Former Super Eagles’ midfielder, Joseph Ayodele (Joe) Aribo is heading back to Southampton of England, following his inability to keep Leicester City up in the lower division while on loan at The Foxes all through this season, Sports247 reports.
With Leicester failing to hold their own in the second-tier Championship, the former English Premier League champions have been relegated to the third-cadre League One, thereby necessitating the release of several high-earning players.
While Aribo is heading back to Saint Mary’s Stadium to reunite with Samuel Edozie and Romeo Akachukwu at Southampton, a couple of Nigerian-born players have been released altogether and will have to find new clubs in the summer transfer window.
The departure of the once promising midfielder – whose full name is Joseph Oluwaseyi Temitope Ayodele-Aribo – comes after The Foxes endured a pathetic campaign that included their points deduction and they suffered back-to-back drops in two divisions.
A report by UK’s SunSport adds, “Youth-team players Jake Donohue, Jahmari Lindsay, Alfie Fisken, Toby Onanaye, Olaoluwa Omobolaji and Chris Popov have all been released. Jordan James, Aaron Ramsey, Joe Aribo, Dujuan Richards and Divine Mukasa will now return to their parent clubs after mixed success.”
Sports247 noted that the 29-year-old Aribo began his club career at Staines Town, then spent four years with Charlton Athletic in the English Football League after which he signed for Glasgow Rangers in 2019 and joined Southampton in July 2022.
Aribo showed so much promise when he scored on his debut for the Super Eagles during a friendly against Ukraine in September 2019 and later also hit target versus Brazil the following month.
He was part of Nigeria’s squad for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2021 and 2023, boosted by club exploits, especially after winning the Scottish Premiership in 2021 and Scottish Cup a year later.
