Alexander Chuka Iwobi is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Arsenal and the Nigeria national team. Iwobi was born on May 3, 1996 in Lagos before moving to England at the age of four. He is the nephew of former professional footballer Jay-Jay Okocha.
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He joined Arsenal while still at primary school, and was first involved in a first-team match as an unused substitute in a League Cup match against West Bromwich Albion on 25 September 2013. In October 2015, he signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal.
On 27 October 2015, Iwobi made his first-team debut for the club in a 3–0 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday in the Round of 16 of the League Cup. He made his Premier League debut four days later in a 3–0 win against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium, as a stoppage time substitute for Mesut Özil. Iwobi then made his Champions League debut as an 85th-minute substitute in a 5–1 defeat against Bayern Munich. He started in the first team for the 2015–16 FA Cup 3rd and 4th round home wins against Sunderland and Burnley respectively.
Iwobi scored two goals in his first two Premier League starts in wins against Everton and Watford respectively. In the following season, he changed his squad number from 45 to 17 as Chilean forward Alexis Sánchez took up the newly vacated number 7 from the departing Tomáš Rosický.
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He went on to feature throughout Arsenal’s victorious FA Cup campaign of 2016–17 earning a winners medal as being part of the squad that beat Chelsea by 2 goals to 1 in the final. He achieved further success with Arsenal in the 2017 Community Shield, in which Arsenal beat Chelsea on penalties.
As an international player, He made his senior debut for the Super Eagles on 8 October 2015, replacing Ahmed Musa in the 57th minute of a 2–0 friendly defeat to DR Congo in Visé, Belgium. He was selected by Nigeria for their 35-man provisional squad for the 2016 Summer Olympics but was not a part of the 18-man final squad.
In August 2017, Iwobi pulled out of Nigeria’s squad for that month’s World Cup qualifiers due to injury. On 7 October 2017, Iwobi scored for Nigeria in a 1–0 win over Zambia to secure the Super Eagles a spot in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. He was named in Nigeria’s 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
