\n The towering winger arrived initially on loan midway through the 2024 campaign, instantly impressing to earn a permanent stay at Odsal for the following season.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 28-year-old racked up 22 tries from just 30 appearances in 2025 to finish as the club\u2019s top try scorer, alongside being voted as the Players\u2019 Player of the Year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Okunbor has spoken of his excitement at representing the Bulls back in Super League, praising the culture that has helped restore his love for the sport. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cI am very excited to be staying, I think everyone knows how much I love playing for this club and I have said previously I am loving my rugby league again.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cEveryone from the boys to the staff to the volunteers and the fans, they make it really easy for me to go out there with a smile on my face and represent this club to the best of my ability.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI feel like I am playing some really good footy and I am really excited to be having another crack at Super League.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is a huge moment for the club and I cannot wait to be a part of it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Bradford Bulls head coach Kurt Haggerty said: \u201cJayden is a big strong outside back and the way he defends in particular suits how I want us to defend.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe’s big, he’s aggressive, he’s up high and he’s a fantastic ball carrier out of yardage.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI also think there’s a lot more to his game, as we’re almost a team of people who have got points to prove and no-one more so than Jayden Okunbor.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI am really excited for him to go out there and show what he can do at Super League level.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n When Haggerty refers to Okunbor\u2019s point to prove, it refers to his nightmare spell at Hull FC in the early part of the 2024 season, where he struggled badly and became something of a scapegoat for the club’s failings.\n<\/p>\n
\n He left the Super League side to join Bulls in the Championship on loan last May, before signing permanently in the July.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jayden Okunbor made an instant impression at Bulls in 2024, as the side came agonisingly close to reaching the Championship Grand Final against Wakefield. (Image: Frederic Speziale)\n<\/p>\n
\n He told the T&A that August: \u201cI\u2019m really happy.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think before coming here I wasn\u2019t necessarily enjoying my footy and I was pretty close to just giving it away at the end of this year.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSince coming here with the boys and the group that we\u2019ve got, and even the fans, I\u2019ve never felt more welcomed into a club ever, so I can\u2019t thank them enough.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n And when we caught up with him at Tong this September, he was certainly hinting that he would be open to a new deal if Bulls were to return to Super League.\n<\/p>\n
\n At the time, he said: \u201cI\u2019m so happy with how this season has gone, it\u2019s been great.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of wins and even with the losses, we\u2019ve learned lessons and rectified them.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed my time here this year, all the boys are great, and it\u2019s been a good season for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The towering winger arrived initially on loan midway through the 2024 campaign, instantly impressing to earn a permanent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-554778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115507628873928121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}