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Tom Bolarinwa

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Tom Bolarinwa
Personal information
Full name Oluwasheun Ayotomiwa A. Bolarinwa[1]
Date of birth (1990-01-21) 21 January 1990 (age 34)[2]
Place of birth Greenwich, England
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[2]
Position(s) Winger, Attacking midfielder
Youth career
2006–2007 Barnet
2007–2008 Croydon Athletic
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2008 Dulwich Hamlet 6 (4)
2008–2010 Croydon Athletic 40 (13)
2010 Billericay Town 10 (5)
2010–2011 Kingstonian 10 (0)
2011–2014 Muangthong United 0 (0)
2011 → Suphanburi (loan) 15 (8)
2012 → Bangkok (loan)
2013 → Nonthaburi (loan)
2013 → Nakhon Nayok (loan) 9 (1)
2014 → Udon Thani (loan) 21 (7)
2015 Cray Wanderers 7 (1)
2015–2016 Sutton United 37 (11)
2016–2018 Grimsby Town 37 (2)
2017–2018 → Sutton United (loan) 10 (2)
2018–2020 Sutton United 68 (6)
2020 Beckenham Town
2020–2021 Lewes
2021–2022 Ashford United 3 (0)
2022 South Park
2022 Cray Wanderers
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16:32, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

Oluwasheun Ayotomiwa A. "Tom" Bolarinwa (born 21 January 1990)[3] is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger.

Primarily playing on the right-wing, he began his career at Barnet in 2006 where he was a youth trainee in the academy. He then switched to Croydon Athletic playing in their youth team for a season. A brief spell with Dulwich Hamlet, before playing two seasons back at Croydon where he helped them win promotion as champions. He then played ten games for Billericay Town and Kingstonian.

After a trial period with Wycombe Wanderers, he made a switch to Thailand, joining Thai Division 1 Club, Suphanburi, in his first season he made 15 appearances and scored 8 goals; further spells in the Thai divisions with Bangkok, Nakhon Nayok and Udon Thani where helped them attain second-place and qualification into the champions league.

After spending three years in the Thai leagues, Bolarinwa moved back to England where he spent the closing weeks of the 2014–15 season at Cray Wanderers, before a move to National League South side Sutton United. He was pivotal to the club being promoted as champions with a number of man of the match performances and amassing 11 goals in the league and 15 total. His impressive form led to him earning a move to newly promoted League Two side Grimsby Town.

Club career

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Bolarinwa was born in Greenwich, London. He started his football career in the Youth Alliance League with Barnet then went on to play senior football at Dulwich Hamlet making 6 appearances and scoring 4 goals.[citation needed] In 2008, he joined Croydon Athletic, as a right midfielder where he was in the winning team that won the Ryman Division 1 for the first time in their history.[4][5] During his time with Croydon Athletic he made 40 appearances, scoring 13 goals.[citation needed] In September 2010 Bolarinwa spent a short spell at Billericay Town where he made 10 appearances, scoring 5 goals, before being released in November 2010.[6] He then had a spell at Kingstonian where he made 10 appearances.[7]

Thai Leagues

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After a trial period with Wycombe Wanderers, Bolarinwa joined Thai League 1 club, Muangthong United and was then loaned out to Suphanburi.[8] In his first season, he made 15 appearances and scored 8 goals. In 2013, he played for Regional League Division 2 side Nakhon Nayok, he made 9 appearances and scored one goal.[9] In 2014 Bolarinwa joined Udon Thani where he made 21 appearances and scored 7 goals,[10] helping them finish in second place and qualification to the Champions League Round.[11]

Sutton United

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Bolarinwa spent a few weeks with Isthmian League Division One North side Cray Wanderers. They won every game in which he played, making what had seemed an unlikely escape from relegation.[12] Bolarinwa then signed a two-year contract with National League South side Sutton United on a free transfer.[13] He made he debut for the club, coming off the bench in the 2–0 home defeat to Maidstone United.[14] Bolarinwa scored his first goal for the club on 19 September 2015 in the 2–0 away win at Weston-super-Mare, scoring the second goal in the 30th minute, a pass fed into the path of Bolarinwa midway in the Weston half from Craig Eastmond, Bolarinwa ran forward dinking inside and outside to avoid two challenges before striking a 25-yard low shot, which curled away from the out-stretched dive of Purnell into the far bottom corner of the net.[15]

Bolarinwa played a crucial role in Sutton United being promoted to the National League for the first time in sixteen years.[16] His efforts over the season earned him a place in the 2015–16 National League team of the year.[17]

Grimsby Town

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Bolarinwa joined League Two side Grimsby Town on 15 June 2016 on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee.[18] He made his debut on 6 August 2016 in the opening game of the 2016–17 season in Grimsby's 2–0 home victory against Morecambe.[19]

In November 2017, Bolarinwa returned to Sutton United on loan.[20]

Return to Non-League

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On 9 January 2018 Bolarinwa returned to Sutton United on a permanent deal.[21] After two and a half seasons, he left the club on the expiry of his contract on 30 June 2020.[22]

Bolarinwa joined Lewes in September 2020.[23]

At the beginning of the 2021–22 season, Bolarinwa moved to Ashford United.[24]

Style of play

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Bolarinwa primarily plays as a winger, he can also play behind a striker as an attacking midfielder, as well as both flanks.[25] A very direct type of player, he is able to dribble at pace and use trickery to get past the opponents players, also he's able to hold the ball up to bring other players into play.[26]

Career statistics

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As of match played on 20 January 2018.
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Sutton United 2015–16[27] National League South 37 11 1 0 — 3[a] 0 41 11
Total 37 11 1 0 — 3 0 41 11
Grimsby Town 2016–17[28] League Two 34 2 1 0 1 0 3[b] 0 39 2
2017–18[20] League Two 3 0 0 0 1 0 2[b] 0 6 0
Total 37 2 1 0 2 0 5 0 45 2
Sutton United (loan) 2017–18[20] National League 11 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 3
Career total 85 16 2 0 2 0 8 0 97 16
  1. ^ Appearance(s) in FA Trophy
  2. ^ a b Appearance(s) in Football League Trophy

Personal life

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Bolarinwa has a younger brother, winger/right-back Moses Odubajo, who plays for Queens Park Rangers. Both are eligible to play for England or Nigeria respectively as they are of Nigerian descent.[29] Bolarinwa was orphaned at the age of 15 when his mother died of malaria and from that age he lived alone with his younger brother.[30][31]

Honours

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Player

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Croydon Athletic

Udon Thani

Sutton United

Individual

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References

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  1. ^ "List of Players under Written Contract Registered Between 01/07/2015 and 31/07/2015" (PDF). The Football Association. 31 July 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Tom Bolarinwa". 11v11.com. AFS Enterprises. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  3. ^ "Tom Bolarinwa - Player Profile - Football". Eurosport. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  4. ^ a b Moody, Graham (20 April 2010). "Croydon Athletic promoted as champions". Croydon Guardian. London: Newsquest Media Group. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  5. ^ "Player Profile – Croyden Athletic". Croyden Athletic F.C. Archived from the original on 20 September 2010.
  6. ^ "Player movements". Billericay Town F.C. 1 November 2010. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  7. ^ "Player Profile – Kingstonian". kingstonian.net. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  8. ^ "Tom Bolarinwa: The striker who spent four years in Thailand". englishplayersabroad.com. 3 June 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  9. ^ "Nakhon Nayok: Tom Bolarinwa". SMM Sport. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  10. ^ "Udon Thani F.C.: Former players". Udon Thani F.C. Archived from the original on 1 August 2016.
  11. ^ a b "Udon Thani F.C.: 2014-season". Udon Thani F.C. Archived from the original on 1 August 2016.
  12. ^ "Cray Wanderers – A Complete Statistical Record". Cray 150 Publications. 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  13. ^ "Trio Sign". The National League. Weybridge: 89 Media. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  14. ^ "Sutton 0–2 Maidstone". Maidstone United F.C. 8 August 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  15. ^ "Weston-super-Mare 0–2 Sutton". Maidstone United F.C. 19 September 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  16. ^ a b "Sutton United clinch promotion to the National League". BBC Sport. 23 April 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  17. ^ a b "U's recognised in league awards". Sutton United F.C. 12 June 2016. Archived from the original on 12 May 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  18. ^ Wood, Liam (30 June 2016). "Bolarinwa arrives at Blundell Park from Sutton United". Grimsby Telegraph. London: Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  19. ^ "Grimsby 2–0 Morecambe". Sky Sports. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  20. ^ a b c "Games played by Tom Bolarinwa in 2017/2018". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  21. ^ "Bolarinwa Seals Sutton Move". Grimsby Town F.C. 9 January 2018.
  22. ^ Tom Bolarinwa leaves U’s
  23. ^ https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/lewes/appearances/tom-bolarinwa/370390 [dead link‍]
  24. ^ "Tom Bolarinwa - Ashford United FC FIRST TEAM".
  25. ^ "Mariners Player: Meet The Trio". Grimsby Town F.C. 1 July 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  26. ^ Johnnie, Lowery (2 November 2015). "Bolarinwa is creating the positive vibes at the Lane". Streatham Guardian. London: Newsquest Media Group. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  27. ^ "T. Bolarinwa". Soccerway. Perform Group. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  28. ^ "Games played by Tom Bolarinwa in 2016/2017". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  29. ^ Buckingham, Philip (27 May 2016). "Heartache of Hull City's Moses Odubajo who lost mum to malaria". Hull Daily Mail. London: Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  30. ^ "Grimsby Town: James Berrett and Tom Bolarinwa join League Two club". BBC Sport. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  31. ^ Macaskill, Grace (6 August 2016). "Premier League star's amazing rise after fending for himself since being orphaned at 13". The Daily Mirror. London: Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
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