Toluwalase "Tolu" Emmanuel Arokodare (born 23 November 2000) is a Nigerian 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

centre-forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for Belgian club

Genk Genk () is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality only comprises the town of Genk itself. It is one of the most important industrial towns in Flanders, located on the Albert Canal, ...

Career

During his youth in Nigeria, Arokodare played for Kash Academy and Flying Sports Academy in Festac, as well as the

Segun Odegbami Patrick Olusegun Odegbami (born 27 August 1952), often shortened as Segun Odegbami, is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a forward Early life Odegbami was born on 27 August 1952 in Lagos, Nigeria to Jacob Adebola Odegbam ...

International College and Sports Academy. He later joined the Box2Box FC academy in

Surulere Surulere is a residential and commercial Local Government Area located on the mainland of Lagos in Lagos State, Nigeria, with an area of . At the last census in the year 2006, there were 503,975 inhabitants, with a population density of 21,864 ...

Lagos Lagos ( Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 f ...

, and had trials with European clubs

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bunde ...

and

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. The city is on t ...

. He then joined Latvian club

Valmiera Valmiera (; german: link=no, Wolmar; pl, Wolmar see other names) is the largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of . As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2020 – 24 879. It is a state ci ...

in June 2019. In September 2020, Arokodare was loaned to German club

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballsp ...

for the 2020–21 season. He made his professional debut for Köln in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

on 26 September 2020, coming on as a substitute in the 76th minute for Sebastian Andersson in the away match against

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

, which finished as a 1–0 loss. On 28 June 2021, Arokodare joined

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligu ...

club

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

on a two-year loan deal with an option to buy. On 31 January 2023, Arokodare joined

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

side

on a permanent deal, signing a four-and-a-half year deal, scoring on his debut as substitute against

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent ( Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, a ...

in a 3-2 away win.

Personal life

Arokodare was born in

Festac Town Festac Town is a federal housing estate located along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway in Lagos State, Nigeria. Its name is derived from the acronym FESTAC, which stands for Second World African Festival of Arts and Culture that was held there in 197 ...

, Nigeria.

References

External links

* * * 2000 births Living people Sportspeople from Lagos Nigerian footballers Association football forwards Valmieras FK players 1. FC Köln players Amiens SC players K.R.C. Genk players Latvian Higher League players Bundesliga players Ligue 2 players Belgian Pro League players Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Expatriate footballers in Latvia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium {{Nigeria-footy-bio-stub