Andrew Abiola Omobamidele (born 23 June 2002) is an Irish 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 lea ...

who plays as a defender for side

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, and the Republic of Ireland national team.

Early life

Omobamidele was born in

Leixlip Leixlip ( or ; , ) is a town in north-east County Kildare, Ireland. Its location on the confluence of the River Liffey and the Rye Water has marked it as a frontier town historically: on the border between the ancient kingdoms of Leinster and ...

, County Kildare, to an Irish mother and a Nigerian father. As a youth, he played for the Dublin District Schoolboys League representative side alongside fellow future Irish international

Gavin Bazunu Gavin Okeroghene Bazunu (born 20 February 2002) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Southampton, and the Republic of Ireland national team. Bazunu started his career at Shamrock Rovers, making his first team ...

Club career

Norwich City

On 23 December 2020, Omobamidele signed a new professional contract with

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

. He made his debut for Norwich on 16 January 2021 as a substitute in a 2–1

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 sys ...

league win against

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

. Omobamidele's first start for Norwich was on in a 1–1 draw to Preston North End on 2 April 2021, when he played the full 90 minutes and was awarded Man of the Match. On 11 September 2021, he made his

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

debut, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 loss to

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 ...

at the

Emirates Stadium The Emirates Stadium (known as Arsenal Stadium for UEFA competitions) is a association football, football stadium in Holloway, London, England. It has been the home stadium of Arsenal F.C., Arsenal Football Club since its completion in 2006. ...

. On 31 October 2021, Omobamidele scored his first

goal, which was also his first goal in senior football, heading home the equaliser from a corner in an eventual 2–1 loss to

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

Carrow Road Carrow Road is a association football, football stadium in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship club Norwich City F.C., Norwich City. The stadium is east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum. ...

Nottingham Forest

On 1 September 2023, Omobamidele signed with

club

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

until 2028, for a fee reported to be £11 million. He scored a debut goal for Forest in an FA Cup 3rd round replay against Blackpool, which Forest won 3–2 after extra time. He made his league debut for Forest on 20 January 2024, in a 3–2 defeat to

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Strasbourg

On 24 January 2025, Omobamidele joined

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

club

on loan for the remainder of the season. Later that year, on 24 June, he finalized his permanent transfer by signing a contract until 2029.

International career

On 24 May 2021, Omobamidele received his first call up to the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

senior squad for the summer friendlies against

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He made his international debut on 1 September 2021, as a 36th minute substitute for the injured Dara O'Shea in a 2022 World Cup qualifier against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

at the

Estádio Algarve The Estádio Algarve (') is an association football stadium located between Faro and Loulé municipalities, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The stadium has a total capacity of 30,305 spectators and was purposely built for the UEFA Euro 2004 ...

in Faro.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Norwich City *

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

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 ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Nottingham Forest F.C. websit * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Omobamidele, Andrew 2002 births Living people People from Leixlip Association footballers from Dublin (city) Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Men's association football midfielders Norwich City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players RC Strasbourg Alsace players English Football League players Premier League players Ligue 1 players Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Irish expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in France Black Irish sportspeople Irish people of Nigerian descent 21st-century Irish sportsmen Association footballers from County Kildare