The Portland Timbers announced the signing of Gbenga Arokoyo earlier this week. Arokoyo is a 23-year-old center back originally from Kabba, Nigeria. Portland traded Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) as well as a conditional third-round 2017 Major League Soccer SuperDraft pick to New York City Football Club to obtain Discovery Priority for the youngster.
Playing abroad
The last four years of Gbenga's career have been spent in Europe. He played two years (2012 - 2014) for Mjällby AIF in Sweden scoring a single goal while featuring 56 times. Most recently (2014 - 2016) he played for Gaziantepspor in Turkey where he scored twice and added three assists over 40 appearances. Prior to this, the center back spent 2010 at home in Nigeria playing for Kwara United.
For his country, Arokoyo has been capped twice by the senior Nigerian National Team. He played against Mali and Luxembourg in two friendlies in May of 2016. Gbenga was a regular for the U-20 Nigerian National Team, making 20 appearances and assisting them in winning the 2011 U-20 Afrika Cup.
In the video below, head coach Caleb Porter talks about the addition of Gbenga Arokoyo as well as Steven Taylor.
Eyes on the future
While he might be needed sooner rather than later due to injury concerns, both Portland Timbers general manager and president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson and head coach Caleb Porter see Arokoyo as a player for the future.
Wilkinson told timbers.com, "Gbenga is a young, athletic defender who we believe will be a strong asset to our back line as he continues to develop within our club."
Echoing the general manager, Caleb Porter mentioned to timbers.com that, “Gbenga is a talented young player with an athletic profile and he has a big upside for the future.”
An athletic defender is just what Portland needs. The club is historically bad at defending in the air and requires its center backs to start the attack. Arokoyo might just be a piece to help out with Nat Borchers out for the season and getting long in the tooth. The young Nigerian will at least make for excellent depth in a much-needed position for the Timbers.
