Player Profile: Kayode Odejayi

Name: Kayode Odejayi

Position: Striker

Squad Number: 9

Date of Birth: 21/02/82

Height: 6'3'

Career Stats:

Bristol City: 6 Apps, 0 Goals
Forest Green Rovers: 50 Apps, 16 Goals
Cheltenham Town: 167 Apps, 33 Goals
Barnsley: 82 Apps, 5 Goals
Scunthorpe United: 6 Apps, 1 Goals
Colchester United: 16 Apps, 7 Goals

Barnsley Career:

Kayode was one of Simon Davey's first signings as Barnsley manager, arriving at Oakwell in the summer of 2007 from Cheltenham Town for a fee of £200,000.

Kayode had an up and down debut season for Barnsley, struggling to find the net on a regular basis. This didn't endear him to the Oakwell crowd and before long he began to enter the field to a chorus of boos from a few supporters.

He found the net against Scunthorpe in a 2-0 win and then failed to hit the back of the net until Barnsley knocked Chelsea out of the F.A. Cup at the quarter final stage, Odejayi grabbing the only goal of the game to send the Tykes to Wembley for a memorable Semi-Final with Cardiff City.

The Semi-Final was an afternoon to forget for Odejayi. After his heroics in the previous round, many supporters had started to hope that he had turned the corner and would begin to realise his full potential. His big chance came on 66 minutes again, just as it had done against Chelsea. The big Nigerian was set free behind the Cardiff defence and ran at goal from the half way line. He reached the box and spurned the chance to equalise, firing wide of the near post with only Peter Enckelman to beat. The game petered out after that with Cardiff going through to the final with a 1-0 win.

2008/09 was little better for Odejayi with first team opportunities limited and he found himself out on loan at Scunthorpe United for a while in 2009.

Kayode has made a total of 82 appearances for Barnsley, scoring just 5 goals.

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