West Ham have confirmed the signing of one of the hottest young prospects in Ireland after the London club announced the signing of Ademipo 'Mipo' Odubeko.
The U17 Irish international has spent the last few years at Manchester United, where his stellar performances in the U18 Premier League attracted the interest of some of the biggest clubs in Europe including Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus, but he turned down the offer of a new contract at the club earlier this year.
New chapter begins! ⚽️💫
Delighted to announce that I'm officially a @WestHam player!
Now it's time to get down to business! 👁 pic.twitter.com/JKltKIeR8A— Mipo Odubeko (@mipoodubeko) October 25, 2019
Speaking to the West Ham United website, the 17-year-old said:
It’s a really exciting day. I’ve been waiting for this move for a while, so I’m looking forward to getting started.
West Ham is a club with a lot of history behind it. It promotes its young players, so it’s a great opportunity for me to develop my game and help the team. I’m looking forward to moving to London – it’ll be a little different to Manchester, so it’s an exciting challenge.
I’m a goalscorer, I’m quick, and I work hard for my team. I always set high expectations for myself, so I’m looking to score a lot of goals for West Ham this season.
I’ve been out for a while now, so now I’m just excited to get going – and get scoring.
However, the teenager faces stiff competition if he's to break into his new club's first team with Sébastien Haller starting the season impressively netting four goals, and Chicarito providing manager Manuel Pellegrini with another strong option up front. Likewise, Andriy Yarmolenko has also proved devastating at times with a haul of three goals after nine games.
But Odubeko's stats are in no way shabby: the striker scored 35 goals last season, making him one of the standout players of his age in England at the moment.
