UC Santa Barbara men’s soccer is picking up a standout goal scorer with local ties.
Buba Fofanah, who starred at Cate School and the Santa Barbara Soccer Club, will be joining the Gauchos for the 2025 fall season as a graduate transfer. He played the last four years at Portland University.
“One rule that I learned a long time ago is that a team can never have enough goal scorers,” UCSB coach Vom Steeg said. “Buba has been a goal scorer at all levels from youth, club, high school, and now at the collegiate level. We are excited to have him come back to Santa Barbara and to score goals in front of his hometown fans.”
After a stellar career at Cate (Tri-Valley League Player of the Year, All-CIF First Team selection two-time all-league first team honoree, goal-scoring leader three of four years), Fofanah signed with Portland. He earned All-West Coast Conference Honorable Mention and a spot on the WCC All-Freshman team, scoring four goals and recording two assists in the COVID-affected 2020 season (10 games, played in the spring of 2021). As a sophomore, he was one of seven Pilots with multiple goals on the season and kept up his run of scoring in every season with a goal against conference rivals Santa Clara as a junior.
He experienced a breakout season as a senior, scoring nine goals and recording six assists. Two of his goals came against the Gauchos in 2023.
Fofanah was selected 81st overall in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft by the Seattle Sounders. He elected to return to Portland for the 2024 season, playing six games and scoring two goals before his season was cut short by injury.
In club competition for Santa Barbara Soccer Club, he won the Olympic Development Program National Championship in 2017 and was named to the ODP National Championship All-Tournament Team in both 2017 and 2018.
The Kenema, Sierra Leone native now returns to the place he played his youth soccer for one final season of collegiate soccer.
Â
