Ade Adebisi

Ade Adebisi (born 1 July 1986), also known by the nickname of "London Flyer", is a British-Nigerian rugby league footballer. He played a representative level for (BARLA) Young Lions against France, and was selected for the 2011 Championship 1 All Stars team at club level for the London Skolars (two spells), in 2004's Super League IX for the London Broncos (Heritage No. 437), Hull F.C. (loan, Academy), Doncaster Lakers (Heritage No. 934),[3] the Featherstone Rovers (Heritage No. 903) and Whitehaven in National League One (reserve grade), as a fullback or wing.

Ade Adebisi
Ade Adebisi at his signing as the Brand Ambassador for Biomedomics Sickle Scan
Personal information
Born (1986-07-01) 1 July 1986
Playing information
Height5.8 ft (177 cm)
Weight98 kg (216 lb; 15 st 6 lb)
PositionFullback, Wing
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2000–2003 London Skolars
2004 London Broncos
2005 → Hull F.C. (loan) 0 0 0 0 0
2007 Doncaster Lakers 9 5 0 0 20
2007 Featherstone Rovers 11 5 0 0 20
2008–09 Whitehaven 43 32 0 0 128
2010–13 London Skolars 66 51 0 0 204
Manly Sea Eagles
Total 129 93 0 0 372
Source: [1][2]

Adebisi suffers from the genetic blood disorder sickle-cell disease and is the only known rugby player ever to play professionally with the condition. He is an ambassador for the Sickle Cell Society and the founder of the Ade Adebisi Sickle Cell Foundation. Adebisi also leads the Nigeria rugby league revolution as general manager/vice chairman. The former professional spent two years between 2017 and 2019 working to get the African nation involved with the 13-a-side code for no money. Under his leadership, Nigeria was chosen to host the Middle East Africa rugby league championship in October 2019.[4][5][6]

Playing career

Club career

In 2002, Adebisi, a promising schoolboy athlete and footballer joined the London Broncos development programme before signing up for their junior academy team the following season. In 2004, as well as representing the BARLA Young Lions against France, he also made his debut for London in Super League. Limited opportunities at senior level led to a spell on loan to Hull F.C. where he played in their successful 2005 academy side. His association with the London club ended in 2007, when he signed initially for Doncaster before moving to Featherstone for the last 11 games of the season.

His first year at the Recre was a great success and he finished the season as the club's top try scorer. Together with teammate Craig Calvert, Haven had two of the most potent wingmen in the Championship.

In 2008, he joined Whitehaven R.L.F.C. from the 2007 National League Two winning side, Featherstone Rovers. While at Whitehaven R.L.F.C. he was whitehaven's top try scorer in 2008, with 22 tries in 30 games.

In 2010, Adebisi returned to London Skolars following his release by Whitehaven, scoring 51 tries in 66 games through to 2013.

Retirement
BBC Sports Africa interviewing Ade Adebisi at the Nigeria Rugby League training camp in Lagos, Nigeria.

In 2014, following a struggle with injuries and sickle cell disease, Adebisi retired from playing professional rugby league.

Personal life

On 30 June 2018 Adebisi married his longtime partner, Nigerian chef Jennifer Adebisi. Together they have a son, Myles Kobimra Ade Adebisi (born 23 June 2019).

gollark: More ugly than Rust!
gollark: 🇦 🇺 🇹 🇴 🇲 🇦 🇹 🇮 🇴 🇳
gollark: ... other ideas?
gollark: Anyone got fun programming project *i*deas?
gollark: _prints entire Rust book... to PDF, to use on kindle_

References
  1. "Statistics at loverugbyleague.com". loverugbyleague.com. 31 December 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  2. "Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  3. "Statistics at robterrace.com". robterrace.com. 31 December 2017. Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  4. "London Skolars winger Ade Adebisi winning battles on and off the pitch". Evening Standard. standard.co.uk. 4 December 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  5. Whalley, John (4 December 2012). "Long cleared to play". The Telegraph. telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  6. "Profile at whitehavenrl.co.uk". whitehavenrl.co.uk. 4 December 2012. Archived from the original on 9 July 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.