ELF: Barcelona Dragons sign veteran Swedish defensive lineman Benjamin Banks Egbudiwe
The Barcelona Dragons of the European League of Football signed Swedish defensive lineman Benjamin Banks Egbudiwe for the 2023 season. Egbudiwe replaces Swedish linebacker Hugo Dyrendahl, the 2022 Austrian Football League Defensive Player of the Year.
🚨 ROSTER UPDATE 🚨#BarcelonaDragons #FeelTheFire #ELF23 pic.twitter.com/1iBsH9fWsN
— Barcelona Dragons (@Dragons_BCN) May 26, 2023
The 6’4″, 260 pound, 31-year-old from Uppsala, Sweden spent the past three seasons playing for the Helsinki Wolverines helping them reach the Maple Bowl in 2020. In the past two seasons, Egbudiwe racked up 64 tackles, 18.5 tackles for a loss and 11 sacks in the Finnish Maple League.
In 2020, he finished the seven game season including playoffs and championship with eight solo tackles, 23 assisted tackles and3.5 sacks. As soon as the season ended, he signed with the Stockholm Mean Machines in the Swedish Superserien league for the final two regular season games, one playoff game and then the Swedish Championship Game. He recorded one solo tackle, nine assisted and 0.5 sacks. Egbudiwe also played with Helsinki during the 2019 season in Finland recording 42.5 tackles, 12.0-53 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and one fumble recovery.
After finishing his 2020 seasons with 2 finals appearances in Sweden and Finland, Benjamin Banks Egbudiwe has re-signed with the Helsinki Wolverines for the 2021season. He is determined to get the gold that he has been chasing.
Congrats Benjamin Egbudiwe and The Wolverines! pic.twitter.com/L5ACvUYw8l
— profootballsweden (@profootballswe) November 5, 2020
In 2017, Egbudiwe also split the season, first playing six games with the Uppsala 86ers recording 13.5 tackles. He then signed in Finland with the Seinäjoki Crocodiles for the last six games of the Maple League season recording 26.5 tackles and 2 sacks.
He started at defensive end for the Swedish National Team that played in the 2019 IFAF European Championship qualification against Russia and Great Britain. Sweden won both games, beating Team Russia 34-7 and Great Britain 36-14.
Egbudiwe played college football in the United States, first with City College of San Francisco and then with the Benedictine College Ravens (NAIA) in Atchison, Kansas.
