football clubs from the Lüneburg area until it merged with Lüneburger SV in 2008 to become Lüneburger SK Hansa. History The club was established on 1 April 1901 ...

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The cl ...

, SC Paderborn 07,

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

SV Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

and

Hamburger SV II Hamburger SV II are the reserve team of German association football club Hamburger SV. Until 2005 the team played as Hamburger SV Amateure. The team has qualified for the first round of the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup, on five occasions. They cur ...

. He was capped by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

at international level and was a member of the squad at the

2005 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup football tournament was the seventh FIFA Confederations Cup. It was held in Germany between 15 June and 29 June 2005, as a prelude to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The tournament was won by 2002 FIFA World Cup winners ...

Club career

Owomoyela began his career in lower league German football. In 2003, he made the step up to

, then in the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

. Great performances for Bielefeld in the 2004–05 season earned Owomoyela interest from German top clubs, and ahead of the 2005–06 season, he joined

. In his first season, Owomoyela was the undisputed starter at

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and helped Bremen reach second in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. With the arrival of

Clemens Fritz Clemens Fritz (born 7 December 1980) is a German former professional footballer who played as a right-back and as a defensive midfielder. He is mostly known for his 11-year spell at Werder Bremen. Having begun his career at Rot-Weiß Erfurt an ...

the following season, however, he lost his starting position due to injuries and bad displays. Owomoyela was finally transferred to

at the beginning of the 2008–09 season, where he looked to reestablish himself in German top-flight football.

International career

Owomoyela debuted for Jürgen Klinsmann's Germany national side in an Asian tour, playing 90 minutes in a 3–0 win over

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, on 16 December 2004, in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

. He later was selected in the ''Bundestrainers team for the

Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

in 2005, but was unused there and was finally overlooked for Germany's World Cup final squad. In total he collected eleven caps.

Post-retirement

Following his retirement, Owomoyela became an

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

commentator for Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal international broadcasts.

Personal life

In addition to his football skills, Owomoyela is also a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player, having played in the German regional league before switching to football full-time. He was born to a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

mother and a

n father. His name "Olukayode" stems from the

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

words "

Olu Olu is a popular name amongst people of the Yoruba ethnic group. It is usually the first three letters of the full name. "Olu" is a diminutive of " Oluwa" in the Yoruba language and it can mean God, deity or lord, so the name 'Oluwale' could mean "M ...

", a diminutive form of "Oluwa" or Olorun meaning "God" and "Kayode" meaning "to bring joy", which translates to "God brings me joy and happiness". In 2021, Owomoyela featured in ', a documentary detailing the experiences of

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

players in German professional football.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Werder Bremen * DFL-Ligapokal:

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Borussia Dortmund *

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. I ...

, 2011–12 * DFB-Pokal: 2011–12

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Owomoyela, Patrick 1979 births Living people Footballers from Hamburg German footballers Association football fullbacks Germany international footballers 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Lüneburger SK players VfL Osnabrück players SC Paderborn 07 players Arminia Bielefeld players SV Werder Bremen players Borussia Dortmund players Borussia Dortmund II players German sportspeople of Nigerian descent German people of Yoruba descent Yoruba sportspeople Borussia Dortmund non-playing staff