Biography
Young right back Ola Aina joined Leonid Slutsky’s City on a season long loan in July 2017, the first concrete evidence that Slutsky’s friendship with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich would lead to a pipeline of the Blues’ young stars heading for the West Hull estates. His loan spell extended beyond Slutsky’s tenure and Aina continued to excel under Nigel Adkins, scoring his debut goal in a Cup win at Blackburn in January 2018. Strong and full of prodigious skills, Aina also made occasional errors as one would expect from a young player.
Born in Southwark in South London, Temitayo Olufisayo Olaoluwa Aina (Ola for short) was a product of the Chelsea academy system from the age of 11 and during the 2015 pre-season he was skirting the periphery of Jose Mourinho’s first team squad. But it wasn’t until August 2016 when he made his first team debut for the Blues in a League Cup tie against Bristol Rovers, shortly after signing a new four year contract, and he made his Premier League debut a couple of months later against Leicester City, ending the 2016/17 season with 7 senior appearances.
Following his spell with the Tigers during the 2017/18 season, Aina spent the following season on loan at Italian side Torino, debuting against AS Roma in August 2018 and scoring his first goal for Torino in February 2019 against Udinese. This loan season impressed Il Toro enough to part with 9 million euros and sign him permanently in June 2019. He remained a first team regular for Torino during the 2019/20 season. In September 2020 Aina joined newly promoted Premier League side Fulham on a season-long loan, returning to his West London and Premier League roots. He was one of Fulham’s best performers as they slumped to relegation in May 2021, making 33 appearances in all competitions and scoring twice against West Bromwich Albion and Burnley. Ola returned to Torino in the 2021 close season and was back in the Il Toro first team at the start of the 2021/22 season, but lost his regular first team place after a period of absence during January 2022 when he competed in the African Cup of Nations finals. Torino turned to Aina again at the start of the 2022/23 season before a muscle injury sustained in October 2022 precipitated a lengthy absence, he ended the season with one goal in 21 appearances, taking his tally for Torino to two goals in 113 appearances.
In July 2023 Aina left Torino and signed for Premier League side Nottingham Forest, slotting into Steve Cooper’s side on the left side of midfield and scoring his first goal for Forest against Aston Villa in November 2023. By the end of the 2023/24 season Forest had suffered a change of manager to Nuno Espirito Santo, a points deduction and a flirt with relegation that was narrowly avoided in May 2024 – Ola made 22 appearances during the season. In the 2024/25 season a resurgent Forest competed at the top end of the Premier League table and Ola was often cited as one of their key performers.
Aina played for England youth sides at all representative levels. He debuted for the Under-16s in April 2012 against Russia made 10 appearances for the Under-17s during the 2012/13 season. The following season he played once for England Under-18s and over the next two years played thirteen times for the Under-19s. He made five appearances for the Under-20s during the 2015/16 season, in November 2015 he twice sat on the bench for the Under-21s but never made his debut at that level.
However in 2017 he pledged his international allegiance to Nigeria and made his senior international debut for the Super Eagles in October 2017 against Zambia. In June and July 2019 he played five games in the African Cup of Nations finals as Nigeria reached the semi-finals, in January 2022 he again represented his country at the AFCON finals making three appearances. He took his tally to 30 Nigeria caps when he started a September 2022 friendly against Algeria.
Details
Nationality: Nigeria
Date/Place of Birth: 8 October 1996, Southwark
Hull City First Game: 5 August 2017, Aston Villa A (Championship), 20 years, 301 days old
Hull City Final Game: 6 May 2018, Brentford A (Championship), 21 years, 210 days
Clubs
Chelsea (2014-2019), Hull City (2017-2018, loan), Torino (2018-2019, loan), Torino (2019-2023), Fulham (2020-2021, loan), Nottingham Forest (2023-current)
Hull City Record
Career: 46 apps, 1 goals
Ola Aina| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017/18 | 42 (2) | 0 | 2 (0) | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |