The Smiling Assassin

From Connors Park to playing at Celtic Park in less than four years via Waterford FC, Derby County and Gateshead, Owen Oseni’s pathway has been an exciting one that can be a lesson for many young players.

His journey took another swift turn last month when Oseni joined St Mirren in the Scottish Premier League. Signed on Wednesday, debuted Thursday and, by that Sunday, he was playing against Celtic in front of sixty thousand people. “It all happened so fast”, Owen tells me from his new home in Glasgow. “I signed one day and played in the shirt the day after.”

 

 

The former De La Salle, Waterford student first really came to prominence as a 17 year old with Villa’s Munster Youth Cup-winning side in 2020. He hadn’t been picked for representative teams previously, nor had he attracted attention from scouts. His hasn’t been the traditional route to footballing success.

Owen joined Waterford FC’s Under 20s in the summer of 2021 and had immediate goalscoring success. The next season, he really started to garner attention and won the League of Ireland Under 19 Player of the Month award for April 2022 as the goals really flowed. He made four substitute appearances for the first team that season with Blues boss Danny Searle giving him his senior debut in July as a 70^th minute replacement for Wassim Aouachria in a 5-0 win away to Cobh Ramblers.

Oseni combined that time in Waterford’s academy with his studies for the excellent FAI/ETB Player Development course. Lead Co-ordinator of the course Paddy Carey says that there were certain elements that Owen needed to develop. “He needed his body to adapt to being a full-time player,” notes the ex-Reading FC academy manager. “Finishing is a strength of his, but he needed to continue working on that and then look at his hold-up play. I always knew he’d play at a good level given how good he was in front of goal. He just needed to work on the ‘dark arts’ and we helped with that. The course gave him time to work on his learning plans and the small details that are required to succeed. You then just need someone to believe in you too.”

Owen left Waterford at the end of that season and joined Derby County in February 2023. He played for the Rams’ Under 21s team followed by loan spells with Nuneaton Borough, Rushall Olympic and Gateshead in the seventh, sixth and fifth tiers of English football respectively. Having impressed in that final stint, the pacy left-footed striker signed a two-year contract with Gateshead last summer. He was the first signing by former Ireland international Rob Elliott, who later moved on to manage Crawley Town in League One.

“Gateshead was a very good experience for me,” Owen says about a club he will continue to support from afar. “The changing room and the lads were top drawer. The football played there too was a joke and helped me to pick up a lot of different things.”

Oseni lit up the National League with twelve goals in the first four months of the season and attracted the attention of several clubs further up the ladder. His final goal for Gateshead came in a Boxing Day fixture against Hartlepool which lifted them to fourth in the table. The northeastern club, based on the outskirts of Newcastle, are desperate to return to the Football League for the first time since 1960. Losing their striker was a blow, but they have maintained a playoff position and Owen is optimistic. “They definitely have it in them to get promoted. The plan is for me to return to Wembley in their playoff final, but as a fan, not a player.”

 

 

Goal-scorers will always be in high demand at every level and a move to higher level started to become inevitable. It was St Mirren and manager Stephen Robinson who won the battle for his signature with Gateshead receiving a fee in the region of €150,000 according to reports. “I knew about St Mirren for a while in December, but I had a few clubs ready to make a deal happen. I didn’t know what I wanted ‘til the last minute, but when I did, it was St Mirren for me.”

He is clearly happy with his choice. “Life is good. I’m living in Glasgow and I must say it’s very cold! It’s a different style of play to Gateshead, but I’m learning every day.” Owen says that having two former Waterford FC teammates (Richard Taylor and Roland Idowu) already at St Mirren has been beneficial. “The boys have helped me settle in really well. It’s good to have boys you know for a long time in a group with new faces.”

The likeable local-lad-made-good acknowledges that his path was different to the norm and is keen to encourage others. “Yeah, I think I was a late developer, but I had good people around me, especially my coaches at Villa – the likes of Conor Coad and Paul Cashin – two ex-Waterford players. I stuck at it and now I’m reaping rewards of some sort. I’m still young and learning.” That humility comes from his family and Owen gives credit to his brother, Ashley, who he admits “played the biggest role in shaping me into the player I am today. He’s my biggest critic and sometimes you need that.”

Oseni, who will turn 22 in May, tips Waterford FC Under 17s’ forward Mason Murphy as one to watch (“the young boy has talent”) and shares his advice for all young players. “Aim to be the best player in sessions and in games. Never leave training and feel like it’s a day wasted. You should always improve by 1% on something. Don’t be afraid to try different things in training. Be fearless and, most importantly, enjoy it as much as you can.”

 

 

The aforementioned Conor Coad, who coached Oseni from age 15 to 18 at Villa, echoes those key points and saw them in Owen. “He would very much have a growth mindset,” says Coad “and always had a noticeably strong desire to improve each training session and perform to his maximum each match day. His ability to be coachable and take on feedback, along with his eagerness to put the extra work in individually in his own time, really saw him develop technically and physically which, in turn, had a massive boost on his confidence.”

The newly-appointed Cobh Ramblers assistant manager is delighted to see Oseni thriving in Scotland and admits he uses it as an example when talking to young players about ‘late developers’. He adds that “anyone who knows Owen would tell you first what a great person he is to have as part of a team. He’s got an infectious positive energy.”

That positivity is still evident today with Owen listing his ambitions for the future as being to “continue enjoying my football and play with a smile on my face. I don’t put too much pressure on myself in terms of what I want to be. I try to just enjoy the now because it’s all that matters.”

Oseni has seen what can be with that game against Celtic one of his five appearances for St Mirren to date, but he appreciates how far he has come, admitting “Celtic Park was a dream that felt so distant as a kid, but I’m glad I got there in the end.” In truth, it’s still only the beginning for him and everyone in Waterford will find it easy to root for his success.