Michael Oluwadurotimi Obafemi (born 6 July 2000) 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 ...

who plays as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

and the Irish national team.

Early life

Obafemi was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

to Nigerian parents. While he was still an infant, his family moved to England and he was raised in the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

area. His older brother

Afolabi Obafemi Afolabi Adedoyin Olamilekan Oluwatimileh Obafemi (born 24 November 1994) is an English professional Association football, footballer who last played as a Forward (association football), forward for Barking F.C., Barking, having previously played ...

is also a footballer.

Club career

Obafemi was released by

Watford Watford () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal en ...

prior to his 14th birthday in 2014. He took a year out of the game before joining Leyton Orient in 2015, moving on to

Southampton Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...

in 2016.

Southampton

Obafemi made his professional debut for Southampton as a substitute in the 82nd minute of a 1–1 draw with

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

on 21 January 2018. Aged 17 years and 199 days, Obafemi became the second youngest player to make a Premier League appearance for Southampton after Luke Shaw, who was 17 years and 116 days old. He scored his first professional goal with the third goal in a 3–1 victory at

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into t ...

on 22 December 2018; at 18 years and 169 days old, he became Southampton's youngest scorer in the Premier League.

Swansea City

On 31 August 2021, Obafemi joined

for a fee reported to be between £1.5 and £2 million, signing a three-year contract. On 23 October 2021, Obafemi scored his first goal for Swansea in their 2–1 defeat to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

. On Summer Deadline Day 2022, Swansea rejected a number of bids from

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

for Obafemi with the striker subsequently being left out of the team with concerns from manager Russell Martin over the striker's attitude. In the January transfer window, Martin confirmed that there was again interest in Obafemi from Burnley with Swansea now being open to selling the player.

International career

Obafemi was eligible to represent England, Nigeria, and the Republic of Ireland. In November 2018 he committed to the Republic of Ireland. Obafemi represented the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

at under-19 level, debuting during the

2019 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification The 2019 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Armenia in the 2019 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final t ...

campaign. On 6 November 2018, Obafemi was named in the senior

squad for the first time for the friendly against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

on 15 November and the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

match against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

on 19 November 2018. He came on as a substitute in the second half of the 0–0 draw against Denmark to make his debut. He also became the first player born in the 2000s to win a senior cap for Ireland. Obafemi made his debut for the Republic of Ireland under-21 team on 10 October 2019, coming off the bench, in a 0–0 draw with Italy under-21s at

Tallaght Stadium Tallaght Stadium ( ga, Staid Thamhlachta) is an association football stadium in the Republic of Ireland based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club Shamrock Rovers originally announced details of the stadium in July, 1996. The stadium is now ow ...

. On 11 June 2022, he made his first international start at senior level, in a

match against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, providing one assist (for

Troy Parrott Troy Daniel Parrott (born 4 February 2002) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Preston North End, on loan from Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. He also represents the Republic of Ireland national team at senior ...

) and scoring his first goal, before a groin strain saw Obafemi substituted five minutes after scoring, being replaced by

Scott Hogan Scott Andrew Hogan (born 13 April 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Birmingham City and the Republic of Ireland national team. Hogan played in the youth system at Rochdale but was released in 2010. He ent ...

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

*
Michael Obafemi profile
at Swansea City AFC {{DEFAULTSORT:Obafemi, Michael 2000 births Living people Association footballers from Dublin (city) Footballers from Greater London Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland youth international footballers Association football forwards Leyton Orient F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Premier League players Black Irish sportspeople Irish people of Nigerian descent Irish sportspeople of African descent European sportspeople of Nigerian descent Republic of Ireland international footballers