Wilfred Ndidi – Player Profile 2023 & Career

Player Profile
Name	Wilfred Ndidi
Nationality	Nigerian
Date of Birth	16 December 1996
Club	Leicester City and the Nigeria National Team
Position	Defensive Midfielder

📜 History of Wilfred Ndidi

Onyinye Wilfred Ndidi was born on the 16th of December in 1996 in Lagos, Nigeria. As his father was a military man, Ndidi grew up in the Military Cantonment located in Ikeja, Lagos. This defensive midfielder started playing competitive football at the Command Children school.

🇳🇬 Wilfred Ndidi Career In Nigeria

He then started pursuing his dream of becoming a football player by moving to play for Nath Boys. Playing for this football academy at Police College Ikeja Lagos made him one step closer to his incredible football career.

At that time, the Nath Boys academy was playing against a Nigerian Premier League team, 3SC Shooting Stars. As a matter of fact, Ndidi was playing in central defence and made an assist that changed the outcome of the game to 1-1. During this football tournament observed by foreign scouts in Nigeria, Ndidi was the only one that was spotted, out of 40 teams and 500 boys.

The Nigerian National Junior and Senior Setup

While at Nathaniel Boys of Lagos, Ndidi was a member of the Nigerian youth setup. During the African U-17 Championship with Nigeria, he was excluded as a precaution along with two other players, after an MRI age test revealed that he was just slightly over the age limit.

Despite that, he came together with his teammates for the U-20 team the next year, becoming a key member of the midfield. Then, on 8 October 2015, he played for the Senior Nigerian national football team against DR Congo. Additionally, a few days later, he played in the 3–0 win against Cameroon, replacing John Obi Mikel in the 63rd minute.

Notable Performance

In 2016, Nigeria selected him for its 35-man provisional Olympic squad. Moreover, Nigeria also named the young athlete to its preliminary 30-man squad for the World Cup in Russia in May of 2018. As a member of Nigeria’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations squad, Ndidi played in their opening match against Burundi.

🌐 Wilfred Ndidi International Career

Even if he is only in his early twenties, this professional soccer player from Nigeria has had an interesting international career. Take a look:

Ndidi’s Career with Genk 2014-2017

Afterwards, this right-footed professional football player was asked to try out for the Genk team where he signed his first contract after a year of trial. KRC Genk got the young athlete for £78,000, and they made a great profit when he was transferred to Leicester City later on.

In a 1–0 away defeat to Charleroi on 31 January 2015, Ndidi made his Belgian Pro League debut for Genk. After playing for 74 minutes, he was replaced by Jarne Vrijsen. Furthermore, Ndidi scored the Belgian League goal of the season during the playoff game against Club Brugge. In an attempt to clear the ball outside the penalty box, he lofted the ball over an opponent before launching a powerful volley into the top right corner. To be precise, the ball’s speedometer showed it was travelling over 111 kilometres per hour.

Ndidi’s Career with Leicester City 2017-2021

During the week ending December 3, 2016, Genk and Leicester City signed a £17 million transfer agreement, but the agreement was finalized on 5 January 2017. Namely, the club’s first game with Ndidi was a 2–1 win against Everton in the third round of the FA Cup on 7 January 2017. Since then, he has had some fine performances both in the Premier League and in the Champions League.

His Premier League debut against Chelsea at home on 14 January 2017 resulted in a 3–0 defeat. A long-range shot by Ndidi in the first half of extra time in Leicester’s 2017 English FA Cup match against Derby County marked his first goal for the club. In addition, Ndidi won 11 of his 14 tackles against Liverpool during a 3–1 win on 27 February 2017- a feat only accomplished by Chelsea’s N’Golo Kanté, who made 14 tackles against the same team in January.

Fun Fact: A 20% sign-on fee was given to KRC Genk, while Nath Boys managed to get only 10% from the transfer.

On 16 December 2017, Leicester’s Ndidi was given a first-ever red card during the 3–0 loss to Crystal Palace. Besides, the striker scored the first goal of the 2019–2020 season against Chelsea.

Leicester City 2020-2021

At the start of Leicester City’s first game of the 2020–21 Premier League season on 13 September 2020, Ndidi played as centre-back. However, on 20 September 2020, Ndidi injured his adductor, causing him to miss 6-12 weeks. Afterwards, he made his return to action in Leicester’s Europa League defeat to Zorya Luhansk on 3 December. Additionally, Ndidi’s first goal of the season happened against Chelsea on 19 January 2021. Ultimately, Leicester went top of the table after winning this match with a score of 2–0.

Fun Fact: Ndidi scored an 85 on FIFA 22 and has an 88 potential.

Notable International Performance

The match against Liverpool on 13 February 2021 in the Premier League was one of his best performances in 2021. For his performance, Wilfred Ndidi was awarded a match rating from FC of 9.3, and Leicester City won 3-1. To be precise, in this match, the Nigerian defensive midfielder had 1 assist.

In this period, Wilfred Ndidi also had some other exceptional match performances. For example, on 19 January 2021, he scored one goal and received an overall match rating of 8.1 in a Leicester City – Chelsea match. Moreover, Ndidi also received a match rating of 8.1 after the Tottenham – Leicester City game for the Premier League on 20 December 2020.

His least impressive performance in the Premier League was the one against Manchester City F.C., on 3 April 2021. Leicester City lost to Manchester City F.C without a point and Wilfred Ndidi ended up having a 6.3 match rating.

Wilfred Ndidi Teams
Team	Period
K.R.C. Genk	2014-2015
K.R.C. Genk	2015-2016
K.R.C. Genk	2016-2017
Leicester City F.C.	2017-2018
Leicester City F.C.	2018-2019
Leicester City F.C.	2019-2020
Leicester City F.C.	2020-2021

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Frequently Asked Questions

Want to know more about Wilfred Ndidi? Check out these series of answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about this Nigerian football player.