Sam Oji

Samuel Udoka Oji (born 9 October 1985) is an English semi-professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Midland League Premier Division club Highgate United.

Sam Oji
Oji in 2012
Personal information
Full name Samuel Udoka Oji[1]
Date of birth (1985-10-09) 9 October 1985[1]
Place of birth Westminster, England
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[2]
Playing position(s) Centre back
Club information
Current team
 Highgate United
Youth career
2000–2004 Arsenal
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2004–2008 Birmingham City 0 (0)
2005–2006 → Doncaster Rovers (loan) 4 (0)
2007 → Bristol Rovers (loan) 5 (0)
2007 → Leyton Orient (loan) 2 (0)
2008 Leyton Orient 11 (0)
2008–2009 Hereford United 4 (0)
2009 Ljungskile SK 5 (0)
2011–2013 Tamworth 39 (2)
2013–2014 Limerick 34 (0)
2015–2016 Galway United 23 (2)
2016–2017 Worcester City 25 (0)
2017–2018 Hednesford Town 38 (2)
2018– Highgate United
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 August 2018

He played in the Football League for Doncaster Rovers, Bristol Rovers, Leyton Orient and Hereford United, and in the Swedish Superettan for Ljungskile SK, before knee injuries kept him out of football for two years. He resumed his career with Tamworth of the Conference Premier. He then played in the League of Ireland for Limerick and Galway United, and in non-league football for Worcester City and Hednesford Town, before joining Highgate United in 2018.

Life and career

Oji was born in Westminster, London.[1] He is a cousin of UK soul singer Lemar.[3] He began his football career as a youth player at Arsenal.[1]

Birmingham City
Oji training with Birmingham City in 2006

Oji signed a full-time contract with Birmingham City for the start of the 2004–05 season.[1] In 2005–06 he spent six weeks on loan at Doncaster Rovers,[4] for whom he made his debut in the Football League as a second-half substitute against Gillingham.[5]

In February 2006 he made his only first-team appearance for Birmingham, as a late substitute in the FA Cup fourth round replay against Reading.[6]

A year later he joined Bristol Rovers on a month's loan, later extended to two months.[7] In the summer of 2007 he had a trial with Southend United,[8] then in August signed for Leyton Orient on a month's loan,[9] later extended to three months.[10]

Leyton Orient

With six months remaining on his contract,[8] Oji left Birmingham by mutual consent on 8 January 2008 and joined Leyton Orient until the end of the 2007–08 season.[11] He was released by Orient at the end of the season.[12]

Hereford United

Oji signed for League One club Hereford United on 7 August 2008.[13] After five games for the club he suffered a knee injury which kept him out of training for four months; he never regained his first-team place and at the end of his short-term contract, in February 2009, he was released.[14]

Ljungskile SK

In March 2009 Oji joined Ljungskile SK of the Superettan (Swedish second division) after a successful trial.[15] He played only six league games for Ljungskile before leaving in June.[16] In August, Oji had a trial with Tranmere Rovers,[17] but cruciate ligament injuries suffered while on trials with Turkish Süper Lig side Diyarbakirspor and with Leyton Orient kept him out of football for two years.[3][18]

Tamworth

In December 2011, Oji signed for Conference Premier club Tamworth.[19] He made his debut as a second-half substitute in the first match of 2012, a 2–2 draw at home to Alfreton Town.[20] He was sent off for two bookable offences in a league match against Fleetwood Town on 4 February 2012.[21]

Limerick

Oji signed for League of Ireland club Limerick on 26 August 2013, and made his debut for the club in a 2–0 away defeat to Sligo Rovers.[22]

Galway United

Oji joined Galway United from Limerick in 2015.[23]

Return to England

Worcester City signed Oji ahead of the opening fixture of the 2016–17 National League North season.[24] The following summer he moved to Northern Premier League Premier Division club Hednesford Town.[25] He made 41 appearances over the season, of which 38 were in league competition,[26] before signing for Highgate United of the Midland League Premier Division in July 2018.[27]

gollark: I run a ton of different random programs and some use unreasonably large amounts of RAM.
gollark: It has some ancient Xeon, an equally ancient 1TB disk, and 4GB of RAM.
gollark: It monitors my server's performance stats, my Discord bot, the IRC network some friends made, and other things.
gollark: https://stats.osmarks.net/d/rYdddlPWk/general?orgId=1&refresh=1m
gollark: My server and associated systems.

References
  1. Hugman, Barry J., ed. (2009). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2009–10. Mainstream Publishing. p. 315. ISBN 978-1-84596-474-0.
  2. "Sam Oji – Limerick FC". Extratime.ie. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
  3. Evans, Gregg (6 January 2012). "Sam Oji hoping to be on song for Tamworth against Everton". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  4. "Oji set for Doncaster loan move". BBC Sport. 23 November 2005. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  5. "Gillingham 1–0 Doncaster". BBC Sport. 6 December 2005. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  6. "Birmingham 2–1 Reading". BBC Sport. 7 February 2006. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  7. "Oji extends Bristol Rovers loan". BBC Sport. 20 March 2007. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  8. "Birmingham man has Southend trial". BBC Sport. 19 July 2007. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  9. "Orient sign Birmingham defender". BBC Sport. 8 August 2007. Retrieved 29 November 2007.
  10. "Oji extends loan deal at Orient". BBC Sport. 2 October 2007. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  11. "O's get Oji as Chambers pens deal". BBC Sport. 8 January 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  12. "O's boss begins summer shake-up". BBC Sport. 8 May 2008. Retrieved 19 June 2008.
  13. "Sam Oji becomes a Bull". Hereford United F.C. 7 August 2008. Archived from the original on 19 September 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2008.
  14. "Oji returns for Bulls after lengthy lay-off". Western Daily Press. 14 January 2009. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
    "Oji leaves Hereford United". Western Daily Press. 5 February 2009. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
  15. "Tre nya spelare klara för LSK!" [Three new players ready for LSK] (in Swedish). Ljungskile SK. 31 March 2009. Archived from the original on 27 May 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
  16. "Samuel Oji" (in Swedish). Ljungskile SK. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
    "Sommarnyheter i truppen" [Summer squad news] (in Swedish). Ljungskile SK. 26 June 2009. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  17. Matthew Jones (5 August 2009). "Young Rovers Side Slip to Defeat at The Bay". Total Tranmere. SportNetwork. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
  18. "Reserves Thrashed By Palace". Leyton Orient F.C. 8 September 2009. Archived from the original on 12 September 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
  19. "Defender Sam Oji pens Tamworth contract". BBC Sport. 22 December 2011. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
  20. "First points of the year are shared". Tamworth F.C. 1 January 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  21. "Fleetwood 2–2 Tamworth". BBC Sport. 4 February 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  22. "Sligo 2-0 Limerick". Limerick FC. 31 August 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  23. "Sam Oji signs for United!". Galway United F.C. 23 February 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  24. "A further three players join the ranks". Worcester City F.C. 5 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  25. "Two new Pitmen". Pitch Hero Non League. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  26. "Player stats 2017–2018". PitmenWeb. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
    "Fixtures results 2017–2018". PitmenWeb. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  27. Gibbons, Craig (20 July 2018). "Highgate bosses delighted to seal move for defensive duo". Solihull Observer. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
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