Lonely Barnsley, Qatar and Gareth Bale's psychologist: The rise of Sheffield Wednesday's Ike Ugbo

At the age of 25, it's fair to say the man whose goals have injected hope into the blue and white side of the city has 'been about a bit'. Born in London to Nigerian parents, a work opportunity took the family to Ontario, Canada when he was just four years old. He was back in the Big Smoke by the age of nine and after a few Sunday league kickabouts with Tooting & Mitcham was signed up to the Chelsea youth ranks. He travelled here, there and everywhere playing football by the time his boots were big enough to have to pay tax on.

Before his move back to the UK, he starred in a provincial junior team that won a Disney-sponsored international tournament in Florida against teams from Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and El Salvador. He met Mickey Mouse. Aged 12, he was playing alongside the likes of Declan Rice, Mason Mount and Eddie Nketiah in one of the most sophisticated academies in world football. Aged 15, he won the UEFA Youth League and aged 16 did it again.

England youth caps took Ugbo to major tournaments in Bulgaria and Chile and friendlies all over. He counted Reece James (not that one), Trent Alexander-Arnold and George Hirst (that one) among his teammates and netted a total of seven goals against the likes of Italy, Australia and Romania. One classy FA Youth Cup final goal scored against the might of Manchester City sealed Chelsea's title and had Antonio Conte pictured grinning in the stands.

But during a cold and isolating first loan stint away from a Chelsea set-up in which his star had only ever risen, life suddenly became tough. Aged 18 and living on his own in a Sheffield flat at the outset of the 2017/18 season, he became a bit-part player for Barnsley as the goals tap was turned off. In an honest 2020 interview he described it as a 'lonely experience'.

It's been a long road to Sheffield Wednesday hope injections and World Cup daydreams for Ike Ugbo.

"I was by myself.."

If the start of the 2017/18 season was a fairly miserable one for Barnsley Football Club, think double for Ike Ugbo. Having secured a safe 14th-placed finish the season before, for the Oakwell side there was takeover talk, takeover completion and what became increasingly clear would be a relegation battle. A league high position of 15th was reached after just five matches after a 3-0 win over Sunderland in which Ugbo scored and laid on an assist. It proved to be as good as it got for both player and club.

With two Tykes goals to his name after 18 appearances mainly from the bench, Ugbo was hauled back to Chelsea at the first opportunity having played an increasingly minor part in proceedings while going to and from his lonely Sheffield flat. He returned to a Blues youth side set up for the season and found opportunities initially scarce even there. That 2020 interview, with The Athletic, is a tough read but shows a maturity in a then 22-year-old that goes beyond his years.

"When I went there I was high on confidence and just doing the same things in training, having the same approach," he said. "I knew it was a good level, a lot harder, but I think I missed out on doing the extra work I needed to do, especially being just 18. I just didn’t prepare the way I should have.

"As things began going wrong at Barnsley, it was a very big shock. I’d be getting maybe 10 minutes in the space of five weeks. The only action I’d get would be running on the pitch after games. My confidence went completely. Even when I did come on, I wasn’t prepared mentally. It took a lot out of me. My training then wasn’t on top because my head wasn’t in the right place and I think that’s why I didn’t get the amount of games/goals I would have liked."

Unable to scramble back momentum, the man who made Conte smile lost his way. Unglamorous loan stints with with MK Dons and Scunthorpe United were equally miserable, equally light in goal rushes but taught him lessons along the way. At the outset of the 2019/20 season he had made 51 senior appearances, had scored five times and had a solitary assist.

At a crossroads, he was heading for the airport once more.

"I've seen what I like and what I don't like.."

In his first media engagement as a Sheffield Wednesday player, Ugbo spoke confidently and openly, a different man entirely from the one described in that lonely Sheffield flat. He spoke of wanting to lay roots in the right place - Wednesday is his 10th club across five different countries (we're counting his stint at Cardiff City as a foreign adventure for narrative effect) - and he spoke of his experiences in different clubs and cultures as one that has shaped him.

"Moving around has helped me a lot," he told The Star. "From a young age I moved around and I saw different cultures and lifestyles. Now I'm 25 and I feel like I've matured nicely, I have seen what I like and what I don't like. It's all part of the journey and I feel like It's given me an advantage.

"I've had to adapt as quickly as I can to those places and as a striker you're demanded to score goals immediately. Sometimes that's not easy, but I think I've done well to get myself to where I am. I've learned quite a lot being in different places and doing things like that."

For the 2019/20 season Ugbo found himself on loan in the Dutch second tier with Roda JC, an entirely different challenge to those experienced in the EFL. The season certainly had its challenges - they started the season without a manager, the club were deducted three points for licensing violations and Ugbo was left unpaid when the club's Mexican investor took umbrage to fan protests and withdrew his funding - but in a season that Roda finished fourth-bottom he scored 16 of their 36 goals.

It was around this time that he began to truly utilise the expertise of Jamie Edwards, a former Commonwealth basketball player and sports psychologist who counts the likes of Joe Hart, Luke Shaw and Gareth Bale among his clients. Recommended by a Chelsea teammates, it's been a transformative partnership that flowered into a strong friendship. Again mature beyond his years, Ugbo realised he needed to 'fix things' and one summer week was spent alongside his other footballing clients at a country house.

The goals kept coming the following season as he took a leap up in standard in another loan - his fifth - at Cercle Brugge, the Belgian first tier giants who had designs of European qualification after the appointment of Paul Clement, the former PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich assistant boss. Clement had Ugbo recommended by a colleague at the Chelsea academy in which he cut his teeth and coached him alongside Nigel Gibbs, the ex-Watford man.

In Brugge he found more confidence, more opportunity and 17 goals in 34 games in another struggling side. He struck up a fond partnership with a young Dutch striker called Anthony Musaba and all of a sudden, he was being spoken of as a top prospect once more. The season went south for his club and his management team with Clement and Gibbs sacked in February, but Ugbo was hot stuff once more and moving away from the loan churn of over a decade with Chelsea, sealed a permanent move to higher-flying RKC Genk.

"He was only 21 or 22 when he came and he'd had a lot of loan clubs," his Cercle assistant Gibbs told The Star. "That's not easy for players, everyone wants you to come in and hit the ground running but it's just not as easy as that. You've got to get used to your team and your teammates, it's a different culture. But we helped him and I was really impressed with him, not only his goals but his willingness to work.

"We wanted to go in and help the player and give him confidence. We worked closely with him on the pitch and made clear we wanted to help him reach his potential. We put sessions on that helped him improve and he certainly did that. It probably helped that we were English as well, we knew his background from his Chelsea days and it all went to build that confidence. We played to his strengths, asked him to play on the shoulders and he just needed that service, to give him lots of confidence. He needed to play regularly, he was our main man and that gave him confidence as well.

"He's a quiet lad, but he got on with his work and he came alive in the box," Gibbs continued. "His willingness to get into good positions and his penalty box movements we've seen in his time with Sheffield Wednesday. I've seen his goals and they don't surprise me, it's about his natural timing of runs and getting across defenders and that's something he did in Belgium. I'm really pleased with him and what he's doing there."

From a six-goal season at Genk he made the switch to Ligue 1 club Troyes, initially on loan and then on a permanent basis, he scored at the Parc des Princes in a 2-2 draw with PSG that boasted a front four of Neymar, Angel Di Maria, Kylian Mbappe and one Lionel Messi. You rather suspect the calls to Edwards may have become more intense as the goals slowed in a poor side that were relegated last season. After a stop-start first half of a season-long loan stint with Cardiff, in January Ike Ugbo found himself at a crossroads once again.

Enter Wednesday.

"It's more motivation than any footballer could ever need.."

Nobody knows how this season will end. For all the building excitement of Sheffield Wednesday's resurgent charge up the points ladder since Danny Röhl's arrival to the club in October, the next eight matches could deliver something of a damp squib. Few reading these pages will want that happen of course. Having regained his place in the Canada starting line-up for the first time in 18 long months ahead of a World Cup year, Ike Ugbo certainly won't.

A first half of the season at Cardiff was an odd one. Back in the Championship for the first time since those days returning from Barnsley to that lonely flat, Ugbo's fortunes in the English second tier could not have started any differently. He scored and assisted in a 2-2 draw first game of the season draw with title favourites Leeds United and after a sunny August win over Sheffield Wednesday, he had three in four. Everything was rosy.

And then it wasn't. His minutes dwindled, his role changed and the goals dried up. Ugbo scored only once more for the transitioning Bluebirds and by December it was clear he had dropped sharply from Erol Bulut's plans. Both Cardiff and Troyes were keen to rip the loan up and Ugbo was once again faced with the challenge of finding an alternative home. Cardiff fans spoke glowingly of him despite his modest tally and many were disappointed to see him go. The Star broke news of Wednesday's interest on January 10 and he signed a day later.

"When I was at Cardiff, towards the end I wasn't playing so much, so my agent spoke to me and brought me some options," Ugbo told The Star shortly after his signing. "I spoke to managers and spoke to Danny and from then I really liked the project and the style of play he has put in here. My decision was made to go and sign for Sheffield Wednesday for the rest of the season. I was really focused on staying in England and had a few options."

As Ugbo suggested, he hadn't been short of options. The Star understands a number of clubs in the Championship and in Europe were keen to take him on for the rest of the campaign and that Birmingham City were among the clubs to about-turn on their interest just a few weeks before he scored his first Wednesday goals to beat them 2-0 at Hillsborough. After his six goals in 12 appearances so far - the Owls have won every game in which he has either scored or assisted - it's clear that interest will rear its head again come the summer with Troyes likely willing sellers.

Whatever Ugbo's next move, it's an important one with the small matter of a home World Cup is dangling in the distance. Having moved to and from Ontario as a nipper, Canadian football authorities weren't even aware of Ugbo's eligibility until they were contacted by his Disney champion junior club Woodbridge Strikers a few years back. Initial approaches were made to sway him towards choosing Canada above Nigeria or England but were effectively blocked by Chelsea. He made his debut in November 2021 and went to the Qatar World Cup a year later. Over the weekend he earned his eighth cap.

"Qatar was one of the best experiences I've had," he told The Star. "It was something I spent a while looking forward to and it definitely lived up to the expectations. We played against some of the world's best teams and to see them live is an experience I will never forget, for sure. We will drive ourselves to do better in the next one, which is obviously at home.

"It's more motivation every day. I'm trying to work towards that as a bigger picture as well. It's more motivation than any footballer could ever need, having a home World Cup to aim for."

As hosts, qualification is assured and the 25-year-old wants to be a leading part of Canada's campaign. He never got on the pitch in Qatar but with manager Mauro Biello having praised the impact Wednesday and Röhl have had on his performances, he looks well-set to do so should next time he be able to continue his upward trajectory with the Owls.

It's been a rocky road via Canada and Qatar, via Barnsley and Belgium and to the frontline at S6. But an Ike Ugbo scoring Championship goals for Sheffield Wednesday in 2026 before jetting off to a home World Cup? There's quite a few that would happily shake hands on that outcome.