Noah Okafor don explain why Leeds United feel like home for am after e make impressive start to im second season for Elland Road. The forward tell BBC Radio Leeds say: ‘I like to score and assist and to help the team. Goals na the most important thing. This feeling na something I can’t describe. E dey incredible to score for home games.’
Since e join Leeds for August 2025, the Switzerland international don build partnership and friendship with Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Okafor talk say: ‘I love him so much as a friend. To play with him dey make me so happy. Dom dey give me good advice for life. Really happy to get am for my side and for my private life.’
So far this season, the 26-year-old don feature for seven games for Leeds, score one goal. ‘We get good energy and atmosphere for the team. E dey special on and off the pitch,’ na wetin Okafor add. ‘I dey really happy to get coach like him [Daniel Farke]. He dey give me freedom up front.’
For Leeds, Okafor and Calvert-Lewin dey spearhead the team early European form. Four of the Whites’ seven Premier League goals so far this season come via these two alone – Okafor one, Calvert-Lewin three. Both strikers move to Elland Road together for last year summer transfer window, but expectation for each man different.
Calvert-Lewin arrive on free transfer, and many people dey sceptical about impact e go make, because of im rough final few years for Everton. Okafor sign for deal wey dem widely report as worth £18million from AC Milan, so pressure land on am straight away to deliver. Fast-forward to now, both players don become firm Elland Road favourites, and dem dey clearly build strong relationship.
When Daniel Farke deploy formation wey accommodate two strikers like e dey do for Leeds, chemistry between those two na vital. If the two strikers no dey same page and no sync with each other, attack go collapse. Thankfully, Okafor and Calvert-Lewin dey work in tandem together, with Okafor as the artist and Calvert-Lewin as the finisher.
Speaking via BBC Sport West Yorkshire on X, Okafor open up about how close he and the England international be both on and off pitch. ‘I love him (Calvert-Lewin) so much as a friend. To play with him dey make me so happy,’ the Swiss international confess. ‘Also off the pitch we dey really close with each other. I dey really happy to get friend like Dom. He dey give me good advice for life. Also in moments on and off the pitch e dey so, so good like some memories together. Yeah, really, really happy to get someone for my team like this, and really happy to get am on my side also like for my private life. He just be top guy and top human being.’
But how the underlying numbers show why Okafor and Calvert-Lewin complement each other so well? Even though both stand just over six-feet tall and no too dissimilar physical profiles, Okafor and Calvert-Lewin be very different types of strikers. Per FotMob, no Premier League striker this season don complete more dribbles pass Okafor 12, meanwhile Calvert-Lewin make just one. For the other side, Calvert-Lewin don win 24 aerial duels this term, whereas Okafor win only three. Calvert-Lewin dey play 1.92 line-breaking passes per game opposed to Okafor 3.27, showing again their canvas and paint brush-type relationship on pitch. One no really work without the other for this system, so no wonder say the two share such tight relationship on and off pitch.
The two go need to dey at their best on Saturday, however, if Daniel Farke side wan get any chance to take something from their away trip to Arsenal.
