Birmingham City fans won’t just be content with their side winning promotion at the end of the season, hopeful that the Blues could potentially take the Championship by storm after rising out of League One‘s murky waters.
Back-to-back promotions do happen, just ask Ipswich Town supporters, with Chris Davies wanting to be the manager to hopefully take Birmingham all the way back up to the Premier League one day, having been out of the big time since relegation at the end of the 2010/11 season.
When the Blues were routinely keeping their heads just above water in the second tier, before a disastrous relegation, they were also responsible for some top homegrown starlets rising up the ranks, with Demarai Gray one standout example.
Gray’s time at Birmingham
Gray might not have quite reached the insane heights of Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham after he left the club, nor Nathan Redmond who went on to be a household Premier League name, but the tricky winger has had a career of note after exiting the Blues in 2016.
Gray would fire home eight goals from 78 appearances in the West Midlands, on top of picking up four assists, which would then alert Premier League suitors such as Leicester City to his services.
The Foxes splashed out £3.75m to get their desired target, with Gray going on to become a dependable first-teamer at the King Power Stadium over various campaigns, amassing 13 goals and 15 assists from 169 total clashes.
The 5 foot 11 attacker also found himself on the books of both Bayer Leverkusen and Everton briefly, before a move to Saudi Arabia came to fruition, where the Al-Ettifaq FC winger now earns a bumper £75k-per-week salary.
With Gray going on to make a name for himself away from his boyhood employers, many homegrown products back at St. Andrew’s must have looked to the winger for inspiration when attempting to cut their own teeth in the senior game, with the Blues prodigy even labelled as ‘another Demarai Gray’ back in 2015.
What happened to Birmingham’s next Demarai Gray
It was an outlandish label to put above the player in question’s head nine years ago, but that pressure was still put on his shoulders by then Birmingham boss Gary Rowett, who will no doubt regret this suggestion now.
Viv Solomon-Otobar – who lined up for the Blues down the opposite flank to Gray – was the talent heralded as the second coming of the ex-Birmingham number 33, off the back of scoring his first-ever strike for the club in a 5-2 win versus Fulham.
“If he can piece it all together, he’s going to be another Demarai Gray. He’s probably stronger than Demarai. He’s quicker than Demarai. He doesn’t take on players like Demarai, but he’s got two really good feet. He can smash a ball with both his left and his right, and he’s a really humble lad, who works incredibly hard.”
Away from scoring a notable goal at Craven Cottage, Solomon-Otobar would only go on to score one more strike for the second-tier outfit, with just eight Championship appearances coming his way during his final campaign.
First Impressions
What did pundits and fans alike think about their new star signing when they arrived? Football FanCast’s ‘First Impressions’ series has everything you need.
Yet, Birmingham did want to keep Solomon-Otobar rooted at the club despite some up-and-down displays, even offering him a new contract after some loan spells away, but he opted to join Bulgarian titans CSKA Sofia instead in 2019 to begin his nomadic career post-Birmingham.
The former recipient of the Blues Young Player of the Season award has played in Bulgaria, Ukraine and Scotland since exiting, with a spell now out in faraway China seeing him shine.
Solomon-Otobar is now on the books of Chinese Super League side Cangzhou Mighty Lions, as the 28-year-old continues to try and rebuild his career after failing to live up to his top billing in England.
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Solomon-Otobar’s league numbers for Cangzhou (2024) |
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|---|---|
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Stat |
Solomon-Otobar |
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Games played |
29 |
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Goals scored |
6 |
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Assists |
4 |
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Big chances missed |
4 |
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Big chances created |
8 |
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Stats by Sofascore |
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This year, in league action, Solomon-Otobar managed to amass an impressive ten goal contributions from 29 games, as the 28-year-old’s unusual career path goes on.
Rowett would never have anticipated the 5 foot 11 attacker’s playing days going this way, with Solomon-Otobar arguably now forgotten about at St. Andrew’s, rather than being remembered as another bright star from the club’s academy.
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