Former Birmingham City, Bolton and St Johnstone star makes left field transfer to foreign club

A player that began his Birmingham City and has since gone on to four different countries has moved to a club in a different continent.
Jordan Jones
By Jordan Jones
Published 5th Mar 2024, 11:00 GMT
Updated 5th Mar 2024, 11:00 GMT
Viv Solomon-Otabor began his career at Birmingham City. He has now moved to fifth country for football in his country. (Photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images)Viv Solomon-Otabor began his career at Birmingham City. He has now moved to fifth country for football in his country. (Photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images)
Viv Solomon-Otabor began his career at Birmingham City. He has now moved to fifth country for football in his country. (Photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images)

Former Birmingham City attacker Viv Solomon-Otabor has secured his next move.

The 28-year-old has joined the 10th club of his career having made his professional debut just under 10 years ago. He has joined Cangzhou Mighty Lions who play in the Chinese Super League, and joins as one of their permitted non-Chinese players.

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Cangzhou finished 12th out of 16th in the division last year, and have now turned to Solomon-Otabor to turn their fortunes around. The London-born winger has swapped Ukraine for China having left Rukh Lviv, and has reportedly penned a one-year contract at the Cangzhou Stadium.

Solomon-Otabor started his senior career at St Andrew's having joined from Crystal Palace on a scholarship deal. A decade ago, he made his first team debut for Oxford City in the National League South having joined on a loan deal, and did enough there to earn a professional contract at City. He would break in to the first-team in the 2015/16 campaign and would go on to make 25 appearances in all competitions, scoring one goal.

He would be limited to just three appearances in the 2016/16 campaign and would be loaned out to Bolton Wanderers until the end of the season but was limited to just four outings, all as a substitute with the Trotters. Solomon-Otabor was then shipped out to Blackpool for six months and played the most football he had done for any club up until that point, scoring five goals in 47 games for the Seasiders.

His time at Blackpool would allow him to return to City with a spring in his step but he made just eight appearances for them and was loaned out to League One outfit Portsmouth. It was then decided that he would be offered a one-year extension following the conclusion of the 2018/19 season, but he rejected that and went to Bulgarian outfit CSKA Sofia, where he spent a single season. He returned to the United Kingdom and would play for Wigan Athletic, and later St Johnstone before joining FC Rukh Lviv in 2022.

Related topics:BoltonSt JohnstoneLondonUkraine

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