Blessing Eleke (born 5 March 1996) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker who plays for

Partizani Tirana Futboll Klub Partizani is an Albanian professional football club based in Tirana, that competes in the Kategoria Superiore. Founded in 1946, the club was historically affiliated to the Albanian army. Partizani's home ground is the newly built sta ...

. He previously played for Gorica, Olimpija Ljubljana,

Ashdod Ashdod (, ; , , or ; Philistine language, Philistine: , romanized: *''ʾašdūd'') is the List of Israeli cities, sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District (Israel), Southern District, it lies on the Mediterranean ...

Luzern Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

Beerschot Koninklijke Beerschot Voetbalclub Antwerpen (), or simply Beerschot, is a Belgian professional football club located in Antwerp, that competes in the top tier Pro League after promotion from second tier in 2023–24 season. In 2013, KFCO Wil ...

, Gençlerbirligi,

Kashima Antlers The are a professional association football, football club based in Kashima, Ibaraki, Japan. They currently play in the J1 League, the top tier of Japanese professional football leagues. The club has financial backing from Mercari, a Japanese ...

and Istiklol.

Professional career

Early life and career

Eleke grew up in

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

with his three brothers and four sisters. He started playing football at Flying Sports Academy in his home country, before having an unsuccessful trial at

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

. Later on, he admitted that the transition from Nigeria to Europe was a difficult task to handle at the beginning.

Slovenia

Eleke signed for Olimpija Ljubljana in January 2016 for a reported fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

750,000. On 10 April 2016, in a league fixture versus

Zavrč Zavrč (, in older sources ''Zavrče'', ) is a settlement in the Haloze area of Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Zavrč. It lies between the right bank of the Drava River and the border with Croatia. The area traditionally belonge ...

, Olimpija's manager Nikolić reportedly called Eleke a "black idiot", for elaborately celebrating an injury-time equalizer in an eventual 1–1 draw. Nikolić's contract was eventually terminated by mutual consent on 18 April 2016., although Eleke asked club president

Milan Mandarić Milan Mandarić ( sr-Cyrl, Милан Мандарић; born 5 September 1938) is a Serbian-American businessman who has owned a string of businesses and association football clubs, including Portsmouth, Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday. H ...

not to sack the manager. Eleke revealed that, although he considered leaving the club, he did not want to see his coach sacked, as he did not believe in

eye for an eye "An eye for an eye" (, ) is a commandment found in the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 expressing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure. The earliest known use of the principle appears in the Code of Hammurabi, which predates the wr ...

Israel and Switzerland

In August 2017, Eleke transferred to

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

club

for a reported fee of €800,000. On 27 July 2018, Eleke signed a four-year contract with Swiss Super League club

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

for a reported fee of approximately 1 million

Swiss francs The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) i ...

. After being cleared to play for Luzern, he managed to score on his debut, helping his club get past

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

4–2.

Gençlerbirligi SK

On 1 September 2021, Eleke was loaned out to Turkish club Gençlerbirligi SK for the rest of the season.

Kashima Antlers

On 1 August 2022, Kashima Antlers confirmed an agreement with

K Beerschot VA Koninklijke Beerschot Voetbalclub Antwerpen (), or simply Beerschot, is a Belgian professional Association football, football club located in Antwerp, that competes in the top tier Belgian Pro League, Pro League after promotion from second tie ...

for him to join on a complete transfer, becoming one of the few Nigerian footballers to play in Japan. Eleke only made 6 appearances for the club over two seasons and was released from the club when his contract expired at the end of the 2023 season.

Istiklol

On 21 March 2024,

Tajikistan Higher League The Ligai Olii Tojikiston or Tajikistan Higher League (; ) is the top division of professional association football, football in Tajikistan. It is part of the Tajikistan Football League Organization and Tajikistan Football Federation. It was fou ...

club Istiklol announced the signing of Eleke to a one-year contract. On 20 April, Eleke scored a Hattrick for Istiklol in their 6-0 victory over

Kuktosh Rudaki Kuktosh Rudaki is a Tajikistan, Tajik professional association football, football club based in Rudaki District. History They won the 2017 Tajikistan First League and were promoted to the top division Tajikistan Football League for 2018 Tajik Le ...

in the Tajikistan Higher League.

Partizani Tirana

On 23 January 2025,

announced the signing of Eleke.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Olimpija Ljubljana * PrvaLiga: 2015–16 Istiklol *

Tajik Supercup The Superjomi Tojikiston (; ), or Tajik Super Cup, is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. The two participating clubs are holders of the Tajik League champions title and the Tajik Cup. If the Tajik League championship and th ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

References

External links