Rubin Rafael Okotie (; born 6 June 1987) is an Austrian 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He is also a full Austrian international and represented the nation at the 2016 UEFA European Championship. Having moved to Austria at the age of six, Okotie began his playing career with

Austria Vienna Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mos ...

. He made his professional debut in 2007 and went on to make over 50 appearances for the club before joining German side 1. FC Nürnberg. Okotie spent a season at Nürnberg, and another season on loan with Belgian side

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; french: link=no, Saint-Trond ; li, Sintruin ) is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium, and has over 41,500 inhabitants, which makes it one of the largest cities in Limburg. The muni ...

before returning to Austria to sign for

Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian association football club, based in Graz, Styria, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austrian f ...

. A season-and-a-half later he returned to Austria Vienna where following which he had a loan stint with

SønderjyskE SønderjyskE is a Danish sport corporation. They have a football team (SønderjyskE Fodbold, based in Haderslev), two handball teams (SønderjyskE Håndbold, one male based in Sønderborg, one female based in Aabenraa) and an ice hockey team (S ...

in Denmark. In 2014 he signed for 1860 Munich where he scored 21 goals in 57 appearances before joining current employers, Beijing Enterprises.

Early life and career

Okotie was born in the Pakistani city of

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

to an Austrian mother and Nigerian father. Soon after his birth, his family moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in Spain before immigrating to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

when he was four-years old. Okotie joined his first football club two years later before signing for the

Rapid Vienna Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

academy at the age of ten. Three years later, he left to join club rivals

, where he later made his professional debut.

Club career

Austria Vienna

Okotie quickly progressed through the Frank-Stronach-Fußballakademie at

and was playing in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

with the reserve side at the age of seventeen. In 2007, he made his professional debut for the club against

SV Ried SV Ried is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club from Ried im Innkreis, Upper Austria. The team plays its home matches at Josko Arena, a stadium with a capacity of 7,680. After being relegated from Austrian Football Bundesli ...

before scoring his first goal the following year in a 3–1 win over

FC Red Bull Salzburg FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian professional football club based in Wals-Siezenheim, that competes in the Austrian Bundesliga, the top flight of Austrian Football. Their home ground is the Red Bull Arena. Due to sponsorship restrictions, ...

. At the end of his debut campaign with the club he was recognized with the

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

's Young Star of the Season award. Rubin Rafael Okotie - FK Austria Wien (quer)

The following season he scored the opening goal in the

2008–09 Austrian Cup The 2008–09 Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup, also ''Stiegl-Cup'' for sponsoring purposes) was the 75th season of Austria's nationwide football cup competition. It started on July 18, 2008 with the first game of the preliminary round. The final wa ...

final to help ''Die Veilchen'' to a 3–1 victory over Trenkwalder Admira, and thereby claim the title. During the

2009–10 Austrian Football Bundesliga The 2009–10 Austrian Football Bundesliga was the 98th season of top-tier football in Austria. The competition is officially called ''tipp3-Bundesliga powered by T-Mobile'', named after the Austrian betting company tipp3 and the Austrian branch ...

season, he suffered a serious knee injury which ruled him out for seven months, and limited him to just seven appearances for the season. During his time on the sidelines, Okotie was approached by 1. FC Nürnberg who assisted him in locating a doctor to help him in the recovery process and at the end of the season he signed for the German club, departing Austria with a return of 21 goals in 57 league appearances.

1. FC Nürnberg

On 30 May 2010, Okotie signed a three-year contract with 1. FC Nürnberg, who had secured promotion to 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 ...

through the previous season's play-offs. He struggled at the club, however, due in part to injury and illness, and managed to feature in just four appearances during his debut season. He spent the following season on

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 ...

in Belgium with

, where he scored once in ten appearances, before leaving to join

Sturm Graz

Okotie failed to feature for Nürnberg again following the expiration of his loan with Sint-Truiden and in January 2012 returned to Austria to join

, initially on a season-long loan. He scored two goals in thirteen appearances on loan before signing for the club permanently on a free transfer at the end of the season. He scored 12 goals across all competitions during the following season's campaign before leaving the club to rejoin Austria Vienna.

Return to Austria Vienna

Okotie returned to Austria Vienna ahead of the 2013–14 campaign but scored only once in thirteen appearances during the course of the season. Following discord with club manager

Nenad Bjelica Nenad Bjelica (; born 20 August 1971) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who was most recently in charge of Prva HNL club Osijek. Club career Born in Osijek, Bjelica started playing for a local club, Metalac Olt ...

he left to join Danish side

on loan. He made 15 appearances during his spell in Denmark and scored eleven goals.

1860 Munich

After a loan spell with SønderjyskE expired, Okotie joined 2. Bundesliga side 1860 Munich on 2 July 2014 on a two-year contract. He spent two seasons with in Munich during which time he scored 25 goals in 64 appearances and proved to be a crucial player in the club's relegation survival in 2015.

Beijing Enterprises Group

In July 2016, Okotie joined

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

team

Beijing Enterprises Group Beijing Sport University Football Club (), commonly known as BSU (), is a Chinese professional football club that currently participates in the China League One division under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is base ...

on a two-and-a-half-year deal. He scored three goals in 24 appearances over the next year-and-a-half before mutually terminating his contract with the club in February 2018.

International career

As a result of his multinational background, and prior to making his senior debut for

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, Okotie was eligible to represent three countries at national level, namely

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 ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Okotie identifies himself primarily as Austrian, however, stating in an interview with

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

's website that "I live there, it's where I have my friends, and I think of myself as Austrian" . Okotie represented Austria at various youth levels and featured for the nation at the 2006 European championships in Poland and the 2007 World Cup in Canada, where Austria reached the semi-finals. His senior debut followed in 2008 when he selected by

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Karel Bruckner for a match against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. He was, however, left out of Austria's squad for the

2008 UEFA European Football Championship The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

later that year. Austria failed to qualify for the

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and

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

tournaments but topped their qualifying group for

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

. Okotie scored twice during qualifying, against

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and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, and was later chosen for the tournament squad.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Austria Vienna *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Austria U20 *

U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 wh ...

: fourth place 2007 Austria U19 * U-19 European Championship: third place 2006 Individual * Austria's Best Sportsteam of the Year: Austria U20 2007

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okotie, Rubin 1987 births Living people Association football forwards Austrian footballers Austrian people of Nigerian descent Austrian expatriate footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Austria youth international footballers Austria under-21 international footballers Austria international footballers FK Austria Wien players 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Nürnberg II players Sint-Truidense V.V. players SK Sturm Graz players SønderjyskE Fodbold players TSV 1860 Munich players Beijing Sport University F.C. players K Beerschot VA players Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in China Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bundesliga players China League One players 2. Bundesliga players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Danish Superliga players Footballers from Karachi UEFA Euro 2016 players Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Footballers from Vienna Austrian expatriate sportspeople in China