Valentine Ozornwafor

Valentine James Ozornwafor (born 1 June 1999) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a central defender for Belgian club Sporting Charleroi.

Valentine Ozornwafor
Personal information
Full name Valentine James Ozornwafor[1]
Date of birth (1999-06-01) 1 June 1999
Place of birth Nsukka, Nigeria
Height 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)[2]
Position(s) Centre back
Team information
Current team
 Sporting Charleroi
Number 66
Youth career
Brown Ideye Challenge
2017–2019 Enyimba
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2019 Enyimba 2 (0)
2019–2022 Galatasaray 1 (0)
2019–2020 → Almería (loan) 4 (0)
2021–2022 → Sporting Charleroi (loan) 17 (0)
2022– Sporting Charleroi 3 (0)
2022–2023 → Sochaux (loan) 3 (0)
2022–2023 → Sochaux II (loan) 1 (0)
International career‡
2019 Nigeria U20 7 (0)
2019 Nigeria U23 1 (0)
2021– Nigeria 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 25 May 2023
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 02:21, 6 June 2021 (UTC)

Club career

Born in Port Harcourt, Ozonwafor joined Enyimba in 2017, after impressing while playing for a local side in a friendly against the club.[3] He made his first team debut on 3 March, in a 0–0 away draw against Bendel Insurance,[4] and played his second match on 17 March, in a draw at Sunshine Stars for the same scoreline.[5]

Galatasaray

On 28 June 2019, it was announced that Ozornwafor signed a four year deal with Galatasaray,[6] for a rumoured fee of €300,000.[7]

UD Almería (loan)

On 22 August, he joined Spanish club UD Almería on loan for the 2019-20 season.[8] Ozornwafor made his league debut on 6 October 2019, coming on as a second-half substitute for Jonathan in a 0–0 away draw against Deportivo de La Coruña.[9]

Charleroi

In the statement made by the Galatasaray club on 21 August 2021, "An agreement has been reached with Charleroi for the temporary transfer of our professional football player Ozornwafor for one year. We wish our player success in his new club."[10][11]

Sochaux (loan)

Following the loan, Charleroi acquired Ozornwafor's rights and loaned him to Sochaux in France on 8 July 2022.[12] On 31 January 2023, the loan was terminated early.[13]

International career

Ozornwafor represented Nigeria at under-20 level in the 2019 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations[14] and in the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.[15] He was first called up to the full side in March 2019, for a friendly game against Seychelles and Egypt,[16] but was only an unused substitute.[17] He debuted with Nigeria in a 1–0 friendly loss to Cameroon on 4 June 2021.[18]

Honours
Galatasaray

References
  1. "FIFA U-20 World Cup Poland 2019: List of Players: Nigeria" (PDF). FIFA. 13 June 2019. p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2020.
  2. "Valentine Ozornwafor" (in French). FC Sochaux-Montbéliard. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  3. "Enyimba defender Valentine Ozornworfor gets Super Eagles chance without any top-flight experience". Pulse Nigeria. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  4. "Bendel Insurance fail to fire past below par Enyimba in stalemate". NPFL. 3 March 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  5. "Flying Eagles defender Ozornwafor makes Enyimba debut". RealSportsCast24.co.uk. 17 March 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  6. "Valentine Ozornwafor Galatasaray'da" [Valentine Ozornwafor joins Galatasaray]. galatasaray.org (in Turkish). Galatasaray SK. 28 June 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  7. "Ozornwafor Joins Galatasaray From Enyimba For €300K". Complete Sports. 29 June 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  8. "Valentine Ozornwafor UD Almeria'ya kiralandı" [Valentine Ozornwafor on loan at UD Almería]. galatasaray.org (in Turkish). Galatasaray SK. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  9. "Arvin Appiah y Ozornwafor debutan oficialmente como rojiblancos" [Arvin Appiah and Ozornwafor officially debut as rojiblancos] (in Spanish). UD Almería. 6 October 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  10. "BIENVENUE, VALENTINE !". www.sporting-charleroi.be. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  11. "Galatasaray, Valentine Ozornwafor'u Charleroi'ya kiraladı". www.sabah.com.tr. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  12. "VALENTINE OZORNWAFOR PRÊTÉ AVEC OPTION D'ACHAT À SOCHAUX" (in French). Charleroi. 8 July 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  13. "VALENTINE OZORNWAFOR QUITTE LE FCSM" (in French). Sochaux. 31 January 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  14. "Nigeria name squad for 2019 Africa U20 Cup of Nations". Goal.com. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  15. "Manchester City's Tom Dele-Bashiru leads Nigeria U20's World Cup squad". Goal.com. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  16. "Mikel missing, Iheanacho dropped for Nigeria's matches vs. Seychelles, Egypt". Goal.com. 26 March 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  17. "Match report: Nigeria vs Egypt". www.skysports.com. 26 March 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  18. "Match Report of Nigeria vs Cameroon - 2021-06-04 - FIFA Friendlies - Global Sports Archive". globalsportsarchive.com.
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