Football League World
·22 de dezembro de 2024
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·22 de dezembro de 2024
A former Queens Park Rangers and Brentford defender now plays his football abroad.
Former Queens Park Rangers and Brentford defender Moses Odubajo currently plays his football in Greece.
Yoann Barbet, Marcus Bean, and Stan Bowles are a few of the players that have represented both QPR and Brentford, while Chuba Akpom, Joleon Lescott, and Darren Ambrose are some of the names that have featured in both English and Greek football.
Odubajo is a player who appears in both of those niche groups, having had two separate spells at Brentford between 2014 and 2019, played for QPR during the 2021/22 season, and moved to Greece a few years ago to play football outside of England for the first time in his career.
The 31-year-old became Brentford's club-record signing when he joined from Leyton Orient for a fee of £1 million in the summer of 2014, before playing a key role as the Bees reached the play-offs in the Championship during the 2014/15 campaign. He moved to fellow Championship side Hull City for £3.5 million in 2015.
After a second spell at Brentford during the 2018/19 season, Odubajo later signed for QPR in 2021 on the back of a successful trial and helped the Rs to an 11th-place finish in the second tier.
After leaving Rangers at the end of the 2021/22 campaign, Odubajo signed for Aris Thessaloniki, where he achieved two top-half finishes in the Greek Super League, reached the final of the domestic cup, and played in the qualifying stages of the UEFA Conference League.
Following his two seasons at Aris, the right-back joined Greek giants AEK Athens earlier this year, where he is competing with the likes of Olympiacos, PAOK, and Panathinaikos for the league title.
It is unlikely that Odubajo would have envisaged himself playing for AEK Athens during his stints at QPR and Brentford, but after taking a risk and going to play abroad following his release at Loftus Road, it would be fair to say that the decision has paid off.
AEK Athens are one of the most successful teams in Greek football, having lifted 32 national titles in their history and being the only club to have won every competition organised by the Hellenic Football Federation.
So far during his career, the only honour that Odubajo has had came when he won the Championship play-offs with Hull in 2016 before injury problems meant he did not get an opportunity to test himself in the Premier League.
Therefore, he will no doubt be delighted that he has earned another opportunity to prove himself against top clubs, while he could yet win another piece of silverware, as well as get the chance to play in the league phase of a European competition.
QPR supporters are unlikely to have expected Odubajo to go on and do as well as he has done when he left the club in 2022, but Brentford fans may not be overly surprised by his success in Greece.
The former England under-20 international showed what he is capable of at Griffin Park as the Bees reached the Championship play-off semi-finals during the 2014/15 season.
There are certainly not many players who have played in Greece after representing QPR and Brentford, so the way that Odubajo's career has panned out may come as a surprise to some supporters.