Michael Richie Onovwigun (born 9 April 1996 in Clapham, England) is a retired English semi-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 played as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Onovwigun was a product of the

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

academy and began his professional career with

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

in 2014. After his release in 2016, Onovwigun embarked on a journeyman career in

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

before retiring in 2020.

Playing career

Brentford

Born in

Clapham, London Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history ...

, Onovwigun began his career in the academy at

and signed a two-year scholarship during the 2012 off-season. After featuring regularly for the Development Squad in

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

es during the 2012–13

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

, Onovwigun was called into the first team squad for a friendly versus

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

on 7 August 2012 and he replaced

Jake Reeves Jake Kenny Reeves (born 30 May 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Stevenage. He began his career in the youth system at Tottenham Hotspur, before beginning his senior career with Brentford in 2011. ...

after 73 minutes of the 4–1 victory. Onovwigun made over 50 appearances for the youth team and 9 for the Development Squad between 2011 and 2014 and departed the club at the end of the 2013–14 season, after failing to be offered a professional contract.

Chesterfield

On 31 July 2014, Onovwigun signed a one-year professional Development Squad contract at League One club

after a successful trial. He received his maiden call into the first team squad for a league match versus

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on 16 August and made his professional debut when he came on as an 89th-minute substitute for Jimmy Ryan in a 2–1 win. Onovwigun joined

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

First Division South club

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

on a

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 ...

that was later extended until 3 January 2015. He made eight appearances and scored two goals for the club. On 6 February 2015, Onovwigun and Chesterfield teammate Charlie Dawes joined Conference North club

Stalybridge Celtic Stalybridge Celtic Football Club is an English football club based in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. They are currently members of the and play at Bower Fold. The team traditionally plays in a blue and white strip. In 1921 Stalybridge Celtic ...

on one month loans. He made just one appearance and after his return to Chesterfield, he had a run of three first team calls in March 2015 and made one substitute appearance against Gillingham in the middle of the month. Onovwigun finished the 2014–15 season with three appearances and the option to extend his contract was taken up for another season. Onovwigun made his only appearance of the 2015–16 season as a substitute during a 3–1 League Cup first round

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

defeat to

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

on 11 August 2015. On 24 March 2016, he joined

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

club

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

on loan until the end of the 2015–16 season. Onovwigun made three appearances he departed Chesterfield when his contract expired.

Non-league football

On 16 August 2016, Onovwigun transferred to

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

Premier Division club

Dulwich Hamlet Dulwich Hamlet Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in East Dulwich in south-east London, England. They are currently members of and play at Champion Hill. History The club was formed in 1893, by Lorraine 'Pa' Wilson. T ...

. He made just two appearances, before moving within the division to join

Kingstonian Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London which currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The club was founded in 1885 by YMC ...

on 31 August. After making 11 appearances and scoring two goals, he transferred to Southern League First Division Central club

Farnborough Farnborough may refer to: Australia * Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone United Kingdom * Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England ** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...

on 24 November. Onovwigun moved back up to the National League to join Southport on 7 January 2017 and returned to the Isthmian League Premier Division to sign for

Merstham Merstham is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It lies 25 miles south of Charing Cross and 2 miles south of the Greater London border. Part of the North Downs Way runs along the northern boundary of the town. Mers ...

on 6 March. Onovwigun rejoined Dulwich Hamlet at the beginning of the 2017–18 season and was a part of the team which secured promotion to the

National League South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

, though he did not feature in Hamlet's successful Isthmian League Premier Division play-off campaign. After signing a new contract, Onovwigun joined Isthmian League Premier Division club

Carshalton Athletic Carshalton Athletic Football Club is an English football club based in Carshalton in the London Borough of Sutton. They currently play in the and are based at the War Memorial Sports Ground. The club also field a women's team playing in the Lo ...

on a three-month loan in September 2018 and after returning to Dulwich Hamlet for the second half of the 2018–19 season, he rejoined Carshalton on a permanent basis during the 2019 off-season. Onovwigun made two early- 2019–20 season appearances for Carshalton Athletic, before transferring to division rivals

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

in late August 2019. Until his release in December 2019, Onovwigun was a regular member of the Lewes team and he moved up to the National League South to join

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...

in January 2020. After just one appearance for the Darts, he joined Isthmian League South Central Division club Staines Town on a dual-registration deal in February and then moved to North Division club Maldon & Tiptree on a permanent transfer in early March. Onovwigun made three appearances for the Jammers, before the 2019–20 Isthmian League season was ended early. He announced his retirement from

in July 2020. Onovwigun made five appearances for

Southern Counties East League The Southern Counties East Football League is an English football league established in 1966, which has teams based in Kent and Southeast London. Until 2013, it was known as the Kent League. There was a previous Kent League, that existed from ...

First Division club

AFC Whyteleafe AFC Whyteleafe is an English association football, football club based in Whyteleafe, Surrey. The club was established in 2021 and plays at the Whyteleafe Stadium in Church Road, Whyteleafe following the demise of Whyteleafe FC and is currently ...

during the

2022–23 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 b ...

season.

Sunday league football

In 2020, Onovwigun dropped into

Sunday league football Sunday league football is a term used in Britain and Ireland to describe the amateur association football competitions which take place on Sunday rather than the more usual Saturday. The term pub league may also be used, owing to the number of ...

and joined Orpington & Bromley District Sunday League Senior Division club Lambeth Allstars.

Personal life

Onovwigun attended a football and education programme at the

University of East London , mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows , established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Onovwigun, Michael 1996 births Living people English men's footballers Footballers from the London Borough of Lambeth People from Clapham English Football League players Brentford F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Men's association football midfielders Sheffield F.C. players Northern Premier League players Stalybridge Celtic F.C. players National League (English football) players Gateshead F.C. players Isthmian League players Dulwich Hamlet F.C. players Kingstonian F.C. players Southport F.C. players Southern Football League players Farnborough F.C. players Merstham F.C. players Carshalton Athletic F.C. players Alumni of the University of East London Lewes F.C. players Dartford F.C. players Staines Town F.C. players Maldon & Tiptree F.C. players Southern Counties East Football League players