Viv Solomon-Otabor

Club

Shijiazhuang Yongchang FC

Position

Winger

Nationality

England

Date of birth

1996-01-02

Birthplace

London, England

Height

5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)

Weight

170 lbs

Shirt number

31

Viv Efosa Solomon-Otabor (born 2 January 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays for Bulgarian First League club CSKA Sofia.

A winger, Solomon-Otabor made his senior debut while on loan at Conference North club Oxford City in 2014, and first played for Birmingham in the League Cup in August 2015. He spent time on loan to League One Bolton Wanderers in 2016–17 before joining Blackpool ahead of the 2017–18 season. Solomon-Otabor was born in London to Nigerian parents.

Solomon-Otabor was born in London to parents originally from Edo State, Nigeria. He is the nephew of Nigerian international footballer Thompson Oliha, and his father, Victor-Banks Otabor, played domestically for Bendel Insurance, NNPC and Eagle Oil. He attended Bishop Thomas Grant School, Streatham, and supported Manchester United as a boy.

As a youngster, Solomon-Otabor played football with Hampton & Richmond Borough, and was a member of Crystal Palace's academy, before taking up a scholarship with Birmingham City in July 2012. In February 2014, he joined Conference North club Oxford City on a youth loan until the end of the season. He played 12 league matches, 7 as a member of the starting eleven, and scored once, in a 2–0 win away to Gloucester City, as Oxford City finished 20th.

Solomon-Otabor signed his first professional contract with Birmingham, of one year with the option of a second, in June 2014. In November, he described his strengths as speed, dribbling, and ability to play with both feet. He was a regular in the development squad over the season, and was a member of the team that won the Birmingham Senior Cup. His under-21 coach, Richard Beale, believed the player had the potential to progress to the first team but needed to work harder at the defensive aspects of the game.

Birmingham took up the option for a further year on his contract, and he showed enough progress in pre-season and into the start of the 2015–16 season that manager Gary Rowett decided to keep him at the club instead of allowing him out on loan again. Rowett remarked on his physical development and his improved defensive work, rated him as "probably the quickest player we have got in the squad", and highlighted his having "roasted first team defenders in training". Solomon-Otabor was given a squad number "with a view to participation in" the second-round League Cup tie at home to Gillingham on 25 August 2015. He did indeed participate, as a second-half substitute, replacing Koby Arth