Half a dozen games into the new season and Nnamdi Ofoborh has already been busy breaking through landmarks, taking the ups in a fledgling career that has already been peppered by soaring highs and crushing lows.
Ofoborh arrived in Dorset a shy and introverted 16-year-old fresh from tasting rejection with Millwall and two years before that with Tottenham, evolving over the last four campaigns into a player relishing every opportunity he’s earned.
Having captained the youth team to historical FA Youth Cup progress, he next progressed to leading the under-21s and regularly training with the first-team squad. Primarily a central midfielder, Ofoborh spent last season out on loan with Wycombe, helping the Chairboys to a high league watermark and starting at Wembley in the play-off final win to secure Championship promotion.
Happening alongside his career progress, he has also been faced with tragic personal circumstances, including two friends passing away at young ages.
However, maintaining his personal momentum on the pitch, this season Ofoborh has started twice in the Carabao Cup and most recently made his league debut in the win over Coventry.
My name comes from my mum’s dad passing away just before my birth. He was really excited to see me, my mum is the youngest of… many! I’ll have to get back to you, but she’s the youngest of 15 or 16 children.
I believe my grandad passed away four days before I was born so Nnamdi means ‘My father lives on’.
My real name (Nathan, Nnamdi is a middle name) is a little secret only for people who have seen my passport. My mum’s side always call me Nnamdi but some on my dad’s side still call me Nathan.
Apparently, and I don’t know how true this is, when they were registering me for nursery school the teacher asked my name and my parents said ‘Nathan’ but the teacher, who had taught all my cousins, said ‘Nah, there are too many Nathans already’.
Pretty much since then, everyone’s called me Nnamdi – if you call me Nathan I probably won’t turn around!
The Lewisham-raised 20-year-old spoke candidly with afcb.co.uk on his boundary-pushing start to 2020/21, enacting his personal Palace revenge and why he’s unlikely to answer to the name Nathan.
