Somewhat early in the 2025 MLS season, FC Cincinnati midfielder Obinna Nwobodo will surpass his personal record of longest tenure at an individual club in his professional career.
He spent three full seasons in Hungary before departing for Turkey in his fourth year, then spent two years before heading to Cincy. He has already surpassed the century mark in games played for The Orange and Blue across all competitions but will pass that mark in MLS games again this season, making it the first time he’s done that with any of his clubs.
Entering his fourth season with the club and verging on that personal best, Nwobodo says he’s found a home in Cincinnati. That after many years of feeling like this is all temporary, not only do the halls of Mercy Health Training and the tunnels of TQL Stadium feel like his own, but the city itself feels like home now. That this kind of longevity is a strange feeling for him, he says. That part of the professional player lifestyle is accepting from a young age that you may do a lot of moving, and that being ok adapting to new and foreign places is just a part of life.
To be clear, he prefers it this way. But that is the life of the majority of pro players in the world.
“Cincinnati is something special for me. It’s like home,” Nwobodo said in a sit down with FCCincinnati.com before the team departed for preseason in Clearwater, Florida. “In the past, you know, it’s like I've been settling. But now I feel like I'm playing at home and for me to be able to stay, be able to play 100 games with one team, this is special to me.”
In his time at FC Cincinnati, the Nigerian midfielder has become one of the dominant defensive forces in the league and has been instrumental in the club's rise to trophy victories and trophy contention. In his three seasons thus far he has eclipsed 2000 minutes played in each, and has played in every MLS Cup Playoff game in the clubs history. He’s started as captain for The Orange and Blue three times and taken over mid game several others. Since his arrival in 2022 only Roman Celentano and Luciano Acosta have appeared more than him. He has been as integral to the club's rise to success as anyone.
“This is going to be my fourth year, but I still feel new. I feel fresh,” Nwobodo said, explaining his excitement for the upcoming season. “Maybe it's because of how the system is or how the team is, but I don't feel old in the team. I feel fresh. Maybe because every time a new season comes, then everything starts again. So it makes me always feel like something new is going to come. With every fresh start we expect something special.
“I've never been like, ‘Oh, I think I have gotten to my limit.’ I still feel like I can develop more. I still feel like I can improve more. Like we as a team can improve more, like we’re all pushing for more. That’s something different from previous places I've been…so I don’t feel like after 100 games or something I’m ready to go.”
Part of that sense of home is a growing feeling of ownership of the club's future and responsibility for that path forward. Part of that is serving as an ambassador of sorts in the club's recruitment of players, and helping those into the club feel welcome and start to feel a part of that ‘home’ that Nwobodo has received. When Nwobodo, a Designated Player in 2024, came into the squad in 2022 he was just one of three players from Africa. Now, three seasons later that figure has grown by one, shuffled around a little (with some comings and goings from the squad) in the meantime. But Obinna has remained.
Nwobodo, along with Zimbabwe native Teenage Hadebe, Cameroon native (but now American Citizen) Tah Barian Anunga and highly touted winter signing Kévin Denkey of Togo make up the African contingent as of now. But in preseason camp, with FC Cincinnati 2 players joining the first team for training sessions, the group grew to include others like Nigerian native Monsuru Opeyemi, and South African loanee Xhosa Manyana.
It is, in Nwobodo’s opinion, that having a welcoming presence from current players for new players coming in is vital to the short and long term success of the team; no matter who that player is, where he comes from, or what the expectations of them are.
But he does have a unique perspective in his African heritage, and the challenges a player may face coming from that part of the world.
“We have a very big brotherhood,” Nwobodo explained. “I think we all have a very strong connection between us and Africa. So it is important to welcome those who come and show them that brotherhood is here too.”
When he arrived in America, Nwobodo says his relationships with Dominique Badji and Issac Atanga helped him settle and become more part of the larger group. Now others share very similar stories of their first days and thank Nwobodo for his efforts.
“We treat each other like brothers, especially abroad. So when I arrived in Cincinnati last year, Obi met me and was my brother from the moment we met,” defender Teenage Hadebe said of his teammate after a recent training session.
“It is hard coming into a new team. So let’s say maybe you're a new player. Maybe you left your family for the first time and you’re all alone in a new place. It's hard for you to adapt, to know the people, to know what the coaches are asking. But at least if you go to the team that has one or two Africans there it's like there is a family. So it will be easy for us to communicate, to share your problems because maybe you have similar problems. Obi and (Chidozie Awaziem) did that for me, and so now I do that for them and others.”
The focus this preseason though is about learning from last year. Part of a long term, or ever continuing project of success, is organizational continuity. But maybe more so organizational memory. Having consistency to guide the team through the club's seasons so there is a (if not linear) steady upward trend of growth and development across the board.
Nwobodo provides that as he’s been through it all. He also brings his own unique mindset to the group, which focuses heavily on remembering the past so as to learn from it. Rather than starting fresh and new and leaving baggage behind.
“I want to see how this season is going to play out because we had a lot of things stopped last year. A lot of success we expected to have, we didn't have. I'm someone that has always tried to start where I stopped,” Nwobodo explained. “I believe that we have to start from the place where we stopped, which is almost there…but not there. We have to remember that. So we have to get ourselves to the point where we say ‘yes, now we actually achieved something big,’ which is winning trophies.”
Obinna of course then acknowledged that FCC had won a Supporters’ Shield title just one year prior and that was something big. But qualified that with a “but we didn’t win them all,” referring to the MLS Cup or Leagues Cup, and that that was two years ago now and in the quest for success the answer is always “more trophies.”
So it is from there Obinna Nwobodo goes into preseason training and the start of the MLS season. Remember the end of last season. Remember how there was potential there but the opportunity was lost, and continue to work and fight to earn that opportunity and, in the end, win trophies again.
“So yes, we push for more. We are at a point where I know what we can do and whatever that stopped us last year, is not going to stop us this year. I already told myself, and I believe everyone else believes, we have to push to make sure that we get more success, because that is the only thing that's going to make me feel happy. I'm not going to be happy qualifying for playoffs or qualifying for a final. I want to be happy winning trophies. The only way I can do it is to start from where I stopped last year, and go for more.”