Jayden Roy Onen (born 17 February 2001) is an English 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 an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

USL League One USL League One (USL1) is a professional men's association football, soccer league in the United States that had its inaugural season in 2019 USL League One season, 2019. The United States soccer league system, Division III league is operated ...

club

FC Naples FC Naples is a professional American soccer club based in Naples, Florida. Founded in January 2024, the club began play in 2025, as part of USL League One, the third tier of the American soccer pyramid. Their home stadium is at the Paradise Coast ...

. Onen is a product of the

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 ...

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

and

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

academies An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and began his professional career with Brentford B in 2018. Following spells with the U23 teams at

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

, he moved to the United States in 2023. There he played for USL League One clubs

Forward Madison Forward Madison FC is an American professional soccer team based in Madison, Wisconsin. The team was founded in 2018, and played its inaugural season in 2019. The team competes in USL League One, the third division of the United States soccer l ...

Lexington SC Lexington Sporting Club is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 2021 as an expansion side in USL League One (the third division of the United States soccer league system), the clu ...

and FC Naples.

Club career

Youth years

, Onen began his career in the

Arsenal academy The Arsenal Academy was a military academy in Columbia, South Carolina, originally established in 1842 as an independent school by the state of South Carolina. In 1845, the academy became a component of the South Carolina Military Academy (now ...

, before joining

on a scholarship deal in 2017. He remained at

Selhurst Park Selhurst Park is a football stadium in Selhurst, in the London Borough of Croydon, England, which is the home ground of Premier League club Crystal Palace. The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1924. It has hosted interna ...

until December 2017, when he joined the Brighton & Hove Albion academy as a scholar. Onen made one

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

appearance for Albion's U21 team during the 2018–19 season, before his release in December 2018.

English Football League

On 17 December 2018, Onen transferred to the B team at

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 ...

club

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 ...

and signed an 18-month contract. He made 30 appearances and scored three goals for the B team prior to his release at the end of the 2019–20 season. A one-month

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

club

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

in late 2019 yielded just one

injury time Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the ga ...

substitute appearance. On 6 November 2020, after a successful trial period, Onen joined the U23 team at Championship club

on a contract running until the end of the

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 ...

season. During the remainder of the season, he was an unused substitute for the first team on 16 occasions and made two appearances prior to the expiration of his contract. Following a trial spell, Onen signed a contract running until the end of the 2021–22 season with the U23 team at League One club

. He failed to win a call into a first team matchday squad and was released when his contract expired.

USL League One

On 17 January 2023, Onen signed a one-year contract with

club

. He made 27 appearances and scored four goals during a 2023 season which concluded with a playoff quarter-final defeat. Onen's performances were recognised with a nomination for the USL League One Young Player of the Year award. In January 2024, he joined

on a free transfer and made 14 appearances during the 2024 season. On 9 December 2024, Onen became

' first ever signing ahead of the club's inaugural season in

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

International career

Onen was called up to the

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

squad for two 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in March 2020, which were later postponed. He participated in a

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events ...

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

in October 2020.

Personal life

Onen is of Ugandan descent. In July 2020, it was reported that FUFA were trying to arrange

dual-citizenship Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one country under its nationality and citizenship law as a national or citizen of that country. There is no ...

with Uganda for Onen.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Onen, Jayden 2001 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Enfield People from Edmonton, London English men's footballers English people of Ugandan descent Sportspeople of Ugandan descent Brentford F.C. players Men's association football midfielders English Football League players USL League One players Arsenal F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Bromley F.C. players Reading F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Forward Madison FC players English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Lexington SC players 21st-century English sportsmen FC Naples players