Alex Iwobi is one of the talented Nigerian football players making it big on the international scene. Like most footballers who are successful, he started out pretty early in life, playing the beautiful game of soccer and has hardly looked back ever since. Below, we look at some other details about the talented footballer that is Alex Iwobi.
Who Is Alex Iwobi?
Alex Iwobi’s full name is Alexander Chuka Iwobi and he was born on the 3rd of May, 1996. At just eight years old, Alex Iwobi became a member of the Arsenal club. He was still in primary school at the time and initially found it difficult to juggle the pressure of school with his needed training. His first appearance as a player for Arsenal was as a substitute when the club played against West Bromwich Albion in a League Cup tournament. He was 17 years old at the time and by the age of 19, he signed a long-term contract with the club.
See Also: Victor Moses Biography, Wife, Parents, Family, Height, Weight, Body Stats
It was on the 27th of October 2015 that Alex Iwobi made his first-team debut for Arsenal. He started in the match against Sheffield which ended in a 3–0 defeat in the Round of 16 of the League Cup. His Premier League debut came four days later and ended in a 3–0 win against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium. He entered as a stoppage-time substitute for Mesut Özil in that match. His Champion League debut was once again made as a substitute, this time in the 85th-minute, and the match ended in a 5–1 defeat against Bayern Munich.
Following his first Champions League start in a match against Barcelona that ended in a 3–1 away defeat, Alex Iwobi scored two goals in his first two Premier League starts where the team won against Everton and then Watford. In the season that followed, Alex Iwobi was able to change his squad number from 45 to 17 after the Chilean forward Alexis Sánchez took the newly vacated number 7 from the departing Tomáš Rosický.
On the international football scene, Alex Iwobi played in the English junior team at the under 16, under 17 and under 18 levels. He was, therefore, part of the winning squad in the 2011 Victory Shield. He, however, went on to play for Nigeria and on the 8th of October 2015, he made his senior debut for the Super Eagles when he replaced Ahmed Musa in the 57th minute. He scored the singular goal for Nigeria against Zambia on 7 October 2017 and secured the Eagles a spot in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Alex Iwobi’s Parents & Family Members
Alex Iwobi’s father is Chuba Iwobi, a lawyer who had at one time played amateur football. His mother’s name is not known but he has a sister named Marie and the family lived at the time of his birth in Lagos, Nigeria. The Iwobi family had a superstar connection in the football world in the person of Jay-Jay Okocha, the former Nigerian football star who is Alex Iwobi’s uncle.
When Iwobi was two years old, his family moved to Turkey and two years after that, they moved to England. In England, the family stayed with Jay Jay Okocha and so, Alex Iwobi was raised in an east London estate near Bolton Wanders. It was in that neighbourhood that Alex Iwobi went to school and he began playing football with Tyrell Robinson in the neighbourhood. Tyrell Robinson would also grow up to become a professional footballer, playing for Bradford City and his relationship with Iwobi remains sustained..
Who Is His Girlfriend?
Great as things might be on the professional front for Alex Iwobi, it is hard to pin down his personal life. Until 2017, Alex Iwobi was said to have been in a committed relationship. His then-girlfriend was a UK based model named Clarisse Juliette. The two were said to have dated for four years before Clarisse left the Arsenal player.
While dating, they regularly posted updates of each other on their social media pages but following the breakup, the couple wiped their pages clean of each other and even went as far as unfollowing each other. Since that breakup which was said to be as a result of infidelity on Iwobi’s part, the footballer has not been linked to any specific female.
What Are His Height and Weight?
The Nigerian professional footballer stands at a height of 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) and weighs 75.2 kg (166 lbs). No doubt, the rigorous training required for football players helps him to keep in tip-top shape
