Arsenal have signed a nine-year-old Nigerian after impressing the football club during a five-week trial.
Jayden Adetiba has been living in South Africa and has also spent time living in the UK.
A born Gunner, Adetiba has been a fan of the team his whole life. He spoke about how he felt about the news.
“I thank God and my parents for this. I am very happy,” he told The Sun.
“I train three times a week at the academy and we have a match at the weekend.”
The little man joins the big club!! pic.twitter.com/kQC5EaV3zY
— John Adetiba (@jbatweeter1) August 28, 2018
John, Jayden’s father, tweeted a picture of his son signing documents at the club with the caption: “The little man joins the big club!!”
Brent Sanders, Adetiba’s former coach at SuperSport United Soccer School in Cape Town, told KweséESPN: “Jayden worked with me for two years from the age of seven, and from his first practice session I could see that he was an exceptional talent that stood out in the group.
“You could see he had something special, but what was also so impressive was the way he progressed almost with every training session. He had a real hunger to learn and was able to put that into practice quickly.”
Adetiba joins a large roll call of Nigerians currently at the club.
Alex Iwobi is the most prominent among 11 who are homegrown talents.
