Ugochukwu Ogbonnaya Oduenyi is one Nigerian player who has gone round the mill in search of greener pastures and his latest adventure to Serbian club FK Javor-Matis Ivanjica, a club he joined on January 17, will see Oduenyi leading the attacking line of the second division side.
The 25-year-old striker decided early on in life that he wanted to pursue a career in football and to make his dream become a reality he joined the famous Emmanuel Amunike Academy to learn the ropes of the game. The academy owned by the former Nigeria and Barcelona winger is reputed for it’s great culture of impacting knowledge in youngsters in its care and the case was not different for Oduenyi.
In August 2018, Oduenyi haven ticked off important boxes for physical literacy, social development, and cognitive development, decided it was time to leave the shores of Nigeria. He signed a two-year deal with Austrian Bundesliga club, LASK, but was loaned to NK Sesvete, a Croatian Second Football League outfit.
In October 2018, Oduenyi made his debut for Sesvete when he came on as a substitute for Mario Vasilj in the 60th minute against NK BSK Bijelo Brdo on matchday eight of the 2018–19 season. The loan ended during the winter break of that season.
Ugochukwu moved on loan to SV Horn, an Austrian Football Second League in January 2019. In February of the same year, he made his debut with SV Horn and was included in the starting line-up against FC Lifering on matchday 16 of the 2019 season, but was later substituted for countryman Kelvin Arase in the 58th minute.
In September 2019, Oduenyi signed permanently with another Austrian club, SV Ried, in the second division, and helped the team gain promotion to the Austrian Bundesliga in 2020, but later moved to Ukraine after the expiration of his contract, joining Mynai, a Ukraine Premier League club on a free transfer.
Oduenyi made a total of nine appearances for Mynai before he signed for Zhetysu, a Kazakh professional football club managed by Almas Kulshinbaev.
There’s no denying the fact that he’s making progress. And if he continues to dazzle, big clubs may soon line up for his services or, better still, been called up to represent Nigeria.
