Leyton Orient Sign Striker Jaze Kabia from Grimsby Town for club-record fee
07.08.26, 12:30 Updated 07.08.26, 15:48 3 Minute Read
Herman Wang
The ink has barely dried on Dom Ballard’s new contract with Bristol City, but Leyton Orient are already moving on, with the signing of striker Jaze Kabia from Grimsby Town.
The 25-year-old Irishman scored 24 goals in all competitions last season for League Two Grimsby, where he was not just teammates with former Orient fullback Jayden Sweeney, but became very good friends with him. As we Leyton Orient fans are fully accustomed to our centre forwards winning the Golden Boot every season, Kabia will have big shoes – golden ones, in fact – to fill. He has already had a practice run, coming second to ex-O Aaron Drinan in last season's League Two Golden Boot.
The Ear’s resident scout Sam Griffin had identified Kabia amongst potential striker targets for Orient in a piece for us earlier in the summer.
The 6’0” Kabia offers a different profile to Ballard, in terms of size, Griffin wrote, “but still offering great pace and real threat in the penalty box. While he has missed a lot of big chances compared to League One’s top scorers, I feel that getting in the positions to have the chances is something that can’t be taught to strikers.”
Kabia looks to be a bit of a late bloomer.
After making it to the League of Ireland’s Premier Division with Shelbourne, he bounced around the Scottish League’s lower divisions for a few seasons, before joining National League South club Truro City for the 2024-25 season.
He scored 17 league goals for the title-winning side, earning himself a transfer to Grimsby Town last summer on a two-year contract that was touted as one of League Two’s biggest signings.
The Mariners would go on to lose in the League Two promotion playoffs to Salford City.
Kabia comes to Leyton Orient after the club sold Ballard, who won the League One Golden Boot with 23 league goals, to Bristol City on Tuesday for an Os record transfer fee. The amount paid for Kabia remains undisclosed although Scott Mitchell called it "a significant amount". Between 570k-700k seems to be the consensus.
Ballard had arrived in E10 last August after Orient lost 2024-25 Golden Boot winner Charlie Kelman, who was sold by his parent club QPR to Charlton Athletic.
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Herman Wang Herman previously ran the Leyton Laureate blog and is a season ticket holder in the North Stand. In addition to writing and editing for the Orientear, he is a RainbOs committee member. In his day job, he is a business journalist and began his career as a sports reporter in the U.S.
