Ayo Obileye: London to Helsinki and life as a professional footballer in Finland

"When I was younger, when I was a kid, I was playing football at the back of my house. I started playing at like eight-ish, nine years old. My first ever team was Senrab. I was playing for them at eight, then moved to Buckhurst Hill - the first team that David Beckham played for. Moved to Buckhurst Hill at nine, and then from there I went into Leyton Orient development from 11 to 13/14. From 14, I was just training with a guy called Lester Thomas, who in my area, but he was a scout for Chelsea.

"He did a fantastic job with grassroots and he's got a lot of players that have made it in professional football - some of them are in the Prem and playing football now. So he was doing training in West Ham, next to West Ham train station. He was training a bunch of the young boys who wanted to be footballers, the same way that they were training in academies. And also he had connections, he took some players to Chelsea, and some scouts would come and watch and take people on trial to certain places. I was training with him from 14 to about 16 - went on trial to Man United, Backburn, West Brom, and then ended up signing at Chelsea at 16."

"At Chelsea, Nathaniel Chalobah was there at the time. He was mostly with the reserves and the first team, because at that age he was different level. So I met him there when I was playing with him. I was with the same team as John Swift, Lewis Baker, Adam Nditi, Charlie Colkett was there, Ola Aina was two years below, but he was training up. Jeremie Boga was two years below, three years below, but he was training with us also. Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

"It was really good. At that time at Chelsea, the calibre of player, a lot of the players from 15 already signed scholarships. But I didn't think they recognised or thought that I'd be as good as the players that are already there, or even better. It was just unfortunate that at the time I signed and a month, two months later, they signed Nathan Ake and the space for me getting a scholarship was taken.

"There was no point in me getting a scholarship with the players that they had there, the centre-backs that they had there - Alex Davey, Dion Conroy, Jordan Houghton - they already signed two of those players a year below and signed two-year scholarships and two-year pros. I came in late as a 16-year-old, they were quite surprised by the ability that I had. Obviously those boys had been there from eight years old, so they had loyalties to them and with their families and stuff like that. And signing Nathan Ake just kind of ruined my chances there. So I had to move on and went to Sheffield Wednesday."

"The decision to move abroad came quite fast. I was on holiday with one of my best friends, he was getting married. And then I got a message from the agent in the club, speaking about me and wanting me to come to China. So I thought, you know what, it's something I've always wanted to do in my career, play abroad.

"I had played in Scotland for three, four years at the time. I wanted to try and get myself back into the English game in terms of playing in the Championship or something. I didn't get the chance, different interests were there, I was outpriced and all that stuff. But going to China was just something different and an experience I wanted to try.

"I thought, ‘I've been playing away from home, I've adapted quickly and I'm that kind of person, I can adapt quickly and I like learning other cultures’. I thought going to China would be nice. I've always liked Chinese people, like Chinese food, so I thought, ‘let me give it a try and hopefully it goes well and then I can just carry on my career there’."

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"Coming back to Europe was tough. I signed in China on an 18-month deal at the time, so a year-and-a-half contract. I went there in June 2024. So I'd done six months there. And in China, there's complications with payments, et cetera, et cetera. I got paid at the time. There were some late payments for the local players. I think at the time, the local players just had enough, literally just had enough. Basically, we were on the list. And in China, there's a system where every end of the season, when it comes November, the team needs to sign a sheet saying that they've been paid, sent over to the CFA, and then the CFA approve it and say, ‘OK, cool, you've paid your players, you're on the list for next season to be in the CSL’. So we did that.

"And then a couple of the local players have gone out - they have their own social media, they don't have Instagram, they have their own Twitter - on their social media and said some things that the CFA saw and thought, ‘OK, now we're going to take you off the list, and you need to show proof, like statements, basically, that this is what you said you've done’. So we've all gone back. We've all been put into the next season's group chat. The lawyers are coming to the group chat and we're seeing what's happening.

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"And then the money was supposed to be funded from the government, because in the clubs, a lot of the money is funded by the government of that province. The government is giving the money. The deadline was Boxing Day, and the government had given the money on the 27th. So it's a day late. So now they've said, ‘OK, you're a day late’. Basically, you've got to disband, they say. They tried to protest it, but I think the CSL is starting to take a stand on it in the league, because it was getting a bit ridiculous. They told our team they can't play in the CSL or play in the Chinese Football League ever again - they've got to disband or declare bankruptcy.

"And one of the biggest teams from China, one with the most trophies, I think Paulinho used to play for them, it's called Guangzhou. They've got the most championships and the most titles. They disbanded them as well. I think they were putting a statement out to the teams that, ‘look, if you don't go by the rules, you're not going to play football ever again, your team's done’. And you can see now, this year, a lot of the teams have been deducted points just so that they can enforce the rules. It kind of ruined my chance or my opportunity a little bit when I was in the CSL.

"That was at the start of January and by then, for me to get to another CSL team, with their foreign players, there's only five foreign spots. So you get the foreign players from November, December. So by then, it was hard to transfer to another team. I had other opportunities, playing in other countries and some to still be playing in China, but it was the league below. I didn't really want to go down a level, because going down a level in those areas, if I was to go down, it's very hard to go back up. But I had another opportunity to go to another country. I was kind of banking on that while I had this contract. And then they both fell through. So the timing of it was quite tough for me. I was out the window and all the teams had signed the players they really wanted. I had to just sit out for four or five months. And then come May, that's when Finland came in and I went there."

"Finland is good. Being from London, I went to a city called Seinajoki. Many people may not have heard of it. It's not a bad city. It's quite small, there's not much to do. But now being in Helsinki, it's a lot better. It's the capital city of the country. Seinajoki is like a small town, small city.

"Seinajoki is like living in, not even Canterbury or somewhere in Hertfordshire, but a small town outside of it - the centre is literally about the size of Westfield, of Stratford Westfield or Shepherd's Bridge Westfield. That's the size of the actual city centre. It's quite small. So everyone kind of knows each other a little bit.

"But it was okay, just getting myself back. In my mind, I didn't think, ‘oh, I need this city to be lavish or anything like that’. From where I've lived before, I just needed to, in my mind, get myself back playing. I've been out for five months, I need to get myself back playing. This team's in Europe, I want to play. I've always wanted to play European football. So I want to get myself back playing, play Europe, get my data back and then try and get back to where I need to be. That was my mindset."

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"When I was a lot younger, I'm 32 now, I played at Sheffield Wednesday from 16 to 19, signed at Charlton 20 to 21, went to the National League at 21. I would say, I should have gone to Finland or Sweden. I went to the National League, but I should have just gone straight to Scotland then.

"I feel like for young players, if they're not making their way in England, there's life outside of England. I know England is a big pinnacle, the big league. I know in England, they say to you, ‘you need to stay here’ and stuff like that. You kind of get a little bit brainwashed. But coming here, me playing here, one good reason why I came here is because I know that there's a lot of young players playing in the Scandinavian league. So sharpness-wise, I get that back quickly.

"A lot of the players here are under the age of 25, 23. Coming here, building your career here, in England you would have something and in the Scandinavian market you would have something. If you're doing well in the Scandinavian market, you can easily move on to another country or even back to England in a better league. I'd say that for the younger players, if they're not making their way in England or they're not getting their chances in England, look outside. The life is a lot easier as well. Your head might be buried playing in the 21s or not getting a chance and you feel like your career is ending. There's always light on the outside."

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